Land Use

All plans for the use or development of real property confront a broad range of laws that impact how -- or if -- those plans are realized. Beveridge & Diamond, P.C. partners with our clients as they traverse the broad legal landscape of land-use laws. We describe our nationwide capability in the context of the four critical components of land use: Project Development, Land-Use Litigation, Real Estate Transaction counsel and Multi-Project Strategic counsel. From offices across the country, Beveridge & Diamond provides sophisticated land-use counsel on projects big and small, Greenfield and Brownfield, and local and national in nature.

Successful Project Development requires identifying the best and most efficient path to achieving the desired land use. Beveridge & Diamond has provided such guidance for highway projects, shopping districts, telecommunication networks, energy facilities and residential developments, to name just a few. Many of these projects required entitlements from local zoning and permitting authorities, as well as complex NEPA review. For both public and private sector clients, we help secure federal and state land-use and environmental approvals. We effectively advise our clients on each step toward successful project completion.

Sometimes Land-Use Litigation lies in the critical path to project completion. Beveridge & Diamond routinely handles legal challenges in the law of takings, preemption, state and federal public lands and resources statutes, contract interpretation and zoning ordinances, among others. Litigation counsel must have a wide breadth of experience across jurisdictions and land-use law. Beveridge & Diamond has that experience, having litigated land-use cases in state and federal courts across the country. [In many of those lawsuits, we have been engaged exclusively as litigation counsel and we have coordinated our efforts on litigation -- and settlement -- with the local permitting consultants or counsel that have been assisting the client on local entitlement issues.]

The immediate focus of a client often is on the deal itself -- the terms, timing and profitability of a real estate transaction. The land use entitlements await down the path to the future development that prompted the transaction. Beveridge & Diamond provides legal advice to its clients on real estate transactions -- the terms and documents of the deal -- and on how the transaction is affected by, and should incorporate, environmental and land-use considerations, future regulatory compliance, and risk allocation through insurance policies and recovery. Our real estate transaction clients have included owners, developers and financing participants.

Many business models depend on successful multi-project developments. Private companies, public entities and trade associations in the telecommunications, outdoor advertising, transportation, home building, real estate and energy fields have engaged Beveridge & Diamond for strategic counsel on multi-project developments. Successful representation of such companies depends on a sophisticated understanding of their business model and business environment, as well as the underlying land-use law. Beveridge & Diamond understands that, and provides strategic land-use counsel covering the regulatory, legislative and litigation disciplines of the various local, state, federal and international jurisdictions in which businesses operate.