Transportation Land Use and Zoning

Our land use and zoning lawyers help clients secure the government entitlements needed to develop their projects.

Our land use and zoning lawyers help clients secure the government entitlements needed to develop their projects.

We understand the legal and political requirements for overcoming regulatory hurdles, securing expeditious approvals, obtaining financial incentives and winning public support. Our group includes lawyers with extensive experience winning government approvals for development projects throughout the City of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

We represent both large and small private sector clients on a broad range of land use and zoning issues including:

  • Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
  • Business districts
  • Sales tax sharing agreements
  • Special Service Areas (SSAs) and special assessments
  • Debt financing
  • Annexations and annexation agreements
  • Rezoning
  • Special uses and variances
  • Subdivision approvals
  • Planned developments
  • Development agreements
  • Wetlands regulations
  • Covenants and restrictions
  • Impact fees and exactions
  • Eminent domain
  • Historic preservation
  • Solid waste facility siting

As part of our work, we appear before boards and commissions in legislative, administrative and quasi-judicial hearings as well as in litigation involving land use and zoning issues. Among our areas of concentration is our deep experience working with unique and often controversial land use issues such as landfills, waste transfer stations, power plants, data centers and telecommunications tower sitings.

Representative Matters include: 

  • Represented the State of Illinois in connection with the development of the Joliet Arsenal Intermodal Facility.
  • Assisted with negotiating and documenting an easement for the $142 million Englewood flyover, a major railroad bridge that eliminated a significant source of train delays on the south side of Chicago and has reduced emissions and noise from idling trains in the neighborhood.
  • Oversight of zoning, entitlements, and street vacation matters to ensure rail operations were not impeded or negatively impacted, as part of a sale of air rights over existing rail operations, allowing for a 750-foot tall office building to be constructed in downtown Chicago.
  • Drafted the first transportation impact fee ordinance in Illinois and defended the ordinance at trial.
  • TIF financing for the redevelopment of a 400-acre rail yard in northwest Indiana.
  • Land use entitlements for light industrial developments in three Chicago suburbs for a high-tech manufacturer.
  • Annexation, zoning and subdivision approvals, tax increment financing and Enterprise Zone qualification for a $150 million redevelopment of an obsolete 225-acre, 12-building former pharmaceutical campus with new and repurposed industrial/distribution buildings.
  • Land use approvals and development incentives for industrial/distribution developments in Chicago and suburbs.
  • Oversight of a planned development amendment in connection with a rail yard in Chicago.
  • Assisted with community relations and neighborhood agreements in connection with an intermodal facility in Chicago.
  • Land use approvals for an approximately 400,000 square foot manufacturing facility in the western suburbs of Chicago.
  • Land use, financial incentives, fiber optic conduit path use agreements and other approvals in connection with data centers in downtown Chicago.
  • Development approvals for 1.7 million sq. ft. high-tech office and research campus.
  • Siting approvals and environmental permitting for numerous solid waste landfills and transfer stations.
  • Coal and Natural Gas Power Plant Siting Projects in the Chicago suburbs.
  • Development approvals for numerous telecommunications facilities and data centers.
  • Zoning and royalty agreements for several landfill gas-to-energy projects.
  • Land use entitlements in two Chicago suburbs for a food equipment manufacturer.
  • Planned development approvals sought for a 350,000 square foot warehouse and distribution facility in Chicago.