Land Entitlements

For more than a decade, Meyers Nave has served as counsel in connection with development and implementation of the Los Angeles International Airport Master Plan, a $14 billion expansion of one of the world’s busiest airports, including defense against four consolidated lawsuits challenging the approval of the airport’s expansion plans under CEQA, NEPA and the California Coastal Act: Alliance for a Regional Solution v. City of Los Angeles et al.; City of El Segundo v. City of Los Angeles et al.; County of Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles et al.; and Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations v. City of Los Angeles et al. We provided guidance to LAWA in preparing Part 161 Studies for LAX and the Van Nuys Airport, essential components of the LAX Master Plan.

Meyers Nave advised The Regents of the University of California in the development of UC Riverside’s 2021 Long Range Development Plan, the physical development and land use plan outlining the campus’s academic and institutional objectives.

Meyers Nave has been advising UC Santa Cruz on a strategy for working with the City of Santa Cruz to ensure adequate water supply to effectuate the LRDP for the North Campus expansion.

Meyers Nave served as outside land use and environmental counsel to the City for a waterfront ballpark and mixed-use development project at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal. The project includes the creation of expanded entertainment district with a 35,000-seat ballpark, 3,000 residential units, 1.5 million sq. ft. of office, 270,000 sq. ft. of retail, a 400-room hotel and a 3,500-seat performance venue. We advise on the preparation of the Environmental Impact Report (CEQA), land use entitlements, and project-related agreements including the Development Agreement and Community Benefits Agreement, including coordination on federal and state funding for related transit and transportation projects. The project straddles jurisdictions of several agencies with different regulations and permitting processes, including the State Lands Commission (tide and submerged land issues) and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (San Francisco Bay Plan issues). We successfully defended the City against multiple lawsuits challenging the compliance of the EIR with CEQA in both the trial court and on appeal. These lawsuits were subject to expedited judicial review under special state legislation which result in completion of both the trial court and court of appeal process in under one year. In these roles, we have worked in concert with the A’s, numerous consultant teams and responsible agencies to ensure that the benefits of the CEQA streamlining are achieved through coordinated review and established communications protocols.

Meyers Nave served as land use and environmental counsel for City of Anaheim for major planning effort to update existing Disney entitlements to allow Disneyland to continue to evolve and provide new theme park, hotel and entertainment uses for visitors. This is the first major amendment to Disneyland entitlements since the 1990s and will allow the future development of new one-of-a-kind immersive entertainment experiences. We are advising the City on all entitlements and environmental review requirements, including General Plan and Specific Plan amendments and a development agreement.

On December 18, 2025, Meyers Nave won a important growth management appeal for the City of Carlsbad that affirms the City has been correctly implementing its Growth Management Program for the last 40 years. This decision affirms our team’s original lower court win.

Meyers Nave is lead counsel to BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) on the Barstow International Gateway (BIG) project, one of the most significant private freight infrastructure investments in California history.

Meyers Nave has advised UC on the CEQA review of Long Range Development Plans and other matters associated with such plans to guide future development and accommodate enrollment growth of tens of thousands of new students on campuses throughout the UC system.

Meyers Nave proactively advised the City of Seaside on land use and CEQA issues associated with the City’s General Plan Update and the Campus Town Center Specific Plan, providing legal reviews of both the Specific Plan and its EIR. The plan guides public and private investment in a proposed 120-acre development on the former Fort Ord Army Base near California State University Monterey Bay, designed as a pedestrian-oriented mixed-use village with 1,485 housing units, 250 hotel rooms, and retail, dining, entertainment, and office/flex space. When the approvals were challenged, the firm successfully defended the project, prevailing in the published appellate decision Committee for Sound Water & Land Development v. City of Seaside (2022) 79 Cal.App.5th 389 against allegations spanning water supply, transportation, urban decay, air quality, GHG, energy, fire, public services, and project description.

Four San Diego area cities, Coronado, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove and Solana Beach, sued SANDAG demanding a new hearing and rescission of their final Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocation numbers, claiming SANDAG had denied them a fair hearing by deciding their administrative appeals on a weighted vote based on member populations rather than a simple tally.

Meyers Nave obtained a dispositive ruling for SANDAG at the trial court, and the Fourth Appellate District affirmed on June 20, 2022 in a published decision holding that the RHNA allocation process is immune from judicial review by legislative design, which prevents the gridlock and delay that would undermine the state’s housing efforts. The California Supreme Court denied review.

