Environmental & Land Use

The Firm’s Environmental & Land Use Practice Group advises a full spectrum of clients in virtually all environmental matters, including solid and hazardous waste issues, air and water pollution cases and related environmental insurance matters.  The Firm also represents clients in zoning and land use permitting applications and disputes, with a particular focus not only on solving development problems in negotiation and mediation, but also through litigation if necessary.  The Firm’s attorneys regularly represent real estate developers, fuel distributors, neighborhood and community groups, and organizations involved in waste management and disposal.  In general the Environmental and Land Use Practice Group takes a unique project management-based approach to land use permitting that has successfully served our clients for decades.  Our recent pamphlet, Law and Land Development in Vermont outlines the Firm’s unique method of handling complex land use and environmental permitting matters.  In addition, as part of its comprehensive approach to permitting, the Practice Group’s attorneys regularly appear in all levels of municipal and administrative proceedings and before Vermont’s Environmental and Superior Courts, the Vermont Supreme Court and Federal Courts in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

To keep our clients informed on developments in environmental areas, Burak Anderson & Melloni, PLC publishes the Vermont Environmental Law Forum.  The firm prepared the Planning and Zoning chapter for the Vermont Bar Association’s Environmental Law Practice Manual.  Both Law and Land Development in Vermont and the Planning and Zoning chapter are available from the Resources section of the website or in printed pamphlets on request.

We have also sponsored, with Vermont state agencies and other private companies, seminars on the issue of Sprawl and “smart growth”, designed to foster an honest and open debate about economic development and land use in Vermont.  The Firm’s attorneys regularly lecture on zoning and land use matters before other attorneys, developers and municipal zoning professionals, and search for innovative ways to solve complex issues at the intersection of land use law and other areas of practice, including electric utility development and siting.

Specific areas of practice of the Firm’s Environmental & Land Use Practice Group include the following:

•           Act 250 Permits

•           Zoning and Building Permits

•            Environmental Enforcement Actions and Environmental Court Litigation

•           Water Pollution and Wetlands

•           Water Supply and Wastewater Permits

•           Solid and Hazardous Waste Contamination

•            Brownfields Redevelopment

•           Air Pollution

•            Stormwater Management and Construction Permits

•           Solid Waste Facility Permitting

Attorneys:

Jon T. Anderson

Alexander J. La Rosa