Blogs

Construction

What the SCOTUS Opinion in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District Means for Virginia Property Owners

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) issued its opinion in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1447, slip op., 570 U.S. ___ (2013). Koontz, a victory for the property owner, is an important property rights case affecting the government’s ability to impose monetary conditions on the approval of land use permits.

June 25, 2013

Construction

Upcoming Changes to Parking Space Requirements of the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance

Arlington Commercial Parking Working Group It is no secret Arlington’s workforce is changing how they get to work. In recent years, there has been a shift from single-occupancy vehicle (“SOV”) trips to other transportation modes, such as Metrorail, bicycling, and bus. This has caused developers of commercial site plan projects in Arlington County, especially along…

June 20, 2013

Land Use & Zoning

Arlington County Reconsiders Parking Ratios for Commercial Site Plans

Arlington County’s effort to revisit parking ratios for commercial site plans reflected a broader shift away from auto-focused development and toward transit-oriented planning. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article, Mark Viani and Matt Roberts explain that Arlington County was considering a new system under which developers providing less parking than the “starting parking ratio” for a project area would pay mitigation fees to offset increased demand on public transportation and other…

June 1, 2013

Real Estate

Zoning Ordinance Revisions Affecting Arlington County’s By-Right Outdoor Cafés

Arlington County’s 2013 zoning amendments brought greater clarity and flexibility to the rules governing by-right outdoor cafés. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article published in the BKK Construction & Land Use Newsletter, Matthew G. Roberts explains that the Arlington County Board approved revisions to the zoning ordinance that formalized many long-standing administrative practices while updating the rules for outdoor dining areas. The article notes that the amendments created a formal…

June 1, 2013

Construction

Lien Rights of Lenders and Landlords – Part II

In Part I of this blog post, we discussed the varied interests of the landlord and the tenant’s lender in the tenant’s personal property located at the premises in the context of a commercial lease. Part II below will discuss suggested compromise solutions and a typical landlord waiver.

March 10, 2013

Construction

Lien Rights of Lenders and Landlords – Part I

Commercial real estate landlords and the lenders for their tenants have competing interests with respect to the tenant’s personal property located at the demised premises. The landlord is looking to secure the tenant’s rental obligations by taking a lien against the tenant’s fixtures, inventory, and equipment located in the space, which may be particularly valuable…

January 29, 2013

Construction

Right to Self-Help in DC, MD, and VA

Self-Help. Ok or Not? “Self-help,” in a leasing context, typically refers to the landlord’s historical remedy of locking out a defaulting tenant and obtaining possession of the premises without going through judicial procedures. Traditionally under the common law, a landlord was subject to few limitations in choosing its remedies against a defaulting tenant, including the…

July 12, 2012

Construction

A Landlord’s Duty to Mitigate. Part IV

In this series we have been examining a landlord’s duty to mitigate their damages after a default by the tenant. Earlier we looked at the laws in the District of Columbia and Virginia. An examination of Maryland’s law is below.

June 22, 2012

Construction

A Landlord’s Duty to Mitigate. Part III

This series focuses on a commercial landlord’s duty to mitigate their damges after a default by a tenant. Earlier we discussed the District of Columbia‘s treatment of the duty to mitigate. A discussion with respect to the law of Virginia is below, with Maryland to follow shortly.

June 4, 2012

Real Estate

Proposed Amendment to Virginia’s Constitution Could Limit Government’s Use of Eminent Domain

Virginia lawmakers moved in 2012 to amend the state constitution to further restrict the use of eminent domain in response to concerns raised by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article published in the BKK Construction & Land Use Newsletter, the analysis explains that the proposed amendment would limit eminent domain to strict public uses and make clear that economic development alone would no longer qualify as a sufficient…

March 1, 2012