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Zoning

Experienced Land Use and Zoning Attorneys Guiding Clients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

At Kaplin Stewart, our team of land use and zoning lawyers and certified land planners can answer your zoning questions, assess your project’s zoning compliance, and advise you as to what zoning permits and approvals you will need. Landowners frequently face zoning questions ranging in scope from the ability to maintain existing use and dimensional nonconformities, with the ability to expand an existing use, to the permissibility of a proposed new use. Assistance from an experienced land use and zoning attorney is often essential.

Our attorneys have over 25 years of experience in dealing with complex federal and state statutes, municipal ordinances and regulations, and common law affecting the City of Philadelphia, municipalities throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and surrounding counties.

At Kaplin Stewart, we concentrate on guiding and supporting our clients at all phases of their development projects. Prior to purchase, we assist our clients by providing zoning assessments and due diligence investigations, obtaining confirmation of zoning status from municipal zoning officials, and preparing zoning opinion letters for financing purposes.

Securing Development Approvals and Zoning Approvals

The initial phase of obtaining development approvals often involves securing the necessary zoning approvals to permit a project to move forward to the land development phase of the approval process. Our land use and zoning lawyers routinely handle a wide range of zoning matters, including variance applications, special exception applications, and conditional use applications.

When our clients experience problems with municipal officials, we are here to help them solve these problems. Whether it be filing an administrative appeal to the Zoning Hearing Board from a Zoning Officer’s determination, or defending against a Notice of Violation, we are prepared to take whatever action is required.

Amending Zoning Ordinances

Often for a project to move forward, a zoning ordinance may need to be amended to recognize new uses.  The establishment of new uses is often not an easy task. Zoning ordinances are often outdated and do not provide for use types that have evolved over time. Therefore, it is often necessary to seek to amend zoning ordinances to allow for new uses, or to modify dimensional standards due to changing market demands. The amendment of zoning ordinances requires the cooperation of municipalities. Our attorneys are experienced in working cooperatively with municipal officials and have established solid working relationships with many municipalities throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We have been successful in many of our attempts to obtain zoning amendments on behalf of our clients. We’ve handled legal claims in Montgomery County, Bucks County, Chester County, Delaware County, Philadelphia County and more. 

When attempts to work cooperatively with municipalities to amend zoning ordinances fail, we are prepared to protect our clients’ property rights by filing zoning challenges and curative amendment requests when there is a basis to do so.

Let a Land Use and Zoning Lawyer from Our Firm Help You Resolve Your Conflict

At Kaplin Stewart, we aim to facilitate a smooth approval process for our clients. Our approach is to work cooperatively with municipalities to achieve the results which benefit both our clients and the public. However, when cooperation from municipalities fails, we are equipped to take whatever action is necessary to protect our clients’ property rights.

Learn how our attorneys can help you advance your business objectives. We encourage you to schedule a consultation today with a land use and zoning lawyer. We service businesses and other entities with offices in Philadelphia and Blue Bell, Pennsylvania as well as Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Contact us online or by phone at 610-260-6000 today to arrange a consultation.