Redwood City Zoning Attorney

Find the right Zoning Planning & Land Use attorney in Redwood City, CA

Zoning Planning & Land Use Law in California

The laws controlling how land can and cannot be used in Redwood City, California are fairly intricate, and can be confusing to laypersons. This should provide a basic overview.

Local governments will normally divide the city or town into sections, called "zones," each of which is designated for a specific use, such as residential homes, commercial businesses, agriculture, manufacturing, etc. This process is known as "zoning."

Zoning serves many different purposes - but it its major one is to increase or preserve property values by ensuring that conflicting uses don't result in legal disputes. Obviously, if you bought a house in a residential neighborhood, and your neighbor could just convert his property into a steel mill, your property's value as a residential lot would decrease substantially.

While zoning laws appear to be geared just toward protecting residents, they also protect industry, by ensuring that they are free to conduct their business without getting caught up in the numerous legal disputes that would be inevitable if they were closer to a residential area.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Redwood City, California

Zoning laws are commonly quite extensive and meticulous, and it's extremely possible that your property in Redwood City, California contains some minor zoning violation that you don't know about. If this happens to you, you have considerable legal protections.

First of all, and most simply, the owner could just fix the violation. If the violation isn't very considerable, and fixing it wouldn't cost very much, this is likely the best and simplest option.

What if, however, you've invested a considerable amount of time and money into making an improvement on your property, only to find that it breaks your local zoning laws in some minor way? In this case, you can apply for a variance. This is basically an exception to the zoning rules. If declining to enforce these rules would not harm anyone, and would not do much to advance the purpose of Redwood City, California's zoning laws, a variance will normally be granted.

You also have considerable protections if a zoning law changes, and you find that the land you've been living on for years is suddenly in violation of the new law. In general, zoning laws cannot apply to structures and uses which were built or commenced before the law was changed. Under the U.S. Constitution, it's not permissible for state or local governments to pass laws which have retroactive effect. You should know, however, that any future changes you make to your property will have to comply with the new zoning law.

What Can A Redwood City, California Attorney Do?

If you are in the process of physically altering your property, you are almost sure to face some contentions having to do with local zoning laws. If you find that zoning laws are making it very hard to use your property as you see fit, you may have legal recourse, normally in the form of a variance. Of course, your chances of success in any zoning dispute will be immeasurably increased if you have the assistance of a qualified Redwood City, California attorney.

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Life in Redwood City

Redwood City, California is a city in San Mateo County, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It has a population of about 77,000 people, and is the county seat of San Mateo County.

Redwood City, California is one of the major hubs of employment in the South Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in the high-tech sectors. Technology companies like Oracle and Electronic Arts are headquartered in Redwood City, and they provide a major source of employment, in various fields. Both of these companies employ a large number of white-collar professionals, probably including several Redwood City, California lawyers.

Other major employers in Redwood City, California are the government of San Mateo County, as well as several major players in the healthcare industry, such as Kaiser Permanente.

If you live in Redwood City, California and are in need of a lawyer, you're in luck. A significant number of attorneys in Redwood City are set up to handle the legal issues that often arise for ordinary consumers.

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