Land use planning, zoning and regulatory issues are another facet of Graham • Vaage’s practice, and are frequently interwoven into the firm’s other areas of practice. Graham • Vaage has extensive experience in all land use-related matters, including:
Land use planning and permitting
Land use entitlements
Zoning
Planning and zoning regulations
Subdivisions and subdivision development
Takings and damaging of property
Permissible uses
Inverse condemnation and eminent domain
Development agreements
Environmental Issues
CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act)
CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act)
RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)
NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act)
Brownfields matters
The Polanco Act
Property entitlements, and
Other matters
Graham • Vaage has an exceptional breadth and depth of experience involving both public entities and the private sector in matters involving land use planning and zoning and environmental litigation. The firm’s attorneys represent clients on matters before planning commissions, city councils, boards of supervisors, Caltrans, as well as other governmental bodies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
Graham • Vaage’s clients include developers of housing subdivisions, industrial parks, commercial retail centers, office towers and condominium projects. In the public sector, the firm has a lengthy history of providing advisory services to public entities, public utilities, and special districts in the areas of land use planning and zoning and environmental matters.
The Firm’s years of experience with both the private and public sectors enables it to create and implement public / private partnerships for our clients, assisting them in developing plans and programs directed at redeveloping and revitalizing geographic areas which are obsolete, damaged, contaminated or otherwise uneconomic and blighted.
Graham • Vaage has assisted clients in analyzing and restructuring uses of property, obtained changes in permissible land uses, obtained tax and other economic incentives, grants and programs useful to the foundation of a successful project.
In an acquisition and development context, Graham • Vaage assists real estate investors, lenders and developers in their dealings with public agencies in land use, environmental redevelopment, disposition and development agreements, tax sharing, bond financing, master planned communities and eminent domain matters.
Graham • Vaage’s practice ranges throughout California, with the largest concentration of cases in Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties, and in the Bay Area and Sacramento.