Vice President /Director of Environmental Analysis /Senior Project Manager

Ms. Beard is an environmental planner with over 20 years of experience in preparing documentation pursuant to NEPA and CEQA. In 2008 Ms. Beard became a Vice President of TRA and in 2011 she took over as Director of Environmental Analysis. In her capacity as the Director of Biological Analysis at TRA, Ms. Beard directs staff in the technical analysis and preparation of CEQA/NEPA documents, provides quality control over CEQA/NEPA work products, assigns staff to projects based on the required expertise needed for the project, and maintains contact with the client, project engineers, and the lead agency.

Ms. Beard has been a Senior Project Manager or a contributing author for environmental documents on a variety of projects including mixed commercial developments, residential developments, recreational trail projects, waste transfer stations, landfills and yard waste composting facilities, public infrastructure projects (pipelines), and school projects.

Ms. Beard brings her management and problem-solving skills to project work and collaborates with lead agencies, project staff, clients, and subcontractors to produce documents that clearly articulate a project’s potential environmental impacts to the public. Her work on municipal waste projects has given her an excellent working knowledge of federal and state regulations and permit requirements for waste handling projects. Barbara is also experienced working with school districts as CEQA lead agencies and the unique role the Division of the State Architect plays in approving project plans.

Highlights

Senior Project Manager for the ACE Charter School IS/MND. Project consisted of the construction of a new 473-student charter school serving middle school aged children in San Jose, California. Issues associated with this project included neighborhood traffic impacts and air quality impacts to the students from nearby highway traffic.

Managing preparation of Edgewood Canyon Subdivision Supplemental EIR for San Mateo County. Project involves 18,800 cubic yards of cut and importation of 50,885 cubic yards of fill creating geotechnical and visual impact concerns and inconsistency with San Mateo County Design Review Guidelines.

Senior Project Manager for the Maple Street Replacement Facility IS/MND for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. The Project involves relocating the existing Men’s Minimum Security Transitional Facility, Women’s Transitional Facility, and Women’s Correctional Center from their existing location in Redwood City to a new 768-bed facility.

Senior Project Manager for the North Coast County Water District Water Transmission Pipeline IS/MND. Project assessed the impacts of extending a new water pipeline to serve the Caltrans Devil’s Slide Tunnels in coastal San Mateo County. Primary issues addressed included impacts to California red-legged frog and avoidance if impacts to wetland and riparian resources. TRA worked with Caltrans, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address impacts to wetlands and the California red-legged frog.

Contributing author to three different IS/MNDs on charter schools for the Sequoia Union High School District.

Project Manager for the Concrete and Asphalt Recycling Facility Project IS/MND in the City of Half Moon Bay. Project was proposed to reduce the amount of waste material transported from the coast-side to landfills and recycle facilities on the bay side of the peninsula.

Contributing author on the Harmony@1/Roberts Road Subdivision EIR for the City of Pacifica. The project consists of Planned Development on two parcels comprising 65 acres. The primary issues of concern addressed in the EIR are visual impacts on coastal views, loss of heritage trees, presence of special-status species, and contributions to poor traffic conditions on Highway 1.

Project Manager for the constraints analysis and detailed Initial Study for the City of San Jose portion of the San Francisco Bay Trail. Directed the preparation of a constraints analysis designed to flesh out the project proposal of where the trail would go and what the potential environmental impacts would be so that the public and local, regional and federal agencies whose lands the trail would cross would be able to understand the details of the project and identify any potential land use or environmental conflicts that might arise. Directed the preparation of a comprehensive Initial Study on the project, once the trail route was developed.

Contributing author on other trail projects including several reaches of the Stevens Creek Trail in the City of Cupertino, the reach of the Stevens Creek Trail in the City of Santa Clara, and a Class II bike lane project along San Juan Highway in San Benito County.

Project Manager for an Addendum to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Master Plan EIR for San Mateo County and an IS/EA for a water pipeline project to serve the new Caltrans Devil’s Slide tunnels just south of Pacifica.

Contributing author to several EIRs on various municipal waste handling facilities, including the Zanker Road Material Processing Facility EIR (City of San Jose), Greenwaste Recovery Facility Initial Study (City of San Jose), Guadalupe Disposal Site Expansion EIR (City of San Jose), the Guadalupe Property Supplemental EIR (City of San Jose), research and documentation for Guadalupe Landfill for a materials processing building, Kirby Canyon Landfill Revegetation Plan (City of San Jose), CEQA documentation for permit renewals for the Guadalupe Landfill, and the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Station EIR (City of Sunnyvale).

Project Manager of several projects in the City of Burlingame including a visual analysis of a condominium remodel on El Camino Real, the Howard/Myrtle Self-Storage Facility Initial Study, and a third party review of technical reports prepared of a condominium project on Bellevue Avenue.

Worked on two projects for California State Parks. One project is an EIS/EIR for the Oceano Dunes District HCP for endangered and threatened species found in coastal state parks in San Luis Obispo County. The second project consists of reviewing numerous annual off-highway vehicle grants for CEQA and Grant Regulation compliance.

Educational Background

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Bachelor of Science, Natural Resource Policy & Management