Land Use and Entitlement

Rutan’s Land Use, Government, Regulatory and Entitlement Law Group integrates the expertise of its Government and Regulatory Law department and its Real Estate department to offer a complete range of land use, real property environmental law services to clients in both the public and private sectors.

Rutan routinely advises residential, commercial, and industrial developers, and can guide a project from the due diligence/land acquisition stage, through the entitlement process, and ultimately to the sale or leasing of the finished product. Should litigation arise, Rutan’s Land Use group has experience that defend project approvals and all other potential challenges.

Rutan represents clients on all aspects of the land use entitlement process, including compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Complementing our entitlement expertise, we advise clients on government relations, lobbying, and community outreach efforts. This includes the Election Law group, which provides critical advise to Rutan’s clients to ensure compliance with state and local elections law, including during the entitlement process.

We routinely represent clients in all types of land use litigation disputes, including cases involving exactions, dedications, and fees. Rutan regularly handles matters involving eminent domain, inverse condemnation/takings, fair housing, public contracting and procurement, and a wide variety of additional litigation matters involving real estate, land use and environmental issues, including easement and other real property disputes, federal Clean Water Act and CERCLA/RCRA cases

Our practice is proudly split between both public and private clients operating in this field. Throughout California, we advise private individuals, developers, property owners, commercial and industrial concerns, community organizations and other private entities that have dealings with governmental agencies. Our expertise extends not only to substantive regulatory requirements and restrictions, but also the rules governing the review and processing of entitlements and approvals, and the specialized procedures for challenging or defending governmental decisions.

Although Rutan originated in Orange County, our attorneys also advise property owners, developers, and public agencies throuhgout the state, including central and Northern California, with offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Our attorneys also serve as special counsel to multiple public agencies throughout the state. No other California law firm can match Rutan’s century of experience in both the public and private sides of land use and natural resources law. No one has our commitment to service and value. We stand ready to put this breadth and depth of experience to work for you.

This practice brings together Rutan’s historical expertise in public agency and administrative law and real estate law, along with seasoned transactional attorneys and litigators. Our attorneys have experience in each of these areas, and also have developed specialized expertise in environmental law. Thus, the group has the depth to tackle even the hardest environmental law questions and the breadth to devise comprehensive and creative solutions.

We work closely with clients to comply with today’s environmental laws and to envision changes in tomorrow’s environmental regulations. The attorneys focus on advising clients to anticipate, and avoid or successfully resolve, a broad range of environmental issues, including toxic tort litigation, regulatory compliance, site assessment and cleanup, compliance with Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act requirements, and liability under California’s common laws of nuisance, trespass, waste and strict liability.

Rutan specializes in the evaluation of environmental liabilities and development of risk management strategies for parties purchasing, selling, leasing, financing and developing land. Of particular emphasis is the redevelopment of environmentally impaired Brownfield properties and urban infill projects, including conversion of industrial and commercial properties to residential land use.

Typical projects include negotiating remediation and indemnity agreements; directing site assessments; working with government authorities overseeing health risk, site cleanup and closure criteria; developing mitigation measures; preparing environmental notices and disclosures; and analysis of environmental insurance products. We advise school districts, municipalities, redevelopment agencies and developers regarding the environmental issues affecting the planning, funding, site acquisition and construction of new projects.