Land Use

Murtha Cullina attorneys represent a broad range of clients in all aspects of land use, including zoning, subdivision, wetlands, water and sewer utilities, and public health issues.

Our clients include commercial and residential developers, private landowners, conservation organizations, municipalities, and regional utility and health officials and agencies, among others. The diversity of this representation enhances our ability to represent each group. For our clients, our experience translates into comprehensive, cost effective, and proactive representation and management of land use issues.

We counsel our clients on the acquisition, development, financing and sale of real estate located in Massachusetts and Connecticut. We strategically guide the land development process beginning with an examination of land use considerations, including legal and practical evaluations and due diligence. We assist in the process of negotiating contracts for project design and construction and in closing the transactions leading to completed projects.

The firm has successfully represented numerous landowners, builders, and developers in planning, preparing and processing land use applications before all levels of government and through all phases of development, including, when necessary, successful administrative appeals.

Our attorneys are experienced in obtaining cost-effective and timely issuance of permits and approvals that implement our clients development vision.

Projects in which we have played an active role include major residential and commercial developments and subdivisions, shopping centers, redevelopment projects and affordable housing projects.

We also represent conservation organizations and citizen groups in connection with development proposals. We participate in community interaction and outreach for high-profile and controversial projects.

Our municipal clients look to us for counsel and advice concerning all aspects of local land use law. The firm provides assistance with the drafting and enforcement of land use ordinances, regulations and bylaws; and with the review of, and decision-making on, land use applications. We also advise our municipal clients concerning historic preservation and eminent domain.

We have acted as general or special counsel to more than 50 municipalities in various capacities. We have also represented numerous public water and sewer authorities and regional health districts. Our lawyers have served as elected officials at various levels of municipal government. Our experience on behalf of our municipal clients has brought us into every forum from local commissions to the Massachusetts and Connecticut Supreme Court.

Given the potentially complex issues involved in land use and development, we urge clients to obtain our advice and counsel at the earliest stage possible, believing that early and effective counseling can avoid adverse agency decisions and costly litigation. When litigation is unavoidable, however, we have the experience to try these cases to a successful conclusion in federal and state court.

Our attorneys are actively involved with the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Homebuilders Association, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and the Connecticut Developers Council. Murtha Cullina attorneys conduct seminars and workshops for our clients and for land use commissioners in Connecticut and in Massachusetts through the Connecticut Bar Association, the Connecticut Association of Zoning Enforcement Officials, the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, and other regional agencies and councils.

Several of our lawyers have advanced degrees in science and engineering. One of our attorneys is the author of a widely used procedural guide for Connecticut land use agencies, "What's Legally Required" and the principal co-author of a nationally distributed treatise on municipal and state land use liability, WestGroup's State and Local Government Land Use Liability.