Handled the seminal case involving state planning law and dictates of internal consistency as to Riverside’s General Plan. Garat v. City of Riverside (1991) 2 Cal.App.4th 259. Over the years, our work with the City of Sacramento, a highly valued client of our firm, has included critical and sensitive matters including complex municipal law issues. When Sacramento set an ambitious timeline to build the $535 million Golden 1 Center, the City turned to Meyers Nave to face a maze of legal issues that could have derailed the project; we defeated every roadblock, brought Golden 1 Center to life, and created a roadmap for future stadium projects tied to retaining or relocating professional sports teams.

Meyers Nave provided land use strategy and CEQA advice to Hall Equities Group, the developer of a proposed $750 million soccer stadium project with linkage to the downtown Concord BART station. The project includes a 15,000- to 18,000-seat stadium, two hotels with 650 rooms, a 150,000-square-foot convention center, retail space and modular multi-family housing. The stadium was planned to be home to a United Soccer League franchise for the Oakland East Bay area.

Defense of City’s managed growth ordinance initiative. Published decision: Building Industry Association v. Superior Court (City of Oceanside), (1989) 211 Cal.App.3d 277 [managed growth initiative]. Companion trial court cases: Ivey Ranch Technology Park, Inc. v. City of Oceanside; Lemont Financial Corporation v. City of Oceanside; Ranch Development Corp. v. City of Oceanside; Del Oro Hills v. City of Oceanside.

Meyers Nave served as land use and environmental counsel for City of Anaheim in entitlement and CEQA process for creation of mixed use entertainment district surrounding the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks and a major concert venue. The $3 billion Project creates a 95-acre master planned campus with sports, entertainment, shopping, market hall dining, 20 acres of public parks and trails, 1,500 residences, and offices designed to bring people together through shared experiences. The design is a transit-oriented walkable community adjacent to the ARTIC regional transit center. Meyers Nave helped the City complete a complicated entitlement process in a short timeframe to meet the planned opening of Phase One in 2026. Entitlements included site plans, a development agreement, sign programs and CEQA environmental analysis involving coordination with regional and state entities.

Review of the general plan, zoning, entitlements, and EIR for a mixed-use, transit-priority-area hotel project, the first in the City to implement its alternative transportation CEQA significance thresholds.

Meyers Nave served as lead land use and CEQA counsel to the City of Anaheim for a mixed-use development and stadium project, known as Big A 2050, on the site of an existing Los Angeles Angels stadium. The project envisions redevelopment of the stadium site to introduce large-scale residential, office, and retail/entertainment uses to create a year-round use. Meyers Nave advised on all entitlements and environmental review including a Disposition and Development Agreement, site plans, tentative maps and other required approvals. The project is a key element to the City realizing its vision for the development of the Platinum Triangle Mixed Use area located adjacent to a major Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center which provides rail, bus, taxi and other services for daily commuters and visitors.

Meyers Nave assisted the City of Rancho Cordova in the planning, development, and approval of the City’s largest land development project. The 3,828-acre master-planned community consists of 12,189 residential units, nine schools, 247 acres of commercial space, 269 acres of industrial park, 510 acres of wetland preserve, 178 acres of community parks, and 16 miles of trails. Our work also included land use entitlements, an EIR/EIS, development agreement, specific plan, affordable housing agreement, and finance plan. The project will transform a mine tailings site into a community with schools, parks, and retail.

Counsel on implementation of the City’s general plan through a complex specific plan for the approximately 733-acre Baylands site, with 1,800 to 2,200 housing units on a former railyard and landfill.

Counsel to the City of Redondo Beach on the redevelopment of the 1.9 million-square-foot mall property, 650 homes and 150 hotel rooms on the 29.85-acre site.

Counsel to Imperial County on the specific plan for geothermal energy, lithium extraction, battery production, and Salton Sea restoration.

Meyers Nave served as lead permitting and litigation counsel for Bloom Energy in challenging a public agency’s failure to issue ministerial permits for two fuel cell installations valued at over $60M. The litigation led to a successful settlement, securing Bloom the right to obtain the requested permits, and establishing a faster permitting path for future projects. For more than a decade, Meyers Nave has guided BNSF through California’s legal and political terrain. We develop long-range permitting strategies; strengthen relationships with regulators; overcome environmental hurdles under CEQA and NEPA; tackle intricate air quality, water quality, and greenhouse gas issues; and defend high-profile megaprojects in state and federal courts.

Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Authority v. Rashid, et al. – Jury Trial August 2006. Meyers Nave was lead counsel for the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency in several eminent domain actions to acquire parcels for redevelopment purposes. In one case, the site was improved with a former gasoline service station and mini-mart business. Valuation issues included highest and best use, the value of the real estate and improvements, and entitlement to loss of business goodwill. Landowner’s total appraised value at trial was $919,000. After a bench trial on entitlement to loss of business goodwill, and a jury trial on the value of the land and improvements, the jury awarded $492,000. Landowner’s motion for litigation expenses for over $250,000 was also denied.

Meyers Nave provides ongoing legal advice to the County of Los Angeles regarding the build-out of the Newhall Ranch Specific Plan in the northwestern unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County, focusing on in-depth legal review and negotiations of the Newhall Ranch Development Agreement terms and requirements. FivePoint Valencia includes eight villages across a 15,000-acre project with an estimated 21,500 residential units plus commercial areas. The work includes specific legal advice on phasing of infrastructure, greenhouse gas reduction, and affordable housing requirements, as well as review of the additional environmental analysis needed for development of individual villages and areas outside the Specific Plan.

Currently advising the City of Brisbane on all aspects of the proposed Towers at Sierra Point development, including legal review of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and entitlement requests. The project proposes a 1,280,500-square-foot life sciences campus featuring four new buildings, including two office/life sciences buildings, an amenity building, and a parking garage. The development would accommodate approximately 3,660 employees. The entitlement process includes a Design Review Permit, a Zoning Amendment to modify height limits in the Sierra Point Design Guidelines, and a Conditional Use Permit for parking regulation modifications.

The City of Palmdale defeated every claim. A restaurant and bar operator petitioned for a writ and added civil rights claims after the City revoked its permits. The El Dorado Club held a legal nonconforming use, good only so long as it did not substantially change the mode or character of its operation, and it began operating as a nightclub. The City issued a cease and desist letter, and Meyers Nave defended the revocation that followed.

Counseled a mining company on reopening a gold mine in Northern California, including working with a regional water quality control board on National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting, waste discharge requirements, cease and desist order compliance and administrative penalties.

Meyers Nave has served as City Attorney for Rancho Cordova since 2006, advising the City on complex government and regulatory issues and on land use and development.

Handled environmental work, permitting, real property litigation, and entitlements for an iconic, award-winning development project at the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Santiago, Chile. Bio overview notes it as “a high-profile project in Santiago, Chile, at the base of the Andes.”

Represented the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere in obtaining entitlements before the California Coastal Commission. Bio overview adds: “Seena secured essential environmental approvals for the largest desalination plant in the United States.”

His recent private projects include advising a large Northern California ranch on a variety of land use issues including land use permitting, environmental compliance, and wildfire recovery and prevention strategies.

Handled entitlement work for several City of Malibu property owners looking to develop their properties, or make modifications to their homes, including fire rebuilds.

Represented two preschools in the acquisition and entitlement of sites in Glendale and Pasadena, including complex parking, easement, and covenant issues.

Successful writ decision in City’s favor resulting in the confirmation of the City’s revocation of a conditional use permit for this alcohol facility.

Represent several recycling centers throughout various cities in California in their entitlements and responses to code enforcement.

Negotiate and draft the Monterey Bay Shores Eco-Resort development agreement, a roughly 1.3-million-square-foot mixed-use, visitor-serving resort, securing major public benefits including dune restoration and local art programs.

Successfully defended the City of Half Moon Bay against CEQA, takings and Coastal Act violation claims regarding its approval of a specific plan and other entitlements for a 207-acre development. The city prevailed in both the trial court and the court of appeal. Related published decisions: Ailanto v. City of Half Moon Bay (2006) 142 Cal.App.4th 572; City of Half Moon Bay v. Superior Court (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 795.

Riverside County University Health Systems (RUHS) – Mead Valley Wellness Village Project. We represented RUHS as outside real estate and land use counsel relating to the Mead Valley Wellness Village Project, a $580 million behavioral health facility, with real property services (ground lease, facilities lease, development agreement with P3 partner) and currently represent RUHS as real estate and land use counsel related to the future expansion of the RUHS Medical Center in Moreno Valley, a 30-year multi-phased program to guide the future expansion of the Medical Center. The representation consists of leading environmental review for the Project, including preparation of a Program EIR and all associated real estate services.