Land Use, Zoning and Planning Lawyers in Long Beach, California
The laws governing how land can and cannot be used in Long Beach, California are fairly complex, and can be confusing to laypersons. This should provide a basic overview.
Local governments will usually divide the city or town into sections, called "zones," each of which is designated for a particular use, such as residential homes, commercial businesses, agriculture, manufacturing, etc. This process is known as "zoning."
Zoning serves several different purposes - but it its main 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 simply convert his property into a steel mill, your property's value as a residential lot would decrease significantly.
Zoning laws generally acknowledge the necessities of things like factories, sewage treatment plants, and stockyards, but recognize that such activities shouldn't be conducted in residential areas.
What if My Property Violates Long Beach, California's Zoning Laws?
You have quite a few options if you find that a planned or current use of your property violates Long Beach, California's zoning regulations.
It should be obvious that the first option you should consider is to correct the violation. If doing this wouldn't cost you very much, or pose a major inconvenience, you should obviously do this.
Of course, simply fixing a zoning violation isn't always affordable or easy, and may interfere with your planned use of your property. For example, you might have just undertaken a significant remodeling of your home, and later found out that some small part of it technically doesn't conform to Long Beach, California's zoning laws. If this happens to you, you can apply to your local zoning board for what's known as a "variance." This is simply a decree by the zoning board that the particular rule your property violates no longer applies. The Supreme Court has held that local zoning boards have to grant variances when the violation is very minor, and enforcing the ordinance would be unduly burdensome and not in the public interest.
Further, if you have been living on your property for a long time, and made improvements on it that complied with the zoning laws in effect at the time, a new zoning law that would be violated by your current use of your property, the new law cannot be enforced against you. The U.S. Constitution bars the passage of "ex post facto," or retroactive, laws. Once the laws take effect, however, you'll have to comply with the new zoning laws with respect to any new improvements you want to make on your property.
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How Can a Long Beach, California Attorney Help?
If you are in the process of physically altering your property, you are almost certain to face some issues having to do with local zoning laws. If you find that zoning laws are making it very difficult to use your property as you see fit, you may have legal recourse, usually in the form of a variance. Of course, your chances of success in any zoning dispute will be immeasurably increased if you have the help of a qualified Long Beach, California attorney.
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Life in Long Beach
Long Beach, California is best known as "the LBC" by rap and pop music fans. Long Beach is actually the 7th largest city in California with just under 500,000 residents. Recently, Long Beach was named the "Aquatic Capital of the Nation" because the Port of Long Beach is one of the world's largest container ports and plays a substantial part in the global economy. The City of Long Beach is does not only revolve around the port. Many oil, aircraft, automobile, electronics, and home furnishings manufacturing plants are located in Long Beach. The city has seen an influx of new residents since the aerospace and other technology industries have begun to boom. In fact, Boeing produces DC-8s, DC-9s, DC-10s, MD-11s, C-17s, and the Boeing 717 all from their Long Beach production plants. Boeing is the second largest employer in Long Beach in front of California State University Long Beach and behind the Log Beach Unified School District.Long Beach has obviously made production and transportation one of the cornerstones of the economy so you shouldn't be surprised to find the bevy of ports, busses, airports, freeways, highways and bike paths that have been masterfully incorporated into the city's design. Long Beach announced its vision to become the most bicycle friendly city and has really followed through. The city has identified traffic routes and destinations and created bike routes that are convenient and illustrated on the Long Beach City Bike Map for tourists and locals alike.
