Military Base Reuse
Since Congress passed the Base Realignment and Closure Act ("BRAC") in 1988, the closure of bases in California has resulted in an estimated 70,000 acres of unsubdivided land for industrial, commercial, recreational, educational or residential reuse ventures. Because many military bases have a high level of toxic contamination, the process of making these properties developable can be especially complex and frequently daunting.
With one of the most active development, land use and environmental practices in the country, Sheppard Mullin assists both public and private clients in working with the Department of Defense ("DoD"), the California Environmental Protection Agency ("Cal/EPA") and the Office of Military Facilities within the Department of Toxic Substances Control ("DTSC"), among others, on the clean up of toxic contamination.
Much of the military base contamination took place long before many of the modern environmental laws were passed. Because the military is required to comply with federal and state hazardous waste laws, it is ultimately responsible for the clean up. The available military land can also present tremendous opportunity for private sector developers and investors seeking to acquire or reuse the land. Whether Sheppard Mullin attorneys are working with developers, lenders, reuse authorities or other public agencies, the importance of familiarity with governmental jurisdictions and facilitating interagency coordination cannot be overstated. We focus on overcoming the obstacles at hand and seeking the approvals and remedies required in order to ensure both the effective clean up of a given parcel and the desired reuse of that land.
Even after environmental clean up, the development can occur only after the necessary approvals are obtained from local city or county agencies, a challenging task in the best of circumstances. The expertise and experience of Sheppard Mullin's development and land use lawyers has allowed our clients to overcome obstacles and obtain such approvals. The firm's extensive knowledge of, and experience with, the numerous federal, state and regional agencies that have jurisdiction over base reuse projects allows us to get results quickly and efficiently.
Many of these developments are undertaken as local redevelopment projects, a subject matter that brings to bear our firm's extraordinary expertise in state redevelopment law and long experience in dealing with local redevelopment agencies. Our clients regularly benefit from the firm's personal relationships with government officials, with whom we continuously strive to maintain not only a solid and positive working relationship, but also one of trust, flexibility and cooperation.
Sheppard Mullin has extensive expertise and hands-on, practical expertise in all areas of military base closure, cleanup and reuse, including:
- Understanding and applying federal BRAC law
- Navigating through and negotiating with the multiple levels of federal and state government and within the DoD
- Working with local community groups
- Working with elected representatives, such as the Office of the Governor, U.S. Senators and members of Congress or state senators and assembly persons to ascertain and elicit support for a given project
- Assisting with the development and clear articulation of reuse plans
- Evaluating and facilitating federal and state grant options
- Analyzing feasibility of environmental cleanup and reuse alternatives under federal and state laws
- Obtaining clearances under NEPA, CEQA and other state environmental disclosure laws, including EISs, EIRs, Findings of No Significant Impact and Negative Declarations
- Obtaining project entitlements from local, state and federal jurisdictions
- Marshalling sources of public finance to deal with the myriad of infrastructure issues inevitably confronted in these projects
- Working with various agencies to preserve the architectural integrity of historic and other unique structures on bases subject to reuse development
Our attorneys have advised on almost every form of military base clean-up and reuse and the associated privatization process, including project finance, utilities regulation, government contracting and public/private joint ventures. We have demonstrated our ability to negotiate and, where appropriate, litigate, with military agencies to obtain the necessary clean-up by the federal government and/or the economic resources for clean-up by local reuse authorities or our clients.
Because Sheppard Mullin has been involved in military base reuse endeavors since the emergence of this specialty area of legal practice, we continue to be called upon to represent commercial and residential developers, builders, major landowners and lenders on the most ambitious and sophisticated development proposals today.