Business & Finance
Zoning & Land Use
We specialize in real estate development, including guiding clients through the entitlement process in the City of Philadelphia as well as throughout Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
Print to PDFObermayer’s Zoning & Land Use attorneys represent clients in complex land use matters in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Clients rely on us to handle matters relating to:
- Variances, Special Exceptions, Conditional Use and Zoning Permit Approvals
- Sketch Plan Review
- Minor and Major Land Development Approvals
- Minor and Major Subdivision Approvals
- Preparation of planned community and condominium documents
- Re-zoning petitions and ordinance amendments
- Historic preservation of buildings and other property
- Negotiation of Development Agreements
- Building permits and other third party permits; and,
- Land Use Appeals and related litigation.
Our experience includes representation before the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, the Philadelphia Civic Design Review Committee, zoning hearing boards, planning commissions, architectural review boards, historic commissions, governing bodies and other municipal and state agencies.
Our Value
Obermayer’s land use team has broad experience in working with developers, businesses and property owners to work through the complex issues that arise during the zoning and land development process. We understand the value of time and, therefore, include all stakeholders to take projects from conceptual designs to fully entitled, shovel-ready construction projects.
Some examples of our work include:
- Obtaining approval for a 75 unit townhome community on the Philadelphia Waterfront
- Obtaining subdivision and land development approvals for the redevelopment of a former indoor shopping mall in Montgomery County as an outdoor shopping center
- Entitlement and development of extended stay hotels in the Philadelphia suburbs
- Entitlement and development of retail grocery stores and shopping centers within Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs
- Entitlement of a 250-unit apartment complex in Philadelphia
- Entitlement of an approximately 170-unit townhome development on the Philadelphia waterfront
- Preparation of planned community and condominium documents for a mixed use development consisting of 160 units governed by a Master Planned Community with two Junior Condominium Associations
- Obtaining approval for the adaptive reuse of a large industrial building into 120 multi-family dwellings
- Redevelopment of a shuttered Philadelphia hospital and medical school into a mixed use campus including offices, student housing, medical, educational and day care uses
- Assisting large townhome and high rise developers in connection with planning, zoning, historic, licensing and inspections and health department permitting
- Representing the developer of a 33-story mixed-use high-rise in Philadelphia, including obtaining variances and approvals for construction, negotiating and working with neighbors and civic associations, and drafting development agreements as part of winning stakeholders’ support for the project;
- Serving as local zoning counsel for the purchase of an approximately two million square foot warehouse project in Central Pennsylvania
- Served as local land use counsel to a national senior housing developer for a multi-developer mixed use project in Montgomery County that consisted of a zoning amendment, conditional use approval, subdivision and land development approval that focused on the integration of numerous common elements throughout the separate projects and the preservation and adaptive reuse of numerous historical features on the property; and,
- Representing a developer in connection with obtaining necessary approvals for development of retail convenience stores with fuel dispensing capabilities and other associated uses.
