Blogs

Construction

A New Zoning Ordinance for Arlington County?

How many times have you land use and zoning folks gone through your locality’s zoning ordinance, read some random sentence that is a surviving remnant from like the 1938 ordinance, and thought: “What the heck does ‘draying’ mean? And what does this have to do with our twenty story office building?” Or, “Can my neighbor…

October 19, 2010

Construction

Breaking News: GSA to Require LEED Gold on all GSA Owned Projects

Lance Davis, director of the sustainability office for the General Services Administration, announced that moving forward, GSA will require all projects to achieve a LEED Gold certification level from through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system of the U.S. Green Building Council. The announcement occurred at the Green Legal Matters conference…

October 18, 2010

Construction

Proposal to Extend Whistleblower Protection to County Employees

Although obviously based upon sound legal principles, it was still surprising to find out that the Supreme Court held in Ligon v. County of Goochland that whistleblower protections for county employees against retaliatory firings under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (“VFATA”) were barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. As many of our readers…

October 15, 2010

Construction

Certain Localities to Ignore Attorney General’s Opinion on Cash Proffers

According to the Chesterfield Observer, Chesterfield and Hanover Counties intend to ignore the Attorney General’s recent opinion (click here for our previous analysis when the opinion was issued) about the applicability of Code of Virginia Section 15.2-2303.1:1 and will continue to deman cash proferred prior to 15.2-2303.1:1’s July 1, 2010 effective date. The purpose of…

October 13, 2010

Government Contracts

Benefits, Costs and Risks of Green Building – Seminar Materials

I wanted to share the materials I have available thus far from our October 1 seminar, Benefits, Costs and Risks of Green Building that we put on for the American Institute of Architects Northern Virginia Chapter. A quick but very hearty thank you is due to Debbie Burns of the AIA who did a tremendous…

October 12, 2010

Construction

Letters of Intent Explained

A Letter of Intent is a document that outlines the general terms and conditions of an agreement between parties before the agreement is finalized. In real estate deals, a Letter of Intent are typical before entering large leases or an agreement to buy or sell commercial real estate. Letters of Intent are typically not binding…

October 8, 2010

Construction

Big News: LEED Challenge Process Just Changed

The GBCI has quietly changed the rules associated with the LEED challenge process. Few people were even aware of the challenge process and its implications until the Northland Pines High School challenge became a topic of discussion and even controversy. The original LEED challenge process permitted literally anyone to bring a challenge to a LEED…

October 7, 2010

Construction

Not So Fast! Restrictive Covenants and Romito v. The Bexley Association

Judge Gill of the Chesterfield County Circuit Court recently had the chance to review whether a homeowner was bound by a restrictive covenant obliging him to pay for his homeowner’s association’s common area maintenance and other fees.

October 6, 2010

Construction

Never Underestimate the Value of Face Time – or Subject Matter Jurisdiction!

Back in August, I posted about Judge Williams’ decision in Kersey v. PHH Mortgage Corp. to kick a foreclosure case back to state court due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction. If you recall, the home owner in that case argued that PHH could not foreclose because they failed to provide a face-to-face meeting as…

October 5, 2010

Construction

Michael Brown Out, Barbara Donnellan In

After just a brief stay as the County Manager of Arlington County, Michael Brown has left the position, and Barbara Donnellan, who was acting County Manager prior to Michael Brown being hired, has now been appointed as the new permanent County Manager of Arlington County. No reason for the change-up has yet been given, except…

October 1, 2010