Press Room
Reporters and colleagues can find recent firm news, media mentions, and attorneys available to comment on California land use, housing, environmental review, and development issues.
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Showing the last two years, newest first.
In September, the property's owner, ValueRock, followed up with a preliminary application for a 138-unit apartment complex. The city said it's not a formal housing application and no demolition permit has been filed.
“My client believes the highest and best use for this property is a housing project. Things change and evolve, but that doesn't mean we can't keep some of the great things about this site that people love.”
Developers and land use attorneys say a relatively new law that exempts certain projects from environmental reviews and challenges has added certainty where there was previously mostly risk in the entitlement process.
“We're getting to a point where the legislature has done, with respect to multifamily housing in the infill context, almost as much as it can do.”
Rand Paster & Nelson LLP (“RPN”) announced that attorneys Fred Gaines, Sherman L. Stacey, Kimberly A. Rible, and Alicia B. Bartley have joined the firm as partners.
Politico / 2026
Over the past decade, two movements on the left have emerged to explain the housing crisis punishing America’s big cities. One has branded the real-estate business as a villain, blaming realtors, landlords and developers for soaring costs that force people from their apartments. The other has pointed the finger at homeowners for blocking new construction in their neighborhoods, limiting supply and raising prices.
“She will never be the darling of the development community.”
The Times of San Diego / 2025
Midway Rising is still alive, and if its developers succeed in pushing the project through despite the latest legal setback, they’ll have San Diego to thank.
“Ten years ago this would have been an eye popper and insane to even try. Now it’s a snoozer, legally speaking, at least from my perspective.”
A new affordable housing project in Studio City has sparked debate amongst neighbors due to plans to construct a large apartment building next to single-family homes.
“If we start saying that we can't build multifamily buildings and density in multifamily neighborhoods, particularly when they're 100% affordable housing projects in high resource areas in the city, that is game over for the city of Los Angeles meeting its housing goals.”
Incoming state Senate leader is seeking to reverse new housing reforms — seemingly to undermine a single project in her district.
“I have never seen a special targeted statute designed to specifically impose enhanced CEQA review requirements on a single housing project.”
Less than two days after state lawmakers unveiled plans to put new limits on a controversial real estate tax in the city of Los Angeles, they now have withdrawn the bill.
“We're left with a lot of uncertainty about whether there's a fix in the future. But it desperately needs to happen. Because until it does, we will not be achieving the level and degree of housing production that everybody in the city — regardless of their view about Measure ULA — believes is needed.”
Lawmakers in Sacramento unveiled a proposal this week to overhaul Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax in Los Angeles, as part of a larger gambit to keep a statewide tax cut measure from making it onto next year’s ballot.
“If lawmakers succeed in cutting Measure ULA’s tax rate, L.A. should expect to see more housing construction”
The Real Deal / 2025
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two budget trailer bills that scaled back an environmental law that’s been a frequent scapegoat for the state’s housing woes, it seemed like an offering of sorts to the real estate world.
“The court found in favor of the developer, but had the exemptions existed then, it wouldn’t have been a multi-year process that cost millions of dollars and there wouldn’t have been a need for the thousands of pages of environmental analysis and myriads of technical reports.”
A 19-story hotel and residential project in Beverly Hills must be considered by the city for possible approval, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled last week.
“My hope is that this decision will now create a more pragmatic approach by the city to how these projects move forward.”
Democrats pared back one of the state's preeminent policies to restore trust with voters frustrated by the high cost of living.
“The dam broke on the political resistance. Democrats reading the tea leaves from the last election, catching the abundance wave, realized this is an absolute necessity.”
California leaders did something Monday many once considered impossible: They rolled back portions of a landmark environmental law to make it easier to win approval for housing and other large projects.
“There’s over 10 projects we’re going to push the go button on with this exemption probably Tuesday”
Washington Post / 2025
The revisions to the 55-year-old California Environmental Quality Act are intended to ease “infill” construction in urban areas, among other changes.
“Last night was a combination of euphoria and disbelief,” said Dave Rand, a Los Angeles-based land use attorney, who said he has been “inundated” with requests from clients whose projects have been stymied by the law. “I’ve spent 20 years in a career banging my head against a wall called CEQA and one day that wall broke down,”
Newsweek / 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills on Monday that scaled back the state's environmental restrictions to allow for more home building to combat the ongoing housing shortage.
