City Planning Consulting
Land Use/Zoning Law
Affordable Housing
Fair Housing
Communications

• Our approach is to prevent problems for our clients and achieve their goals without having to resort to filing a lawsuit.
• We conduct Analyses of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice for local jurisdictions that receive CDBG funds as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• We conduct studies of housing needs and provide expertise on techniques to preserve affordable housing and generate new affordable housing.
• We devise and implement strategies to win zoning approval for developments of all sizes and types that can generate neighborhood opposition. We have successfully neutralized neighborhood opposition many times by candidly providing actual facts about the proposed us and its occupants. We maintain our credibility with the public by working only for developments we believe are permissible under the law.
• We provide legal representation of applicants before local zoning bodies, including land uses such as group homes, recovery communities, and other developments that often generate substantial neighborhood opposition.
• We serve as expert witnesses before local zoning bodies and in court cases.
• We provide consulting services to municipalities, counties, and states on planning, zoning, housing, and fair housing matters.
• We design and conduct random sample surveys of citizens and other populations using sound, scientific methods that produce accurate, representative results.
• Extensive nationwide expertise on revising local zoning codes to bring regulation of community residences for people with disabilities (group homes, halfway houses, recovery communities) into compliance with the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. Revisions are supported by preparation of a thorough report that provides the planning rationale that enables the jurisdiction to legally regulate community residences.
• Extensive nationwide expertise on representing operators of community residences for people with disabilities to obtain zoning approval to establish community residences. Efforts include educating local officials on the Fair Housing Act's requirements regarding community residences so that, in some instances, they come to agree that the proposed community residence is a permitted use under the jurisdiction’s current zoning. Efforts also include working with the surrounding neighborhood to prevent neighborhood opposition.
• We provide other planning and legal services as needed including developing land–use regulations and comprehensive plans for municipalities; site selection; developing affordable housing policy and programs; and public relations and communications. Activities include legal representation, expert testimony, report and plan preparation, editing, publishing, research, grant and proposal writing and design, book design and publishing, and Windows computer upgrades, construction, and repair.
• We turn local government studies, plans, and zoning codes into clear, understandable, and visually pleasing documents that a lay person can understand.