Since 1996, Mr. Doporto has represented and advised public agencies and private clients on land use, zoning and real property development matters and related transactions. He has extensive experience with the panoply of laws and regulations governing public land use planning and zoning and property development in California, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Planning & Zoning Laws, the Subdivision Map Act, the Permit Streamlining Act, the Mitigation Fee Act, the Mello-Roos Act, and the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act. For both public and private clients, he has successfully guided numerous complex land use planning and development projects to successful completion.
Mr. Doporto has extensive experience developing and implementing creative and legally defensible approaches to CEQA compliance on a wide variety of public and private projects and approvals, and has advised on the preparation, certification and adoption of environmental impact reports (EIRs), negative declarations and mitigated negative declarations, addenda to previously-certified EIRs and negative declarations, and statutory and categorical exemptions to CEQA requirements.
Public Agency Services
For his public clients, Mr. Doporto has assisted in the preparation and adoption of general plans, specific plans and community plans and plan amendments; amendments to zoning and subdivision ordinances; the preparation and adoption of mitigation and development impact fee ordinances; and adoptions of and amendments to other development-related municipal code ordinances.
Mr. Doporto also has substantial experience assisting public clients in processing and performing environmental review for development and permit applications for private developers and property owners. He has negotiated and drafted numerous development agreements and development agreement amendments on behalf of public agencies and coordinated the formation and adoption of community facilities districts with complex, multi-level entitlement processes to facilitate large-scale commercial, industrial, residential and mixed-use projects in his public clients’ jurisdictions. He has also advised on the preparation and processing of applications to Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCOs) for territory annexations to expand city limits and spheres of influence.
Private Client Services:
On behalf of his private clients, Mr. Doporto brings a cooperative, results-oriented approach to managing relationships with public agencies and guiding clients through entitlement and permit processes to obtain timely and legally-defensible permits and approvals. Mr. Doporto has negotiated and drafted numerous development agreements and development agreement amendments for his private clients, to allow otherwise infeasible development projects to proceed to successful completion.
On behalf of his private clients, Mr. Doporto has also negotiated and drafted utility service and infrastructure agreements with public service providers to bring utility services to large-scale, mixed-use development projects and communities. And in coordination with applicable land use permitting agencies, he has developed and implemented streamlined and cost-effective CEQA strategies to facilitate timely and efficient delivery of required project approvals.