Call Today: 201-488-7211
  1. Home
  2.  » 
  3. Practice Area Overview
  4.  » Municipal Law And Land Use

Serving A Broad Spectrum Of Clients In Zoning And Land Use Matters

Kates Nussman Ellis Farhi & Earle, LLP, represents municipal governing bodies and land use boards in a wide range of legal issues including municipal and regional zoning and planning, redevelopment, and condemnation. The law firm also represents developers, property owners and environmental groups in the same fields, as well neighbors in opposition to deleterious development.

Mr. Kates and the law firm have a statewide reputation in the fields of municipal law and land use law. As such, the firm serves as special counsel to municipalities in Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties, and litigates throughout New Jersey.

General Counsel To Municipal Government Bodies

Mr. Kates sits on the prestigious Technical Review Committee of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which authored the Municipal Land Use Law and is advisory to New Jersey Legislature. He is also a contributor to the definitive text on the subject, New Jersey Zoning and Land Use Administration by Cox & Koenig, and he has served as an adjunct professor of Rutgers University, Center for Government Services. In 2003, he became general counsel to New Jersey Planning Officials, a statewide organization of municipalities, planning and zoning boards, and land use practitioners, primarily engaged in educational programs for members of land use agencies. Today he is General Counsel Emeritus.

Mr. Kates served as corporation counsel for the City of Hoboken in 2010, municipal attorney for the Borough of Fair Lawn in 2006, and presently serves as zoning board attorney in Alpine, and Planning Board attorney in the City of Englewood.

Special Litigation: Development And Condemnation

The firm is special litigation counsel for the Township of Millburn in defense of its zoning of houses of worship; and has served as special litigation counsel for the Borough of Oradell in defense of its denial of a use variance that would have allowed a pharmacy to overbuild by extending into a residential zone.

The firm also represented the arts community in the Powerhouse Arts District of Jersey City in their efforts to stop a developer-initiated high-rise overlay of historic warehouses. We represented Skylands C.L.E.A.N., a Passaic County, nonprofit environmental group committed to protecting the Highlands region of New Jersey from overdevelopment in environmentally sensitive areas surrounding a watershed that supplies drinking water throughout northern New Jersey.

We have prevailed on behalf of clients in two high-profile eminent domain cases. In one, we represented mobile homeowners in Lodi whose properties were targeted for condemnation in the name of redevelopment. The trial court sided with our clients (the homeowners). In the other case, the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority withdrew its condemnation action against a tavern owner whose property was intended to be taken to extend the football field of an adjoining parochial school. The law firm joined with the New Jersey American Civil Liberties Union, successfully arguing that the potential taking was not a valid public use and violated church-state constitutional prohibitions.

Ready To Represent You In Zoning And Land Use Matters

Call our office or use our online contact form to schedule an initial consultation. We will review your zoning or land use matter and recommend an effective course of action.