“Clear, concise, and straightforward CEQA exemptions," predicting that "several projects that have been waiting for this day can now move forward.”
California lawmakers stood around Gov. Gavin Newsom and celebrated the passage of the state budget and “transformative” housing legislation at the state Capitol.
“The worst cog in the wheel has always been CEQA,” Rand said. “It’s always been the place where projects get stuck. This is the first clean, across-the-board, objective, straightforward exemption that anyone can figure out.”
Two bills aimed at sidestepping the hurdles the California Environmental Quality Act poses to new development projects are quickly moving through the adoption process at the state legislature.
“The ultimate third rail of California development politics has been CEQA, and many of us thought that CEQA would never be reformed because the politics could never come into alignment to allow for it to happen.”
The Real Deal / 2025
The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council voted Tuesday to keep the zoning changes it adopted in its housing element last April rather than wade into uncharted legal territory to block a 16-unit development maligned by neighbors on a picturesque ocean bluff overlooking Catalina Island.
“I have to admit, I was a little bit surprised,” Rand said. “I’ve gotten used to these things going badly, but they turned this one around. I give credit to the city council for actually reading the legal objections and taking them seriously and making a prudent decision, even if their constituents weren’t wildly happy.”
California Insider / 2025
For decades, California’s environmental law CEQA has made it harder to build housing, even in places where it makes the most sense. A new reform changes that. In this episode, land use attorney Dave Rand explains how the rules just shifted and why this could open the door to more housing in the communities that need it most.
“I have been working with CEQA for 20 years, virtually most of my professional career, and it has been a version of banging my head against the wall, the CEQA wall, on behalf of projects, frustrated by its many requirements and really its overall dysfunction.”
The Real Deal / 2025
Enviro "rollback" leans to infill, multifamily, bigger builders see “unnecessary costs”
“The degree of change is unprecedented. I’ve never said that before in my career.”
The Real Deal / 2025
The uproar over the project and the city’s efforts to block it has brought Rancho Palos Verdes into dubious legal territory, according to Vahdani’s lawyer, Rand Paster & Nelson’s Dave Rand and pro-housing groups. Now, the City Council is weighing a proposal they say is illegal.
“The Clipper site will become synonymous with housing dysfunction,” Rand said. “It’s one thing for cities to adopt restrictive zoning. This is infinitely worse and more cynical.”
San Francisco Chronicle / 2025
A new Rorschach test for NIMBY California cities and counties has been unlocked: How big of a hole are you willing to blow in your budget to block new housing?
“For “resistance pockets of California municipalities” that want to continue baselessly denying housing projects, “you’re going to have to think twice about doing this — because there’s an astronomical cost and burden to going down this road,”
Beverly Hills is synonymous with high-end shopping, glamorous mansions, boutique hotels and general luxury. High-density housing isn’t something anyone would associate with the city. And yet, a 19-story project could soon rise on its famed shopping street, Rodeo Drive.
“Beverly Hills has been the most difficult jurisdiction in terms of trying to stonewall these projects, to put up any and every roadblock to be as creative as a municipal city attorney [or] planner could possibly be, to invent any reason under the sun why these projects shouldn't be able to move forward”
California Assembly / 2025
California is facing a housing crisis and a climate crisis. The housing shortage of 2.5 million has led to there being nearly 200,000 homeless people in the state, 80% of low-income households cannot afford the rent without sacrificing other basic needs, and only 1 in 6 households can afford the median priced home.
“The two hallmark laws we have in California that dictate and govern the entitlement permitting process in California are the Permit Streamlining Act and the Housing Accountability Act. Those two laws set up a process with a series of steps that if you look at it, sounds like we’ve got everything in order.”
The New York Times / 2025
With so many people displaced and looking for rentals, the region’s housing options could grow even scarcer and more expensive.
“This is a place that had massive affordability challenges last week, and after this week it’s going to be that much more challenging.”
A judge has ruled that the city of Los Angeles illegally blocked low-income housing last year in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes when officials rejected a developer’s application to build 220 affordable housing units in Reseda.
“Dave Rand, a land use attorney who worked with Evolve on this project, told LAist the court victories should enable developers to start building low-income housing in expensive neighborhoods. “We see this as a win, not not just for lawyers, but for hundreds of new affordable homes that will be added in much needed areas,” Rand said.”
