Three JDTP attorneys selected to serve as Hearing Officers for the City of Lake Forest
IRVINE- JDTP Attorneys Alene Taber, Mark Sellers and Gregory Powers were selected to serve as Hearing Officers for administrative appeal hearings in the City of Lake Forest, CA. Lake Forest is a growing and vibrant community located in Orange County. Lake Forest is about 16.6 square miles, has a population of approximately 80,000 and has a budget of approximately $90M for fiscal year 2008-09
Ms. Taber, Mr. Sellers, and Mr. Powers will be called upon by the City on a rotational basis to hear administrative appeals on permitting issues, NPDES matters, nuisance abatement actions, business license revocations, and other municipal code matters. Their duties will include establishing impartial appeal procedures, issuing subpoenas, calling and examining witnesses, reviewing evidence, and upholding, modifying or reversing the decisions of City officials pursuant to the Lake Forest Municipal Code.
Alene Taber represents clients before planning commissions, city councils, administrative hearing boards, and local agency formation commissions. She has experience litigating California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) cases, disapprovals of development projects, and defending challenges to development projects and land use-related constitutional and civil rights claims. Ms. Taber was a previous Senior Manager with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (“SCAQMD”) and city planner with Southern California Association of Governments (“SCAG”) and the City of Carson. In addition to being admitted to the California Bar, she is a certified Land Use Planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Mark Sellers has 25 years of experience in municipal law and land use, serving for 21 years as the City Attorney of the City of Thousand Oaks (population 130,000). Thousand Oaks placed a very high emphasis on planning, growth management, open space acquisition, oak tree/hill side protection, and innovative zoning standards. He primarily focuses his private practice on land use and entitlement processing matters, CEQA, and eminent domain - inverse condemnation. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Land Use Law at Pepperdine Law School.
Mr. Powers has 10 years of experience in representing public agencies, including the federal government, local cities, joint powers authorities, and water districts. He has spent the majority of his legal career representing private developers and public agencies in the areas of land use, planning and zoning, governmental laws, and regulatory matters. He frequently advises public and private clients on matters involving the CEQA, the Subdivision Map Act, the Mitigation Fee Act, and the Political Reform Act. Previously, Mr. Powers was Regional Land Use Counsel for one of the largest residential and mixed-use developers in the Western United States, where he was responsible for land use matters on residential and mixed-use projects containing over 64,000 residential units. Prior to that, Mr. Powers was a contract City Attorney and General Counsel for several cities and water districts in Southern California. Mr. Powers also spent two years and an in-house City Prosecutor for the City of Glendale, CA.
