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Mark G. Sellers

Senior Counsel

Office: Westlake Village

Phone: 805.418.1914

Fax: 805.230.0087

Email: msellers@jacksontidus.law

Mark Sellers

Mark Sellers has 20 years of municipal law experience as the former City Attorney of Thousand Oaks, and primarily focuses his practice on all aspects of land use and development, as well as CEQA compliance, eminent domain/inverse condemnation, affordable housing, redevelopment and transactional real estate matters.  He was named to the Pacific Coast Business Times most influential attorneys list in 2010 and 2011.

Mr. Sellers has attended more than 400 hundred public meetings, advocating his client’s interests on a vast variety of land use and public law issues.  He understands how politically sensitive public decisions by an elected governing body can be, and knows that, frequently, it is not the message but how you deliver it.  He understands how local government works, observing that many times a property owner is talking with the wrong staff person.

He has helped direct the successful creation of a number of large master planned communities.  He has negotiated and drafted many Development Agreements, Redevelopment Agency Development and Disposition Agreements, Conservation Easements, agreements on the Transfer of Land Development Rights (involving thousands of acres and residential units and commercial retail centers), and also the more traditional contracts on raw land acquisition for development, sale of improved real property, and commercial and office leases.

In his CEQA practice, he has reviewed and advised on many Initial Studies, Negative Declarations, MNDs and EIRs, successfully challenging and defending CEQA documents.

He is familiar with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and water quality issues of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and its enforcement process, having successfully obtained drastic reductions in proposed Administrative Civil Liability actions on unauthorized discharges.

In addition, he handles municipal law questions, including conflict of interest, referendum/initiative/elections, public bidding, prevailing wage, Brown Act compliance, and local taxes.

Memberships:

  • State Bar of California
  • Real Property Section, State Bar of California
  • Public Law Section, State Bar of California (former Executive Committee Member)
  • Ventura County Economic Development Association Board Member
  • Board Member on Thousand Oaks Boulevard Association (whose members are owners of commercial properties along that major commercial corridor)
  • ProVisors
  • American Bar Association, Urban Law Division
  • Ventura County Bar Association (Former Member, Board of Directors)

Education:

  • Southwestern University School of Law, J.D., 1975
  • University of Arizona, B.A., 1971

Community:

  • Thousand Oaks Rotary
  • California State University, Channel Islands Foundation Board
  • Thousand Oaks “Alliance For The Arts” Board Member

Classes & Seminars:

  • Speaker, “A CEQA Update, Life With No Legislative Reform”, ACEC Channel Coast Chapter Meeting, April 17, 2014
  • “Successfully Influencing Government Land Use Decisions”, UCLA Extension  Public Policy Program, October 4, 2007
  • Adjunct Professor, Land Use Law, Pepperdine Law School
  • Speaker, “Challenging Local Land Use Decisions”, Lorman Seminar
  • “Brown Act Compliance”, League of California Cities, 2003

Published Cases & Works:

  • “California Land Use Zoning”, (Contributing Editor), CEB
  • California Public Law Journal, Legislative Update, 2003
  • California Public Law Journal, Legislative Update, 2004
  • Editor, Municipal Law Handbook, 1999
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