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Environmental, Land Use & Development Approvals and Litigation

Environmental, Land Use & Development Approvals and Litigation

Overview

Affordable Housing 

Our lawyers are familiar with the numerous state, local, and federal housing agencies that provide funding for the development of affordable housing in Florida. Over the past 20 years, we have assisted clients with affordable housing project planning and development throughout the state. We help them prepare, review, and defend applications requesting funding from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, including low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) applications and state apartment incentive loan (SAIL) applications. We also help them prepare and submit applications for funding at the local level.
 
Condominium and Planned Developments        

Economic Development Incentives   

We counsel clients on government incentives available for new corporate relocations, job creation, and reuse of underutilized property. Many of the state and local incentives require investigation and application before a business decision is finalized, so we work with clients to understand the legal requirements and the process involved.  
                
Eminent Domain and Condemnation

We advise property owners and government entities on all aspects and phases of eminent domain, the taking of private land by a government agency for a public purpose. This process includes pre-suit negotiation, litigation, and inverse condemnation challenges.
 
Energy and Utilities             

We provide a wide range of legal services to energy-related companies and public authorities, including electric and natural gas firms. We counsel, advise, and represent them before state regulatory agencies, state and federal courts, and arbitration panels.
 
Our attorneys appear regularly before the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) on matters including base rate proceedings, investigations of regulated utilities, proceedings to determine the need for new power plants, and prudence reviews. Through this work, our attorneys routinely interact with FPSC technical and legal staff. We also handle numerous related court cases involving judicial review of FPSC actions, rule challenges, Public Records Act litigation, and other proceedings involving FPSC-related matters. 
 
Environmental Regulation and Litigation

Land Use and Zoning Approvals

We represent diverse land use clients including large-scale private commercial, residential, and industrial developers, along with governmental bodies facing litigation challenges. Our comprehensive land use representation has included helping clients locate viable development or redevelopment sites, and identifying any relevant land use issues for entitlements. Our representation often continues through completion of a development project, and includes issues related to permitting, public lands leases and easements, local government approvals, lobbying, litigation, and appeals. We offer clients a team of both lawyers and land planners, reducing their costs and helping to resolve issues with state and local regulators.
 
We have more than 23 years’ experience representing mining companies in connection with their siting, zoning, and permitting challenges. Our clients have several active mines now in the approval process. Our land use work includes comprehensive plan amendments, re-zonings, code changes, special exception approvals, and variances. We have decades of experience with developments of regional impact (DRIs), community development districts (CDDs), and other special districts. We negotiate sector plans, impact fee credits, developer’s agreements related to concurrency, ad valorem tax challenges, and provide large-scale due diligence reviews and analysis for major lenders, developers, and corporate decision-makers.
 
In addition to obtaining approvals, we handle all facets of litigation related to land use and governmental approvals. We have handled many 42 U.S.C. § 1983 deprivation of civil rights litigation matters involving Florida land use, representing both private citizens and governments in multimillion-dollar actions.   
 
  • Highlight: For decades, the firm has served as land use counsel for The Villages, a master planned age-restricted community that stretches over three counties and is home to more than 115,000 residents. This unique location involves working with many different layers of government, and we handle all aspects of the client’s land development puzzle, including contracts, complex zoning and land use approvals, and overcoming permitting challenges. 
 
  • Highlight: Our client brought us a unique challenge: transform the Tallahassee Mall into a mixed-use public destination. To achieve this result, we participated in extensive public meetings and negotiations with many interested regulators and outside groups, all leading to an economic win for the client, the city, and the general public.   

Our Team

Additional Members

H. Ray Allen II
Of Counsel
Tampa
Michael P. Donaldson
Shareholder
Tallahassee
Aaron C. Dunlap
Shareholder
Tallahassee
Joel B. Giles
Shareholder
Tampa
Kari B. Hebrank
Senior Government Consultant
Tallahassee
Donald E. Hemke
Of Counsel
Tampa
Heather M. Jonczak
Shareholder
Miami
Neal McAliley
Shareholder
Miami
Christopher Smart
Shareholder
Tampa
Kenneth A. Tinkler
Shareholder
Tampa
Joseph J. Verdone
Senior Government Consultant
West Palm Beach

Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.