Sherman, a land use planner and the Director of Zoning & Entitlements at the firm, provides guidance and representation during the land use approval process and assists businesses, property owners and developers with obtaining approval of rezoning, special use permits, site plans, and other government permits. Past work has included Prince William County, Stafford County, Fairfax, Spotsylvania, the Cities of Manassas, Manassas Park, Fredericksburg, Warrenton, and Dumfries.

Sherman has worked as a professional land use planner in Northern Virginia for 35 years.  He has worked with Compton and Duling for over 10 years and worked for the City of Fairfax and Prince William County before beginning his development consultant practice.  During his time in the Prince William County Planning Office he served as Chief of Plan Implementation, Chief of Current Planning, Planning Project Manager and Zoning Administrator. The responsibilities of these various positions involved him at all levels of many substantial land use development proposals and projects. This experience combined with the private sector representation of a diverse range of clients has also led to a thorough understanding of site development and political processes. He is involved with local government in an advisory capacity and is available to provide consulting to governmental agencies and expert witness testimony.

Sherman has managed hundreds of land use cases through the government review processes. His experience includes  direct involvement in projects such as: Potomac Mills Mall, Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, Harbor Station (now Potomac Shores), Lake Manassas, and the INNOVATION @ Prince William planned business district. Sherman has substantial experience in managing rezoning, special use permits, site plans and subdivision plan review.  In addition, he has extensive experience interpreting local ordinances, managing updates and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance, economic development projects. He provides unique and insightful perspectives into the land use entitlement process and focuses on providing the needed results.

Examples of client projects include:

• Concurrent processing of Rezoning, Special Use Permits and Comprehensive Plan Amendments to allow for a mixed use project consisting of 600,000 square feet of retail, 1,000,000 square feet of office, and 500 dwelling units. This project required an innovative combination of 3 special permits; two of which included Prince William County’s first application of the “big box” ordinance and provisions for secondary residential usage, in order to achieve the client’s goal for a creative mixture of land uses on a single parcel, 100 acre office campus totaling 500,000 square feet of building area and a 200,000 square foot church with a 4,000 seat sanctuary.
• Rezoning allowing a mixed use project consisting of 160,000 square feet of office, 360 dwelling units and 2 hotels.
• Rezoning and Special Use Permit for churches; including one of 200,000 square feet with a 4,000 seat sanctuary.
• Variance and two Special Use Permits for a 50,000 square foot medical office building.
• Permitting for Drive-thru businesses, charitable organizations, auto repair, and innovative residential development

MEMBERSHIPS AND ADMISSIONS

• American Institute of Certified Planners