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Two professionals have joined Ascent’s senior team in our growing San Diego office: Christine Babla, Director of Urban Design and Planning, and Eric Ruby, Senior Director of Environmental Planning for Southern California. Together, they bring to the office added leadership and extensive experience in the San Diego region and beyond.
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City of South Gate
Gateway District
Specific Plan
Palm Avenue
Revitalization Plan,
San Diego
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CHRISTINE BABLA, AIA, AICP, LEED AP is Ascent San Diego’s Director of Urban Design and Planning. She has over 20 years of experience leading urban design and planning efforts in urban infill settings that integrate transit, walkability, and mixed-use development to create complete communities. She is recognized for her skill in bringing together stakeholders to create a distinctive community vision and for translating that vision into concise, graphic, effective, and user-friendly plans, guidelines, and regulatory documents.
Christine's project experience includes specific plans, community plans, master plans, streetscape design, station area design, design guidelines and standards, zoning, form-based codes, and development of feasibility studies, as well as visioning and public outreach. Her planning and urban design projects have been recognized with seven awards from the American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, and Congress for New Urbanism, as well as a Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. Christine holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Christine is currently working with the Port of San Diego on the Port Master Plan Update and with the City of South Gate on the Gateway District Specific Plan. Recent projects include the City of Pasadena's Central Area Specific Plan Updates, Kearny Mesa Community Plan Update, Long Beach Downtown Plan, SCAG/City of Long Beach Uptown UPLAN, Palm Avenue Revitalization Plan, and Western Avenue Corridor Street Enhancement Strategy.
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ERIC J. RUBY is Ascent’s Senior Director of Environmental Planning for Southern California. He has more than 40 years of diverse experience as an environmental and planning consultant throughout California and the western United States. Eric is a certified EIR preparer for the County of San Diego. His expertise includes development of strategic planning and entitlement approaches for complex and controversial projects where the key issues are land use policy, water resources, transportation, climate change, and environmental compliance pursuant to CEQA and NEPA.
Eric’s experience includes general plan updates, master plans, specific plans, mining plans, and large-scale infrastructure projects. He has prepared and managed all levels of CEQA and NEPA documentation, including EIRs, MNDs, and EAs for projects throughout California. In addition, he has considerable experience leading on-call planning and environmental contracts for local, regional, and state agencies. Eric has also managed CEQA documents for several general/community plan update or annexation actions in Southern California jurisdictions, including the City of Los Angeles Community Plan Update program, the Foothill-Trabuco Specific Plan Amendment, and multiple municipal housing elements.
Specific projects include the first two adopted Specific Plans/EIRs for the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, the La Vina Specific Plan (which set CEQA case law precedent for who may prepare CEQA documents), Yosemite National Park/Merced Wild and Scenic River Management Plan and EIS, World Logistics Center Master Plan and EIR, and Seaport San Diego Redevelopment Plan entitlement and CEQA strategy, as well as the first-ever approved Criteria Refinement for the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan during its 15-year history.
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World Logistics
Center EIR,
Moreno Valley
El Monte Sand Mine and
Nature Preserve EIR,
Spring Valley,
San Diego County
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If you’d like to say hello, please contact Christine Babla at 312.316.2780 or Eric Ruby at 760.801.7040.
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