ABOUT
Where Projects Meet Reality—and Move Forward
Who We Are
Touchstone Strategies is a nationally focused planning, entitlement, and development advisory firm operating at the intersection of land use strategy, political navigation, and project execution.
We partner with developers, institutions, and public agencies to move complex projects from early due diligence through approvals and into implementation—bringing structure, foresight, and momentum to every phase of the process.
Our work is grounded in decades of senior-level experience delivering high-stakes entitlements across diverse jurisdictions. We specialize in aligning development objectives with regulatory frameworks, stakeholder expectations, and market realities—translating vision into approvals that are both defensible and achievable.
We don’t just advise—we lead.
Our Mission
To lead complex projects from vision to reality by integrating planning, entitlement, and development strategy with clarity, credibility, and results-driven execution.
Our Approach
A touchstone is a trusted reference point—a way to test decisions, stay aligned, and keep moving in the right direction. That’s how we approach project approvals.
Success depends on more than knowing the code. It requires understanding how decisions are actually made, who influences them, and how to move a project forward when the path isn’t clearly defined.
We operate at the intersection of planning, politics, and execution—anticipating risk before it surfaces, aligning stakeholders before positions harden, and structuring projects so they are both approvable and deliverable.
We help clients move forward with eyes open and footing secure—bringing clarity to complexity and momentum to projects that matter.
The Touchstone Framework
Manage
We bring structure to complex approvals—defining the path, aligning teams, and keeping projects moving without drift or surprises.
Mediate
We navigate the real-world dynamics behind decisions—aligning interests, translating intent, and moving projects through friction to resolution.
Mitigate
We identify risk early and address it head-on—so issues don’t become delays, denials, or costly course corrections.
Simple in concept. Not easy in practice. That’s where we come in.
LEADERSHIP
Decades of Experience. Decisions That Hold.
Kristin W. Dean, AICP, is a strategic land planner and entitlement advisor with more than 26 years of experience turning complex development ideas into achievable outcomes. She brings a rare combination of land use expertise, development strategy, project leadership, and political awareness to her work, seeing both the big picture and the details that can determine whether a project succeeds.
Kristin is known for thinking several steps ahead. She anticipates issues before they become obstacles, understands how decisions made early in a project affect later approvals, and builds entitlement strategies around real-world conditions, not assumptions. Her ability to move fluidly between planning, design, infrastructure, policy, community dynamics, and implementation allows her to connect disciplines and keep complex teams working toward a common objective.
Her experience spans housing and master-planned communities, infill and mixed-use development, hospitality and experiential spaces, workforce housing, resort and luxury residential development, wellness and healing environments, natural medicine and emerging therapeutic uses, and large-scale energy, infrastructure, and technology projects. She has led high-stakes entitlement efforts in some of the country's most complex and highly scrutinized development environments.
Before founding Touchstone Strategies, Kristin worked across both the public and private sectors. She spent 18 years inside local government, including more than 15 years in Summit County, Colorado, shaping land use policy and advancing workforce housing, resort development, and residential communities. Her private-sector experience includes consulting throughout Colorado and the Mountain West and leading complex entitlement strategies across multiple U.S. markets.
That perspective gives Kristin an uncommon understanding of both sides of the development process: how jurisdictions evaluate projects and how project teams need to operate to get them approved and implemented.
Kristin holds a Master of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
Her approach is proactive, pragmatic, and highly collaborative: anticipate what is coming, create a clear path forward, keep the team aligned, and solve problems before they slow the project down.