FIRM

For more than 50 years, Miller Starr Regalia has served as one of California’s leading real estate law firms. We have over forty attorneys in our Walnut Creek, San Francisco, and Newport Beach offices, all of whom concentrate in real property matters, making us one of the largest real estate and land use groups in California.  Miller Starr Regalia has expertise in all types of real property matters, including full-service litigation and dispute resolution, transactions, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, financing, common interest development, construction, management, eminent domain and inverse condemnation, exactions, title insurance, environmental law, and land use. The firm’s depth and breadth of experience enable Miller Starr Regalia to represent numerous Fortune 500 companies, developers of retail, office, residential, mixed use and industrial projects, lenders, property owners, name brand tenants, educational institutions, governmental agencies, privately held companies, and real estate investors.

Miller Starr Regalia attorneys also write Miller & Starr, California Real Estate 4th, a 12-volume treatise on California real estate law. “The Book” is the most widely used and judicially recognized real estate treatise in California and is cited by practicing attorneys and courts throughout the state.

LAND USE PRACTICE

Our Land Use Practice Group guides clients through California’s complicated planning and development entitlement process at every level of government, facilitating and expediting project permitting and related environmental review.  In addition, Miller Starr Regalia works with clients in connection with land use diligence, initial entitlement strategy, project coordination and negotiation, as well as all aspects of project implementation once approval has been obtained.  We are also keenly attuned to the role politics plays in California’s land use entitlement process, and our attorneys are well-respected by agency staff and decisionmakers throughout California.  When it is necessary to defend or challenge entitlements, our experienced litigators have a distinguished record of effectively and efficiently pursuing our clients’ interests administratively and in both state and federal courts at the trial and appellate level.

Practice Areas

  • California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
  • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
  • General plans, specific plans, and zoning
  • Subdivision Map Act
  • Local government law
  • Exactions, Dedications, and Impact Fees
  • Land use initiatives and referenda
  • Natural resource permitting
  • Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCO)
  • Special district formation and project finance
  • Vested rights
  • Eminent Domain / Takings

Projects

Our land use attorneys have experience entitling and defending a wide range of projects throughout the state including:

  • Master Planned Communities
  • Single-family and Multi-family
  • Mixed-Use, Commercial, and Retail
  • Office Use (including campus development)
  • Light Industrial, Warehouse, and Distribution
  • Infrastructure Projects (including sewer, water, electrical transmission)
  • Wineries and Vineyards
  • Quarry Projects
  • Telecommunications and Alternative Energy Facilities

Litigation

Our land use attorneys have litigated at every level of state court in multiple areas including:

  • Land Use Planning and Zoning
  • Eminent Domain
  • CEQA
  • Subdivision Map Act
  • Clean Water Act