Practice Areas > Land Use

Stearns Weaver Miller's Land Use, Environment and Government Affairs practice group regularly represents and guides governmental and private clients through the complex processes regulating every aspect of land use, including developments of regional impact, rezoning, comprehensive land use plan amendments, coastal development permitting, eminent domain/inverse condemnation litigation, environmental permitting, audits and consent orders, and constitutional issues.

We have appeared on behalf of clients before regulatory bodies including the Florida Cabinet, City and County Commissions, Regional Planning Councils, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Community Affairs, federal Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and various Water Management Districts.

Our attorneys regularly supervise growth management reviews, concurrency audits, vested rights determinations, and extensive compensable takings and other land use and eminent domain/inverse condemnation litigation.

Attorneys in the group include a current City Attorney for the City of Marathon, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, a former Miami-Dade County Attorney, and a former Chief Assistant County Attorney for Pasco County. The Firm’s in-house land use consultant worked for Hillsborough County Government for over fourteen years.

Chambers USA ranked Stearns Weaver Miller as a top firm in Florida for Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use: The team operates out of Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. The chairman of the team, Ronald Weaver, is praised as being “a dynamic lawyer with strong knowledge of entitlement and environmental regulations, and a prolific author on land use issues.”

• Administrative Hearings and Litigation
• Bert J. Harris Act Claims
• Code Compliance
• Comprehensive Planning
• Constitutional Challenges
• Developments of Regional Impact
• Due Diligence
• Eminent Domain
• Zoning and Rezoning