Debra Stein dies - Berkeley land use expert

Corey Paul, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Debra Stein - a land use expert and attorney who helped developers win over city governments and community malcontents - died July 30 from complications related to a rare neurological disease. She was 48.

Ms. Stein, president of the San Francisco public affairs firm GCA Strategies, represented the wealthy and the down-and-out equally, from corporate Burger King to homeless shelters. She left her mark on the San Francisco skyline, helping to win approval for a number of structures, including the South of Market high-rise at 55 Second St. and Sutro Tower, the three-pronged antenna that pokes through the fog.

She was known nationally as an expert on understanding NIMBYism or what motivates residents who oppose development beneficial to the community.

"The person who deserves credit for my career," Ms. Stein told Affordable Housing Finance magazine last year, "is a woman who spit on me at a public hearing 20 years ago. As I was wiping saliva off my arm, I said to myself, 'I am going to figure out why that happened and never let it happen again.' "

Ms. Stein, a Berkeley resident, published four books and dozens of articles about raising community support and finding political solutions for controversial land use projects. But affordable housing, especially in her last years, was her dearest cause.

Born Sept. 6, 1960, in San Jose, Ms. Stein graduated from UC Berkeley in 1981 with a degree in political management. After graduation, she worked for the San Francisco public relations firm Judith Brown and Associates. She rallied support of the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton, which now employs thousands.

For eight years, Ms. Stein ran a public relations firm. In 1986, she met architect Jeffrey Heller while they worked on a project together in City Hall. They married the next year.

At the time she met Heller, Ms. Stein was taking night classes at University of San Francisco School of Law. She graduated in 1987.

In 1990, Ms. Stein founded GCA Group. Four years later, with more associates, it became GCA Strategies.

In 2004, Ms. Stein wrote to friend Cindy Wilson: "I'd actually like to get out of the rat race a bit. The opposite of ambition is satisfaction - I've been on the ambition route. I'm starting to enjoy the sit-back-and-enjoy-life side of things more."

She delegated work at GCA to others so she could focus more on her passions: traveling the world with her husband and fighting for affordable housing.

By then, Ms. Stein was co-chair of the Northern California chapter of the Jane Austen Society, an avocation she pursued after reading Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and becoming drawn to the novelist's themes of ethics, morality and marginalized women.

Development and architecture organizations frequently booked Ms. Stein to speak at seminars. It was on one of these routine ventures, in San Jose, that she died, Wilson said.

Ms. Stein had reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, suffering chronic pain for about 15 years.

"She was remarkably stoic," Heller said. "She never let it get in her way."

Ms. Stein is survived by her husband, stepdaughter Rebecca Heller of Los Angeles, and brother Doug Stein and sister Sharon Moerner, both of San Jose.

A memorial service was held last Wednesday.
E-mail Corey Paul at cpaul@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle