Land Use

Archer is well known in the area of land use law and environmental permitting and regulatory compliance. We handle basic local subdivision, site plan, zoning, and planning issues, as well as the permitting that county, regional, state, multi-state, and federal law can impose upon virtually any project.

Our Land Use Group has extensive experience in obtaining permits, approvals and certifications from local planning boards and zoning boards; county boards; special regional and state agencies, such as the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and federal agencies, such as the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Throughout the years we have developed innovative approaches to the securing of permits and the negotiation and litigation of permit conditions and variances from permitting requirements. These include variances from the requirements for wastewater discharges to surface water and for emissions to the air; use variances for the transportation by rail of hazardous waste and the development of solid waste treatment and disposal facilities; and the development of special management zones as part of municipal master plans. This has been particularly useful and important to clients with properties located in specially regulated regional areas, such as the New Jersey Pinelands area and the New Jersey Meadowlands. The group has been instrumental in bringing about changes in the New Jersey Pinelands Commission's standards for review of development applications, through the prosecution of appeals of Pinelands Commission decisions on applications for development approvals and waivers of strict compliance, where that agency's actions have discriminated against the rights of landowners and developers.

We handle all types of land development and redevelopment projects, ranging from residential site plans and subdivisions, commercial and industrial parks and shopping centers, to specialized heavy industrial facilities, electrical generation and cogeneration facilities, mining and resource extraction operations, and Brownfield sites.

Our attorneys routinely counsels clients on environmental compliance matters involving solid and hazardous wastes, water, soil and air contamination, wetlands, remediation of environmental sites, oversight of environmental assessments in land sales, project approvals and environmental permitting. Archer also assists clients in responding to regulatory inquiries from federal and state regulatory agencies, including negotiating the terms and scope of cleanup projects and resolution of administrative claims.

We coordinate and work as a team with other professionals--the architects, planners, engineers, environmental consultants, traffic engineers, sound impact experts, hydrologists, geologists and economists--whose work is essential to so many projects. We are often asked to lead teams of specialists to develop extensive comments on proposed environmental regulations.

In addition to having extensive experience in the land use and environmental permitting process, our firm regularly represents landowners, builders and developers in the other facets of their businesses, such as land acquisition and financing, contracts and subcontracts, business and tax planning, resolution of labor and employment issues, and, where necessary, litigation.