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LEGISLATION

Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger LLP drafts local, state and federal legislation on behalf of community groups, local governments, and government agencies on a wide range of topics. In addition, the firm counsels clients on the effects of various statutory measures, assists in developing strategies to implement legislation, and, when necessary, challenges and defends statutory measures in court.

• Members of Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger LLP have frequently served on the Executive Committee of the State Bar Environmental Law Section as well as the predecessor State Bar Committee on the Environment. The firm’s attorneys also have served on, as well as chaired, the Section’s Legislation Committee, which provides assistance to the state Legislature on the drafting, technical accuracy, legality and constitutionality of legislation concerning environmental and land use issues.
  

• On behalf of the Napa County Farm Bureau, the firm analyzed and prepared comments on proposed legislation that would have severely limited the effectiveness of local land use initiatives. The firm advised the Farm Bureau on the bill’s legal effects and prepared and delivered testimony at the Senate Housing and Land Use Committee. The legislation was defeated.
  

• The firm drafted legislation to facilitate reuse of former military installations on Treasure Island and Alameda Island by local municipalities. Both situations required creative responses to problems related to the public trust doctrine. The doctrine requires public access and restricts development to maritime and related uses for landfill areas over former tidelands. On behalf of the City of San Francisco, the firm drafted a law creating the Treasure Island Development Authority, which oversees redevelopment of Treasure Island and administration of public trust lands. In order to address the problem of residential structures built by the Navy that were not consistent with the Trust, the firm created an innovative amortization system for the remainder of the useful life of the buildings—thereby allowing for their reuse and providing assurances it was consistent with the Trust following the expiration of their useful life.
  

• On behalf of the City of Alameda, the firm drafted legislation to facilitate effective reuse at the former Naval Air Station Alameda. The historic pattern of public trust lands on the Naval Air Station would have allowed certain waterfront lands to be cut off from public access and developed for non-trust uses, and at same time would have precluded redevelopment of large areas of interior land cut off from the waterfront. The legislation drafted by the firm and ultimately signed into law authorizes a reconfiguration of trust and non-trust lands such that the waterfront and other lands valuable to the trust will become protected trust lands, and certain interior lands not useful to the trust can be developed for affordable housing, commercial, industrial and other beneficial uses.
  

• The firm is assisting the Greenbelt Alliance with a study of the antiquated subdivision problem under a grant from the Packard Foundation. Antiquated subdivisions are lots that allegedly were created out of larger land holdings before the enactment of the first Subdivision Map Act in 1893. When found to be valid, these subdivisions escape local land use regulations that would otherwise govern the size, location, and conditions imposed on development of these parcels. Under the grant, the firm is working with co-counsel to analyze the extent and variations of the problem with the goal of proposing solutions, including legislative changes to existing state laws.
  

• The firm prepared testimony on behalf of a client for the Committee on Governance for the 21st Century, a group established by the legislature to comprehensively re-examine the law governing municipal boundaries. Based on its broad experience with local governments and the annexation process, the firm reviewed the existing law and its effectiveness and problems. The firm recommended strengthened standards for local area formation commission approvals of changes in local government boundaries, consideration of regional alternatives, and deference to urban growth boundaries. Many of the recommendations were reflected in the legislation ultimately adopted.
  

• The firm drafted an ordinance for the City and County of Sacramento creating a fee on commercial development to provide funds to support the city’s affordable housing program.
  

• On behalf of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, the firm drafted a model Demolition and Construction Debris Ordinance. The ordinance requires recycling of demolition and construction debris in order to meet the State’s mandate for reducing the amount of solid waste sent to landfills.
  

• On behalf of San Bernardino County, the firm analyzed existing federal legislation for the storage and disposal of low level radioactive waste. The firm proposed revisions to the Low Level Radioactive Waste Act to address commonly acknowledged problems.
  

• The firm has drafted numerous general plan and zoning ordinance provisions in connection with various land use matters. The firm has also drafted a number of general plan amendments on behalf of clients proposing initiatives and referenda to be considered by city or county voters.