Stephen Villavaso is a professional urban and regional planner and a nationally recognized land use/zoning attorney with over thirty years of experience in city and regional planning, environmental regulations, land use law, public administration and zoning. He has worked for major corporations, consulting firms, private land developers and for City, county and state governments throughout Louisiana and surrounding states.

The professional planning firm of Villavaso & Associates has provided professional services for the past ten years in the areas of zoning, land use planning, brownfields redevelopment, city and regional planning, and law use law to clients throughout Louisiana and the United States. Detailed information can be found at www.villavaso.com Recent projects include the New Orleans East Renaissance Plan, the City of New Orleans Land Use Plan, the City of Covington Annexation Analysis, the Bossier City Municipal Development Code, several individual projects regarding the City of New Orleans proposed new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance and numerous planning projects on behalf of the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission. He has served as an expert in the areas of land use, zoning, planning and all related matters in court cases at all levels in Louisiana and in Mississippi for the past twenty-five years.

Steve Villavaso’s degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of New Orleans, and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola University of New Orleans. He has served the Louisiana Chapter of the American Planning Association, with twenty-six years of service to the APA -- receiving both the Chapter’s Leadership and Distinguished Service Awards along the way. He is presently the President of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Steve Villavaso is a FELLOW of the American Institute of Certified Planners (the highest peer-presented honor in the profession of urban planning), a Charter Member of APA, a Charter Member of the Louisiana Chapter of APA, and a Charter Member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Louisiana Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association, the Urban Land Institute, the Solid Waste Association of North America and several other professional organizations. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans. For the past seventeen years he has taught various graduate planning courses, including development management techniques, grantwriting for planners, and the only graduate course in Land Use and Zoning Law in Louisiana as an Adjunct Professor of Land Use Regulations and Zoning Law at the University of New Orleans, College of Urban and Public Affairs.

Steve is from New Orleans and lives near Lake Pontchartrain with his wife who teaches fourth grade at St. Paul’s Episcopal School. He has served on several civic boards such as the Volunteers of America and the St. Pius X Men’s Club and is a Lead Captain at Manresa Retreat House in Convent, Louisiana. His son is a civil engineer educated at Texas A&M University and his daughter is a graduate of Tulane University.