Zoning and Land Use

Contact: Jon Laria | 410.528.5506 | laria@ballardspahr.com

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At Ballard Spahr, we’re known for our national real estate practice—but we also know Baltimore. From marquee mixed-use projects on the waterfront to smaller scale developments throughout Baltimore’s neighborhoods, our national experience and local knowledge help our clients succeed. Whether we counsel on a wide range of issues or focus on specific legal tasks, we help get projects built.

We have handled incentives and entitlements, including land use and zoning approvals, for many of the most significant projects in and around Baltimore. Lawyers in our Baltimore office represent clients, including local and national developers and our region’s most prominent companies, in transformational development and redevelopment, as well as more conventional projects in the city and surrounding counties in Maryland.

We know local and regional law and regulations, including Baltimore’s complex Planned Unit Development (PUD) process and long-standing Urban Renewal Plans, and have drafted and shepherded numerous ordinances through the legislative process. We were deeply involved in the city’s first comprehensive rezoning in over 40 years, representing both individual developers and the industry in the code replacement and the re-mapping of the entire city.

We lead development team interaction with government agencies including the Baltimore City Council, Planning Commission, Baltimore Development Corporation, and Baltimore Housing, and have successfully managed the public input process as well as negotiations with community groups, elected officials, agency staff, and private parties. We understand the nuances of local development and how to make projects happen.

Equally important, our lawyers are committed to, and involved in, the Baltimore community as leaders of many civic organizations, including the Greater Baltimore Committee, Downtown Partnership, Healthy Neighborhoods, Urban Land Institute, Live Baltimore, and One House at a Time.

Our projects include:

• Corporate headquarters and office buildings
• Cultural institutions
• Hospital and health care facilities
• Hotels and resort complexes
• Industrial and warehouse facilities
• Mixed-use projects
• Public-private joint ventures
• Retail centers
• Sports stadiums and entertainment facilities
• University facilities

EXPERIENCE

BioPark – University of Maryland, Baltimore

We’ve represented the master developer of Baltimore's UMB BioPark since its inception in 2005. The 10-acre BioPark on the west side of the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus will boast 1.8 million square feet of lab and office space in 12 buildings plus garage parking and landscaped parks. Our attorneys have represented the developer in obtaining all land use approvals, negotiating acquisitions with public and private landowners, and preparing development and lease documents for all buildings in the park. In addition, we represented the BioPark in amending and replacing the Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance, which we originally prepared in 2005 to initiate the park development. We also completed the more than $200 million financing for the Proton Treatment Center, a cutting-edge treatment for cancer patients.

Baltimore Peninsula

We are handling all real estate matters for Sagamore Development's signature project, Baltimore Peninsula, which will include a new global Under Armour headquarters. Baltimore Peninsula is a 235-acre, mixed-use redevelopment of a former industrial area with projected public and private investment of more than $5 billion over roughly 25 years. The project includes $660 million in tax increment financing—the largest TIF in City history and one of the largest in the nation—shepherded to approval by our attorneys. We also helped negotiate a $100 million community benefits agreement with six surrounding communities. At full development, Baltimore Peninsula will include thousands of new residences, office space, and extensive retail, entertainment, and innovative manufacturing facilities. It will create thousands of new jobs and economic opportunities for local residents, as well as large areas of recreational space, including more waterfront access for residents and visitors.

Exelon – Baltimore HQ Building

We represented Exelon in a large, complex leasing transaction, allowing the national energy provider to establish a new division headquarters in Baltimore. Our attorneys led the effort to negotiate the build-to-lease transaction. Financed in part by a city TIF, the building houses about 1,500 employees and also includes more than 100 apartments, 40,000 square feet of retail space, and a parking garage. As the new hub of a major division of Exelon, the LEED Gold offices house a massive, state-of-the-art 24-hour trading floor.

Baltimore - Penn Station

We serve as counsel to Amtrak in the redevelopment of Baltimore’s Penn Station. Our lawyers have lead all negotiations for Amtrak and drafted the procurement and project development documents. We spearheaded negotiations with the selected developers and worked through multiple federal and local law issues. The multi-year renovation includes a new high-speed rail platform with a passenger concourse above, and improvements to parcels around the station. It also involves updates to the station’s century-old Beaux Arts building, and retail and office space.

Sports and Entertainment

We represent a global sports and entertainment company in the development of their flagship location in Baltimore, including acquisition, negotiations with public and private parties, and all related land use entitlements involving the City Council and Zoning Board. These included a suite of approvals for a bold signage package that assisted the company in establishing its brand in a new market. The team also took the project through Maryland’s Voluntary Cleanup Program for environmental work at the site.

