Michael Keane is an American Institute Certified Planner (AICP) with more than 16 years of professional planning experience in New York City, the Metropolitan area, and internationally. His focus areas include land use, zoning, and environmental planning to support the use and development of land. Michael has been responsible for managing complex environmental assessment and impact statements for dozens of land use and development projects subject to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) processes. In this capacity, he routinely helps clients navigate regulatory and political landscapes at the federal, state, and municipal level to secure land use and environmental approvals, including zoning map and text amendments, variances, and environmental permitting. He has also collaborated on the preparation of municipal master plans, ranging from large- and mid-size cities to suburban towns and villages.
Michael has been quoted on land use, zoning, and other urban planning topics in The New York Times, Crain's New York Business, and other media outlets, and speaks widely on New York City's environmental review process and its influence on building design and land development, including in front of professional organizations such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). In addition to his role as Director of Planning at Cameron Engineering & Associates, Michael has been an NYU Urban Planning Graduate School Adjunct Professor since 2012, where he has served as faculty advisor on more than 20 Urban Planning Capstone projects. He is a member of the American Planning Association (APA), the New York Building Congress (NYBC), an official member of the Infrastructure Council with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) New York. In 2011, then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer appointed Mike to Community Board Five, where he served on the Land Use & Zoning Committee from 2011-2014, opining on major ULURP applications and infrastructure initiatives affecting Midtown Manhattan including, most notably, the 2013 East Midtown Rezoning, the Madison Square Garden Special Permit renewal, and the 34th Street Select Bus Service (SBS).
Michael received his Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and also holds a Master of Arts in U.S. History/Political Science from the University of Maryland College Park and a Bachelor of Arts from UMASS Amherst.
