Land Use

Carstens, Black & Minteer represents clients seeking to enforce state planning laws, local land use plans, and municipal and county zoning and building codes.  CBM's land use attorneys routinely participate before various State and local governmental agencies in administrative processes involving both large and small proposed projects.  Though CEQA frequently comes into play, in some circumstances a major task is to assure that a local government complies with its General Plan or an applicable community plan, since those plans are supposed to be the “constitution” for development in a jurisdiction.  Another role is to assure that variances from zoning or building requirements are not inappropriately granted, and that previously adopted mitigation measures are implemented.  For large developments, the provisions of the State Subdivision Act often comes into play, and with small developments, the State Parcel Map Act may be relevant.  CBM has successfully litigated many of these issues.