Drew Phelps is a Central Valley boomerang, returning to the Valley after college in Southern California to work for local homebuilders. Photo via Drew Phelps

After nearly a decade helping lead some of the Central Valley’s largest projects, land use professional Drew Phelps has launched a consulting practice with the goal of helping property owners navigate California’s entitlement landscape.

Phelps was born and raised in Tulare, and was a 2012 graduate of San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno. He said his journey to land development began after returning from college at Pitzer and Claremont Graduate University. Although he went to Southern California for college he always knew he wanted to return to the Central Valley.

“I was mostly focused on politics at the time,” he said. “Got a job back here in Fresno with Granville Homes working a little bit more on the political side of things. And then about a year into that, I got a little bit more deeply into the entitlement and land development side of things.”

He spent around seven years at Granville Homes, where he worked on single-family, multi-family, commercial and sometimes industrial projects. Phelps described his work at Granville Homes as, “a lot more technical, really down in the weeds on policies, on standards when it came to code updates [and] changes to municipal fees.”

After his seven years, Phelps joined Woodside Homes, serving as director of forward planning. The move helped expand his reach from Fresno, Clovis and Madera into more Central Valley cities. He also handled more financial and strategic responsibilities.

“My scope was a little bit more narrow in terms of doing single-family residential, but I was working across many more municipalities down in Fowler, Visalia, Tulare, Hanford, Lemoore and Bakersfield,” he said.

His experiences at Granville and Woodside led him to starting his own firm: Drew Phelps Land and Policy Consulting, which launched in early November.

“This has always kind of been my goal — to go out and do some of this work on my own,” Phelps said.

His services range from due diligence evaluations to full project management through entitlement, engineering and horizontal construction.

Phelps said many landowners need help simply understanding where to begin.

“A lot of it is just going to be even knowing where to start in the process,” he said.

Determining land-use designations, zoning, potential amendments and the appropriate timeline are often unfamiliar steps for owners who have held agricultural property for generations.

Beyond the technical work, Phelps stresses thoughtful and meaningful planning. He frequently pushes clients to consider pedestrian connections, mixed-use opportunities and neighborhood designs that are both functional and marketable.

“I am passionate about trying to make sure that we have a strong built environment,” he said. “If there’s a way that we can design a project that’s going to get you the best bang for your buck, but also be a place where people are going to ultimately want to live, that’s something that I’m always going to try to push for.”

As cities adopt more complicated rules and the region faces pressure to grow, Phelps hopes his firm will help bring foresight to the process.

“Development is coming,” he said. “We can do it in a way where we’re thinking about it ahead of time and planning for the future.”