Environmental, land use and transportation problems often do not end at municipal boundaries. In fact, land use and environmental problems are often the greatest source of legal and public policy disputes among local governments. Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell has developed a national practice in representing local governments in solving the kinds of disputes that arise when governments are called upon to regulate, approve and often oppose substantial public projects, development endeavors or transportation infrastructure.



Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers are experienced in all stages of intergovernmental disputes and agreements: from negotiations to drafting; from enactment to administration; and from enforcement to litigation.

Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers are well known for representing the municipalities in execution of some of the most prominent intergovernmental agreements in the last many years, including the intergovernmental agreement that enabled Denver to build a new airport. The firm's lawyers negotiated an intergovernmental agreement between the City of Cleveland and a nearby municipality that enabled the expansion of Cleveland Hopkins Airport and provided substantial economic development benefits for the municipality and the region. The firm's lawyers have participated in the enforcement of a regional interstate compact for the disposal of low level radioactive waste in the Southeastern United States and represented another interstate compact board in litigation defending the Board's authority in the Rocky Mountain region.

Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell has worked with special-purpose government agencies created by intergovernmental agreements. Among the clients that the firm's lawyers have represented is an agency created to purchase and manage parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains in and around Los Angeles, an airport authority created by Florida state law, an interstate compact created to dispose of low-level radioactive waste, and a multiple-municipality organization created to address airport expansion in the Pacific Northwest.

Intergovernmental disputes cannot always be solved through negotiation and agreement. As a result, Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell litigators are called on to litigate disputes when cooperative arrangements break down. The firm's lawyers have participated in precedent-setting cases involving the power and authority of conflicting governments, including Nebraska v. Wyoming, an original jurisdiction Supreme Court case involving allocation of the Platte River in those states, a case in Texas that defended the power of local governments to enact zoning that affected projects promoted by other local governments, and several state and federal court cases concerning conflicts between local governments over the expansion of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport.



Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers understand that successful representation of clients can often involve access to sensitive information which may be legally required to be open to the public, but is often strategically shielded from widespread public view. The firm's lawyers have developed expertise both pursuing and defending against public records claims and claims under local and state public meetings laws.

For clients seeking access to federal government records, the firm has developed a creative approach to preventing government agencies from applying common loopholes under the Freedom of Information Act that has resulted in negotiated agreements whereby the government agency voluntary releases documents on a recurring basis without the need for repeated information requests. For local government clients, the firm has developed strategies to protect from disclosure sensitive, confidential legal strategies even in the face of stringent public disclosure laws when disclosure of such information would seriously compromise the client's strategy and ability to achieve its objectives.

The firm has broad experience in making and defending requests and litigating unresolved issues under applicable laws, including the Freedom of Information Act, Federal Advisory Committee Act, state open meetings laws, state open records acts, and other similar provisions.

The public participation process that is an integral component of much of the practice of Kaplan Kirsch Rockwell is grounded in administrative law and the petition clause of the First Amendment. The firm's lawyers have intimate knowledge of the administrative process, having drafted many government clients' master plans and zoning codes and having worked with the full panoply of government, private sector and citizen clients in the administrative process. The firm also has specialized litigation experience in petition-related challenges and petition clause immunity, which are often implicated by testimony before and communications with governmental entities. Firm lawyers represented parties in the leading Colorado and Tenth Circuit petition clause cases and in legislative hearings on the issue.



The attorneys in Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell LLP have a long tradition of working on election law matters. The firm's lawyers have been involved in ballot issues, including initiative and referenda petitions, as well as candidate election issues and in successfully challenging an initiative petition in Denver. The firm has been actively involved in an inclusion election, in which, as the result of an initiative, a community has been included in the Denver area's Regional Transportation District. Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell attorneys also have represented a municipality in California on litigation over the validity of an initiative ballot question and in defending a voter-adopted parking tax.



In implementing broader legal strategies, the firm has often assisted its public clients in drafting and adopting complementary legislation. For example, Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers have assisted a client in drafting a series of ordinances regulating adult businesses, billboards and signage as part of an economic development strategy for property acquired in a settlement agreement with a neighboring municipality. For another client concerned with the local impacts of a proposed highway expansion project, the firm prepared development regulations binding on state projects under an unusual state authorizing statute. In conjunction with the renegotiation of a solid waste franchise agreement, Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers assisted another municipal client in drafting amendments to its solid waste ordinance to conform with current state and federal law.


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