Community Development Work

We have represented a number of sponsors of critically important community development projects, often smaller in size if not local impact. The Hebrew Orphan’s Asylum, a long-vacant 19th-century home for Baltimore’s orphaned children, has been renovated by a neighborhood-based CDC into a community health center occupied by the Baltimore City Health Department. We represented the CDC in acquiring the building from the University of Maryland and then in acquiring necessary entitlements and financing to bring the project to fruition. The redevelopment of a blighted building has brought stability and resources to the challenged neighborhood. We are also representing the community-based developer of P.S. 103, the West Baltimore elementary school attended by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Our client will transform a vacant 100-year-old building into a community center dedicated to education and legal service. We represented the client in acquisition, land use approvals, and a complex tax-credit financing.

Digital Signage

We represent the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore in its program to enliven Baltimore’s downtown with large-scale digital signage. The initiative helps local artists share their content with a larger audience, and makes Baltimore more competitive in its bid to host large events. New billboards of any type are prohibited in Baltimore, except through enactment of an Area of Special Signage Control, a complex legislative and administrative approval process. We drafted the necessary ordinance and took it through the City Council, and then guided the Partnership in obtaining necessary Signage Plan approvals from the City’s Planning Commission.

Contact: Matthew N. McClure | 215.864.8771 | mcclure@ballardspahr.com

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We have deep experience representing clients throughout the Greater Philadelphia area in a variety of matters, from large housing developments to some of the nation's largest industrial projects, to educational campuses, other institutional developments, commercial space, adaptive use of historic properties, and more. We specialize in guiding clients through the approval process for complex and often challenging developments that require review and approval from community organizations and governmental agencies.

ZONING AND LAND USE REPRESENTATION

We represent our clients before the following entities in the Greater Philadelphia area, and in Pennsylvania.

• City of Philadelphia: City Council, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Registered Community Organizations, Board of Building Standards, Board of Safety and Fire Prevention, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Philadelphia Art Commission, Philadelphia Historical Commission, Philadelphia Streets Department, Philadelphia Water Department, Floodplain Management, Board of Surveyors
• Greater Pennsylvania: local borough councils, city councils, township governing bodies, county planning commissions and zoning hearing boards
• Environmental Review: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Transactional Agreements: conservation and façade easements, affordable housing agreements, public art agreements, community benefits agreements, development agreements

EXPERIENCE

Distribution Center

We represent a national developer in what will be one of the largest multi-modal distribution centers in the country. The site is serviced by two rail yards and a marine terminal, and it is accessed by two interstate highways on a total of 1,300 acres—the largest land assemblage in Philadelphia. When completed, the project will include 15 million square feet of rentable space. To date, we have successfully obtained legislative and administrative approvals for miles of public streets and public utility dedications—the largest ever for the City. We are handling all of the land use pacts and general development work.

Higher Education High-Rise

Our team represented a national research developer in obtaining significant land use approvals for the development of two high-rise buildings comprising 900,000 rentable square feet for academic, lab, and office used in University City section. The project involved a partnership with a local university, a 32,000-square-foot public plaza, the dedication of several new streets, and the City’s first zoning lot declaration agreement covering multiple parcels separated by public streets. The project is the only land assemblage in the City where development rights can freely be aggregated and allocated over public streets.

Mixed-Use Tower

We are advising a developer on its approximately 50-story, 250,000 square foot tower in Center City, including approximately 30,000 square feet of retail space, and approximately 185 dwelling units. We are counselling on the zoning and land use work. Our client owns, develops, and manages 2 million square feet of first class mixed-use and residential properties in Philadelphia.

Senior Housing

We represented a national low income housing developer in obtaining land use approvals for the second LGBTQ-friendly senior housing facility in the nation.

Mixed-Use Development

We represented a national developer as it redeveloped four vacant acres off North Broad Street, near Temple University. The 19-story, mixed-use project is anchored by a supermarket, with additional retail space including eating and drinking establishments, as well as offices, more than 400 apartments in two towers, and more than 500 structured parking spaces to serve the retail and residential components.

We helped guide the project to Philadelphia Zoning Board approval, which required a special exception for an above-ground parking garage and shepherding ordinances through City Council to accomplish a necessary lot adjustment. In addition, we helped coordinate the efforts of the client’s architects and engineers to successfully navigate the Civic Design Review process and secure support from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

Historic Property and Student Housing

We represented an Ivy League institution and its developer in obtaining approvals to demolish a building on the local historic register and construct a 120-unit graduate student housing project in Philadelphia. The project required extensive zoning variance relief, demolition approvals, and included countless evidentiary hearings and high-profile oral arguments. One approval—a financial hardship application under the City’s preservation ordinance—was a case of first impression for the Commonwealth Court and was one of the most followed zoning and historic preservation fights of the last decade.

