Environment & Land Use

Balancing the nation’s urgent demand for critical minerals with the protection of a tiny, endangered desert wildflower, Nossaman guided Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge project through years of intense regulatory scrutiny and litigation—culminating in a major federal court victory that secures a key domestic source of lithium for the clean energy transition.

We successfully defended SMART against the owners’ quiet title claims, securing a complete trial victory which allows the project to move forward. Our attorneys argued that SMART’s railroad deeds conveyed SMART a fee interest, and/or contain language that provides SMART rights broad enough to permit the corridor’s intended use. Furthermore, the bike and pedestrian pathway is functionally connected to transit operations, serving as a first and last-mile access for riders.

We helped our clients obtain city approval to convert a shuttered hospital into an affordable senior housing and health center.

Nossaman advised the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) on drafting a $2.6 billion transportation bill, Proposition L, that voters approved in the November 2022 election.

Whether traveling by car, bus, train, bike or plane, we firmly believe transportation provides people with better access to opportunities, strengthens economies and helps foster a greater sense of community.

We achieved a Court of Appeal victory upholding the requirement that cities obtain a local coastal program amendment or coastal development permit before regulating short-term vacation rentals in the coastal zone.

We helped our former and current industrial property owner clients prevail against a demand from a neighboring property owner for damages and cleanup costs allegedly resulting from historic contamination.

We helped LCRA Transmission Services obtain an incidental take permit under the Endangered Species Act that encompasses 22 species of wildlife and covers 95% of Texas counties.

We defended the City of Bakersfield in several CEQA challenges to planned regional transportation system improvements.

We worked with leading California water associations to negotiate amendments to the recently adopted Waters of the State regulations to provide an exclusion for ongoing water supply and flood control related activities.

We helped Ventura Water obtain unanimous City Council approval of the VenturaWaterPure Project as well as certification of the project's EIR.

Convincing the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to overturn the USFWS’s denial to delist the Bone Cave Harvestman.

We successfully argued that the North Pacific Council’s Amendment 113 to the Bering Sea Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan did not comply with the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Securing victory for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in a case alleging violation of section 9 of the Endangered Species Act.

On January 5, 2017, the Ninth Circuit closed the book on almost five years of litigation over Pattern Energy’s Ocotillo Wind, a 265 megawatt wind energy generation project located on federal land in Imperial County, CA.

We served as land use and environmental law counsel for a master planned development project approved in southeast Los Angeles County.

We successfully fought opponents both in court and via the political process to keep Sharp Park Golf Course in business while protecting two listed species.

Nossaman advised the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority regarding environmental compliance for $1.5 billion, seven-mile, light rail transit project connecting Los Angeles with Santa Monica, California.