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Chair: Amrit S. Kulkarni213.626.2906Email

Practice Description

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Land Use

Meyers Nave’s expertise in Land Use law is demonstrated by clients that rely on us to advise on their largest, most complicated and often most controversial land use projects, which also often involves addressing associated Environmental Law issues such as those raised by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

We serve as lead transaction, compliance, and litigation counsel for many of the most innovative and highest profile commercial, industrial, infrastructure, housing, and mixed-use economic development projects undertaken businesses, public entities, and public-private partnerships throughout California. The scope and scale of our expertise is featured in the January 2021 issue of Southern California SuperLawyers magazine in an article titled “In For The Long Haul: When Practice Group Leader Amrit Kulkarni Is Not Catching Waves, He’s Helping Build Big Things.”

Our attorneys help clients navigate a myriad of complex local, state, and federal land use laws and regulations for matters relating to current land uses, land acquisition and planned development, and the permitting process. Our scope of expertise includes the State Planning and Zoning Law, Coastal Act, Tidelands Trust, Subdivision Map Act, Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act, Mitigation Fee Act, Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), Historic Preservation Act, CEQA, NEPA, among many others. We have special expertise with growth management, general and specific plans, conditional use and variances, zoning and subdivision, and development agreements and fees.

Our attorneys offer client training programs, workshops, and public presentations on key Land Use and Environmental topics. For more information, visit our Training page.

General and Specific Plans

Meyers Nave attorneys have extensive experience with general and specific plans. We frequently guide clients through the general plan update process and the specific plan process, including development of the plans, pre-Notice of Preparation, litigation, and appeals. Our work includes advising municipalities and counties—such as Tulare, Los Angeles, and Sacramento counties and the cities of Vista and Riverside—on specific plans that align with Climate Action Plans, zoning, and broader environmental goals. Other notable examples include:

  • Lithium Valley Specific Plan. Advising Imperial County on all aspects of the Lithium Valley Specific Plan and its associated EIR. The Specific Plan sets forth a comprehensive framework to transform the Imperial Valley into a hub for renewable energy, mineral recovery, manufacturing, and logistics across 51,786 acres adjacent to the Salton Sea. This plan is posed to help California decarbonize the electricity sector and is a crucial pillar of the California Air Resources Board’s 2022 Scoping Plan to address climate change.
  • Campus Town Center Specific Plan. Proactively counseled and advised the City of Seaside on land use and CEQA issues associated with the impacts on the City of Seaside General Plan Update and Campus Town Specific Plan, providing legal reviews of both the Specific Plan and the EIR. The Campus Town Specific Plan guides public and private investment and construction of a proposed 120-acre development divided into two mixed-use village centers and four residential neighborhoods within the former Fort Ord area in the area near the California State University at Monterey Bay. We have continued to help the City navigate through the process by presenting a dualistic approach to the preparation of the plan incorporating early policy direction consistent with the City’s General Plan, while providing innovative recommendations of how to integrate the City’s vision of revitalizing the area to serve the various needs of the diverse communities in the surrounding area. The subsequent CEQA challenge included allegations associated with water supply, transportation, urban decay, air quality, GHG, energy, fire, public services, and project description. We prevailed in the published appellate decision.
  • Brisbane Baylands Specific Plan Project. Currently assisting the City of Brisbane in its review of a complex development application for the Brisbane Baylands, an approximately 733-acre site located primarily in Brisbane, with a small portion located within San Francisco, following preparation of a Programmatic EIR (PEIR) for the large site. The project comprises 1,800-2,200 housing units, various mixes of residential, office, commercial, industrial and institutional uses, as well as amendments to the Brisbane General Plan, approval of a specific plan, remediation of hazardous materials contamination within the former railyard and landfill areas of the site, importation of water supply, and the construction and operation of an onsite recycled water plant. We are providing in-depth review of all aspects of the proposed land use entitlements and PEIR.
  • County of Los Angeles: Centennial Specific Plan. Advising the County of Los Angeles on a new, master-planned community on Tejon Ranch in the unincorporated Los Angeles County to develop up to 19,333 dwelling units and 10 million square feet of non-residential uses. Our extensive services included review of the EIR; review and drafting of CEQA findings; all aspects of the entitlement process, including negotiating a project Development Agreement and affordable housing program; staff reports; and Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors resolutions. Subsequently defended the County in two lawsuits brought by three petitioners. The County was successful on numerous issues at trial, including all issues raised by the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society. Most relevant here was successfully convincing the trial court that the County’s EIR appropriately analyzed consistency with SCAG’s then-current RTP/SCS. Appeals and cross-appeals are currently pending in the Second District.

Since 2006, Meyers Nave has demonstrated its expertise in land use law by serving as co-managing editor and chapter author of California Land Use Practice, the leading resource on land use law in the state, published annually by the Continuing Education of the Bar.