Student Housing

We represented a joint venture in obtaining zoning and land use approvals for a 30-story, 427,000-square-foot student housing project with 420 dwelling units in University City. At its opening, the project was the largest multifamily building in the City.

Hotel: Residential Addition

We represented a large institutional multifamily developer in obtaining the property rights necessary to construct a fully-integrated, 31-story residential addition to an existing hotel in Society Hill. Our lawyers created the condominium documents to allow for the mixed-use project and the necessary development agreements. We obtained as-of-right zoning approval for the project and have successfully defended the zoning approvals from appeals filed by neighbors in the courts.

Professional Sports Facility

We helped a major league sports team in Philadelphia obtain land use approvals for several significant modifications to its major league ballpark, including new restaurants and social spaces. Working with City officials, we obtained approvals for the hardened perimeter that included significant design and landscaping features so as not to detract from the fan experience.

Contact: Steven P. Mehr | 424.204.4365 | mehrs@ballardspahr.com

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Our Salt Lake City lawyers handle zoning and land use matters throughout Utah, from traditional commercial projects such as big box retail stores and parking facilities to complex resort-area developments and large-scale renewable energy projects. We obtain approvals and address zoning and land use issues through every stage of a project.

The attorneys on our Utah-based team have guided signature projects statewide through the public input and governmental approval process. We represent developers, retailers, and other companies before municipal and county councils, planning commissions, and boards of adjustment. Our attorneys are well-known and respected in jurisdictions throughout the state through their years of experience and their positive, long-term relationships with governmental bodies and officials.

We are known in particular for our success in guiding many of Utah's most significant resort and hospitality projects to approval in ski areas, golf resorts, and other prime leisure locations.

EXPERIENCE

We are known in particular for our success in guiding many of Utah's most significant resort and hospitality projects to approval in ski areas, golf resorts, and other prime leisure locations.

Our most notable client projects in Utah include:

• We advise a resort hotel in what began as local counsel and expanded to general representation. We advised on multiple phases of the ski-in/ski-out luxury resort with a private ski beach, ski valet, split-level infinity pool, and spa—and continue to guide our client on the subsequent phases of the expansive project. We’ve advised on the revision of project governance documents, negotiations with unit purchasers, zoning and entitlements, property tax appeals, and advice on telecommunications and hotel management issues.
• Our attorneys are lead hospitality and local counsel for a timeshare company’s acquisition of nearly 200 units at two resort condominium projects in Utah. We were responsible for all hospitality and real estate due diligence, negotiation of the completion purchase and sale agreement, condominium documentation to restructure and facilitate mixed-use, timeshare approvals, title, zoning, entitlements, construction contracts, and parking matters. Negotiations included a unique reconfiguration of the condominium regimes to support the company’s plan to dedicate the units to its timeshare ownership programs.
• We represent a luxury resort hotel brand in the development of a resort that’s slated to include a full-service hotel, residential homes, and extensive amenities. The resort also will include more than 40 privately owned villas with a rental program component. We have been heavily involved in extensive planning and zoning work in preparation for construction. The project sits on a stunning parcel that is a desert wildlife habitat and is expected to attract visitors around the world. We’ve assisted with project structuring issues, local governmental approvals, preparation of CC&Rs and other project documents, sales documents, and development strategy.
• We have represented the owners of a ski resort community for many years. This has included guiding them on development entitlements with the county, an amendment of the county zoning and development code for the benefit of the resort, preparation of the conservation easement to preserve important open space at the resort, and platting amendments.
• We represent the developer of a project that includes 14 luxury detached homes and 40 luxury ski-in/ski-out condominiums at a resort. The development also includes amenities such as a spa, pool, ski shop, ski lounge, dining area, bar/lounge, and fitness center. Our lawyers advised the developer on structuring the mixed-use, condominium, and common ownership regime and drafting of related documentation. The firm also has guided the project through extensive land use and other regulatory approvals.
• We represent a developer in its ambitious vision to build more than 500 ski-accessible home sites connected to a village with amenities and extensive walking, biking, and nordic trails. We’ve been heavily involved in master planning, zoning and entitlement issues, negotiation of a development agreement with the county, financing agreements and opinions, construction contract issues, and other matters related to the project.
• We represent a ski resort in its significant enhancement and upgrades to the resort core, including the development of new lifts and parking expansion, as well as the introduction of overnight accommodations including various hotels and a master planned village community.