The Team

LSL’s reservoir of talent is unmatched for its depth, years of experience, and range of planning skills. Specialists in master planning, zoning, transportation, and many other areas of practice bring a national perspective and fresh insights to each assignment. Every client is served by senior-level professionals totally committed to excellence and client service.

Paul M. LeBlanc, AICP
President | Managing Partner - Indianapolis
President and co-founder of LSL, Paul is approaching 35 years of community planning experience throughout the Midwest. He has worked with a multitude of public and private-sector clients on varied assignments, including award-winning master plans and corridor studies, as well as zoning and land development regulations. A recognized zoning expert, Paul is frequently called upon to testify in zoning litigation matters.

Bradley K. Strader, AICP
Managing Partner - Royal Oak
With more than 22 years of professional experience, Brad has prepared dozens of master plans, corridor studies, transportation plans and zoning ordinances. He has also co-authored several planning handbooks, including the "Planning and Zoning Handbook" for the Michigan Association of Planning and the MDOT guide "Evaluating Traffic Impact Studies." In demand for his broad planning knowledge and experience, Brad regularly conducts seminars on planning, zoning, and transportation topics and is a frequent speaker at state and regional planning conferences. He is a cofounder of LSL Planning.

Carmine Avantini, AICP
Managing Partner - Grand Rapids
Another veteran planner and LSL partner, Carmine brings more than 20 years of professional experience in Michigan and upstate New York. He serves as the on-going consultant to several communities and has been responsible for the preparation of dozens of municipal master plans, zoning ordinances, and downtown plans. Carmine’s expertise in economic development, including brownfield development and project packaging, is bringing new opportunity to a wide array of neighborhoods and communities. In addition to local governments, Carmine works with the development community to assure high quality planning for builders and communities alike.

Jeff Purdy, AICP
Partner
Jeff’s many years of professional planning and natural resources management experience include preparation of local master plans and land development regulations, as well as a number of corridor plans. He serves numerous cities, villages and townships as their on-going consultant, providing highly regarded guidance on a broad range of technically complex zoning and planning matters. Two areas of specialization for Jeff include transportation planning and zoning.

Associates

Valdis Lazdins
Principal Planner
Val is both a planner and landscape architect whose focus has been land use planning, site design and plan implementation. During his 26 years of experience, he has successfully directed and managed multi-disciplinary teams to prepare downtown, comprehensive, redevelopment and new-community plans, and conflict resolution and public involvement strategies. He has extensive nationwide experience in complex projects requiring his land planning, technical, and management skills.

Rob Nesbitt, AICP
Senior Planner
Providing day-to-day planning and zoning assistance to municipal clients is where Rob shines, giving hands-on guidance to his clients. Development review, sign controls, waterfront planning and tourism are his specialties. Rob has worked on numerous county, township and village master plans, and draws on 15 years of community planning and consulting experience in Michigan, Vermont and Ontario.

Sara Schillinger, AICP

Senior Planner | RO Office Manager

Making the link between the technical aspects of planning and the needs of the general public is

one of Sara's many strengths.  Her design, data analysis, and mapping experience makes all the difference when having an understandable and inspirational plan, brochure, or display is critical.  Sara draws on her experiences with local government master planning and private developer land planning to assure high quality, implementable plans for communities and developers alike.

Brian Borden, AICP

Senior Planner
In high demand for his development review skills, Brian serves many communities throughout southeastern Michigan. His experience runs the gamut from commercial and industrial properties to condominium and residential developments. Brian blends his local government and consulting experience to assure high quality reviews and targeted zoning amendments for his communities.

Robert Cramer

Project Planner II | GIS Coordinator

Making the link between land use and transportation planning is Robert's forte.  Combining his experience in transportation planning, access management, and GIS with a strong planning background brings a unique perspective to all of his planning projects.  Robert is advancing the practice of innovative, informative mapping, and robust, three-dimensional visuals to further strengthen LSL's reputation for interactive public involvement and communication. 

Charlotte Kraus
Accountant

Other Team Members

LSL’s strength and reputation do not rest solely on its founding partners. The depth of talent and resources at all levels of the firm is outstanding, allowing a perfect match of skill and experience with client need. The following list highlights the LSL team.

Brenda Moore, AICP, PCP
Principal Planner
With two decades of regional, county, and municipal planning experience as a foundation, Brenda offers a full spectrum of skills in master planning and zoning. She is a principal author for Michigan’s “Community Planning Handbook” and the “Workbook for Preparing and Updating a Master Plan.” Brenda prepares high quality master plans, zoning ordinances and recreation plans. She provides communities with site planning, grant administration and economic development expertise.

Carol Maise, AICP
Senior Planner
A former planning director for a high growth community, Carol works with several LSL clients on day-to-day zoning and land development issues, providing thorough reviews and insightful recommendations. Carol draws on 21 years of diverse experience, including work as a zoning administrator, enforcing zoning and property maintenance codes.

Steven VanSteenhuyse, AICP
Senior Planner
Steven offers valuable insight into a wide array of important planning and zoning challenges based on his experience as planning director for communities across the Upper Midwest. He offers communities plan review expertise, along with a background in transportation and environmental studies, economic development strategies, downtown revitalization, historic preservation and recreation planning.

Sherrin Hood , AICP
Senior Planner
As a former municipal planner and county planning commissioner, Sherrin offers a breadth of general planning knowledge. She has been involved in all aspects of local and regional planning including natural resource protection and environmental planning, regional transportation planning, farmland preservation, wastewater treatment site location, and parks & recreation planning. Sherrin’s strength is in public involvement and education; her communication skills are most effective when working with several involved parties to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

Eric Frederick
Project Planner I
Eric's focus is on geospatial information presentation and analysis as well as graphic design.  He provides mapping, statistical analysis, and graphical services for a wide variety of projects including master and land use plans, zoning ordinances, and urban design programs.  His services include land use and geographic feature mapping, three-dimensional modeling, data projections and analysis, and image manipulation and display.

Support Staff

In addition to planners, LSL relies heavily on our professional support staff to provide the best possible service to our clients.

April Cheeseman
Administrative Assistant | Marketing Director