Land Use Development

Changing the use of land or obtaining government approvals for a new development today involves navigating an ever changing scheme of complex regulatory regulations.  Jackson Tidus is a leading land use, zoning and planning law firm providing experienced legal advice and strategic solutions to advance our clients’ interests.  Jackson Tidus represents numerous private landowners, major developers, citizen groups, public agencies, agricultural businesses, aggregate producers and real estate and finance companies for more than 30 years.  A number of our largest clients have been with us for more than 20 years. We know how to advocate our clients’ interests before agency staff and elected boards of public agencies including cities, counties, special districts, and local agency formation commissions.  Our broad spectrum of legal services for private and public clients includes:

• Due diligence for real estate acquisitions
• Securing, maintaining, and updating entitlements and other public agency approvals for land development projects including coastal development permits
• Impact fees, exactions, performance bonds, and conditions of approval
• Easements, licenses, and dedications
• Grading and building permits
• Developer agreements, affordable housing, reimbursement, mitigation, subdivision improvement, and other agreements
• Redevelopment and brownfields issues including owner participation and disposition and development agreements
• Condemnation and pre-condemnation negotiation
• Sustainable communities and innovative land use strategies to implement greenhouse gas (GHG)/climate change and water conservation principles
• Revisions to municipal laws and ordinances affecting development standards, general plans, zone changes, and specific plans
• Subdivision maps and extensions, and condominium conversions
• Conditional use permits, variances and non-conforming uses
• Annexations, sphere of influence changes and other reorganizations before local agency formation commissions
• Billboards and First Amendment issues
• Land use issues including: traffic/transportation; infrastructure planning, construction and funding; sober living; affordable housing; cultural/historical sites
• Zoning code violations and compliance and other administrative compliance actions
• Administrative appeals including those involving the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
• Civil Rights actions including eminent domain and condemnation matters.

Our land use development services are complemented by our real estate services that assist clients in real estate transactions by preparing and negotiating leases, options, purchases, rights of way, easements, declarations of covenants, conditions and restrictions, and homeowner association matters.  Jackson Tidus also offers corporate services that can advise clients on the organization and management of business entities such as LLCs, partnerships, and non-profit corporations for real estate or development projects.  Our environmental lawyers offer counseling, permitting, and litigation services with respect to the full breadth of environmental issues, including water rights and supply, water quality and storm water, air quality, GHG/climate change, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal and state Endangered Species Acts, and wetlands.  Land use development litigation often relies upon the record created in the administrative proceedings; a distinct advantage of Jackson Tidus’s full service approach and seamless integration of attorneys is that the attorneys litigating the case also created the record in the administrative proceeding.  Avoiding the need to bring litigation counsel “up to speed ” also facilitates cost-effective and integrated solutions.