Erica L. Vega

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Erica Vega has dedicated her entire legal career to the representation of cities and other public agencies across California. She serves as City Attorney for the City of Eastvale, and has worked with numerous other cities throughout her twenty year career, including serving as planning commission counsel for the cities of Alhambra, Pacific Grove, Wildomar, and Cathedral City, and special land use counsel for the City of Norco. In addition to her work with cities, Erica serves as General Counsel to two mosquito and vector control special districts.

Erica serves as a trusted advisor to public agency governing bodies, commissions, and staff on a wide array of legal issues, with a particular focus on land use regulation and development, especially housing, as well as elections, and public service ethics and transparency laws. She endeavors to provide advice to clients in a manner that is understandable and contains practical guidance that can be readily applied in the real world. She focuses on both legal compliance and risk assessment, understanding that many complex situations faced by public agencies do not have clear cut answers.

Erica has extensive experience advising cities on public and private development projects from the pre-application phase through certificate of occupancy, helping cities navigate the complex and ever-changing statutes, regulations, administrative guidance, and case law applicable to development in California, including CEQA, the Coastal Act, Permit Streamlining Act, Subdivision Map Act, Housing Accountability Act, Housing Crisis Act, Density Bonus Law, SB 35, Housing Element Law, Surplus Land Act, Mitigation Fee Act, and other provisions of California’s Planning and Zoning Law. Over her career, Erica has worked side by side with agency staff on development projects of all sizes, from single accessory dwelling units to master planned communities with thousands of new homes. Similarly, Erica has worked with agency staff on a wide range of ordinances and resolutions to ensure legal compliance while achieving the agency’s goals, including comprehensive Zoning Code and General Plan updates, annual code reviews to make changes necessitated by new State laws, and drafting new regulations to address emerging issues.

Erica is an active in organizations representing the interests of public agencies.  She served two terms on the CalCities Governance, Transparency and Labor Relations Policy Committee and served for six years on the CalCities City Attorney’s Department Public Records Act Committee.  She is a contributor to the CalCities publications “The People’s Business” and “Providing Conflict of Interest Advice.”

A graduate of Smith College, Erica majored in Government.  She also studied in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was enrolled at the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute for International Studies.  Erica obtained her Juris Doctorate from the University of California School of Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF, formerly UC Hastings).  At UC Law SF, Erica focused her studies on public law and policy.  She participated in the school’s Center for State and Local Government Law and Public Law Research Institute.