Practice Areas
Land Use
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Our Land Use Practice Group guides clients through California’s complicated planning and development entitlement process at every level of government, facilitating and expediting the permitting and development of projects. Our expertise in land use law and our familiarity with local, state, and federal regulatory requirements and political players help our clients secure defensible approvals. Where necessary, our talented litigators defend project entitlements at the trial and appellate courts.
Our attorneys have unparalleled experience helping a wide variety of private and public agency clients identify and solve land use issues. Our comprehensive experience includes the interpretation and application of local General Plans, specific plans, and zoning ordinances, subdivision related-matters, negotiation of development agreements and project conditions of approval, infrastructure financing arrangements and development impact fees/exactions, local agency boundary changes, and development under California’s redevelopment laws. From pre-application due diligence, to building permits, to future land use modifications, our land use attorneys are skilled in every phase of the entitlement process.
We are also keenly attuned to the role politics plays in California’s land use entitlement process. Our attorneys are well-respected by state and local agency staff throughout California, and have a long-standing rapport with planning commissions, city councils, county boards of supervisors, and other entitling bodies throughout the state. We regularly appear before local and state agencies on behalf of our clients, and have a strong track record of success.
We use our extensive entitlement experience as a basis to devise creative and unique solutions to land use problems. Our attorneys have authored cutting edge land use initiatives, and regularly advise clients regarding referenda, initiatives, and growth control measures appearing on the ballot. Our team includes experts in municipal, public agency, and elections law, and we regularly provide counsel on the many municipal laws that apply to development projects.
When it is necessary to defend or challenge a project, our experienced land use litigation attorneys effectively and efficiently pursue our clients’ interests in both the state and federal courts. Our land use litigators have extensive experience in all aspects of California land use law.