Practice Areas
Renewable Energy and Project Development
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Miller Starr Regalia provides clients with an interdisciplinary team of talented attorneys who can seamlessly handle all aspects of a renewable energy project or transaction. Through representation of global and national energy development corporations on projects involving solar, hydro-electric, wind and Liquified Natural Gas resources, our attorneys are keenly aware of the delicate political contexts that accompany large-scale projects and what that means for a project’s timeframe, and ultimate success.
Our services include renewable energy project due diligence, site selection, title insurance, project finance, land use and environmental permitting, licensing, regulatory proceedings, construction and project procurement and dispute resolution. Our attorneys add value to a client team with their up-to-date knowledge of legal trends and developments affecting the renewable energy sector. With their forward-looking advice and exemplary team coordination skills, Miller Starr Regalia attorneys help position our clients to meet their goals and develop projects that can withstand legal challenge, should project opposition evolve into litigation.
Site Selection
The infrastructure demands of project development are both complex and costly – factors that can make site selection and obtaining site control even more difficult and time consuming. Miller Starr Regalia attorneys assist clients with locating, evaluating and selecting desirable sites for complex projects. We strive to help clients complete their projects on schedule and with finely-tuned agreements that stand the test of time. With Miller Starr Regalia, clients work with a team that stays on the cutting edge of legal issues relating to site selection, negotiating strategies and government incentives. Areas of service include:
- Drafting and negotiating Purchase Agreements, Option Agreements, Leases and other site control documentation
- Comprehensive Due Diligence including entitlement and environmental review
- Title and survey review
- Assessment of Oil, Gas and Mineral Rights issues
- Subdivision Map Act compliance
- Williamson Act analysis
- Constraints map analysis
To give clients the most comprehensive service, Miller Starr Regalia’s site selection team draws on the firm’s attorneys skilled in the real estate, land use, tax and construction practice groups. Regardless of project type, all site selection and development efforts touch upon these diverse legal areas. By providing all of these legal specialties within one firm, Miller Starr Regalia gives clients the best of both worlds – sophisticated guidance regarding the legalities and process of site selection and efficiently delivered insights into specific areas of law that must be factored into any successful site selection process.
Land Use Permitting and Environmental Review
Miller Starr Regalia's land use and environmental attorneys provide widely-recognized expertise in entitlement processing and environmental review, expertise garnered from working on some of the most controversial land use projects throughout California and the country. With this experience and reputation, we provide comprehensive assistance to clients in key areas, including:
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance
- California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance
- Natural resource permitting, including endangered species, wetland, water rights and water quality issues
- Local general plan and zoning code consistency requirements
- Williamson Act contracts
- Subdivision Map Act
- Local Agency Formation Commission approvals for boundary changes needed to provide utility service
- Special district formation and other financing mechanisms for project infrastructure
- Development agreements, agricultural mitigation agreements, biological resources mitigation agreements, and infrastructure improvement agreements
- Hazards to air navigation (federal and state) as needed for wind farm projects
Recognizing that large-scale and often controversial energy projects require a well-coordinated team working on a tight schedule, our attorneys regularly manage the entitlement and environmental review process for clients. In this role, we proactively work with (1) the client team, including public relations specialists, engineers and project managers; (2) the EIR preparers; and (3) agency staff persons and the decision makers. This coordination helps produce legally defensible environmental documents in a timely manner. Working seamlessly as a team, we develop trusted relationships with staff and decision makers, helping reduce the risk of "surprises" that can arise at the end of an environmental review process and slow a project down. With land use litigation backgrounds, our entitlement attorneys are able to spot and address legal issues that project opponents could use in a legal challenge.
Project Financing
The firm’s Commercial Project Financing practice offers clients a recognized expertise in the prudent, efficient and cost-effective structuring, negotiating, and documenting of all aspects of commercial real estate and construction loans. Among the types of transactions the firm customarily handles are:
- Construction lending, including standard construction loans, revolving lines of credit and acquisition and development loans
- Borrowing base financing, both secured and unsecured, for residential builders and other commercial real estate developers
- Mini-perm and long-term financing for commercial real estate projects
- Leasehold financing on ground leased land
- Syndication and participation of all of the above types of financing transactions, and negotiation of intercreditor relationships between senior and mezzanine lenders
Construction and Project Procurement
Our construction group has expertise in the issues that can arise in a renewable energy project involving construction, engineering and procurement issues, and can assist in the development and negotiation of the related documents. We also have specific expertise in the handing and resolution of construction issues arising during project development Our expertise includes:
- Syndication and participation of all of the above types of financing transactions, and negotiation of intercreditor relationships between senior and mezzanine lenders
- Construction contract drafting and negotiation
- Contractor licensing issues
- Changes and Differing Site Conditions
- Delay Mitigation and Avoidance (Design, Permitting and Regulatory, Force Majeure, Design & Construction
- Performance Warranty, Project Warranty, Equipment Warranty
- Public and Private Works Projects
Dispute Resolution
Recognized as experts in litigation in federal and state courts, including the U.S. and California Supreme Courts, our attorneys are also highly skilled at alternate dispute resolution, including mediation, settlement negotiation, and binding and nonbinding arbitration. With over 40 years of experience in real property and all related issues, Miller Starr’s litigation and dispute resolution attorneys serve clients in a all matters related to business, real property, commercial, environmental, construction and insurance-related disputes, any one of which may arise in the development and operation of a renewable energy project. We excel at environmental litigation arising under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and state and federal laws governing natural resources. Our team of construction litigators are experienced in complex construction mediation, arbitration and litigation involving delay and disruption claims, warranty, and defect claims on public and privately owned projects.