Representative Experience

    • Ms. Truman represents The Walt Disney Company and its affiliates in land use matters throughout southern California, including development within and around The Disneyland™ Resort and development in the County of Los Angeles. Ms. Truman represented The Disneyland Resort in obtaining approvals from the City of Anaheim in 2024 for DisneylandForward, a master plan for development of The Disneyland Resort for decades to come. https://www.disneylandforward.com/ She also helped obtain entitlements from the County of Los Angeles for Disney ABC Studios at The Ranch, a state-of-the-art motion picture and television studio, just east of State Route 14 in Placerita Canyon. http://www.studiosattheranch.com

    • Ms. Truman represents the developer of the West Harbor Project, a comprehensive expansion and update of the Ports O’Call site in San Pedro, counseling the developer through the entitlement process with the Port of Los Angeles.

    • Ms. Truman represents Under Canvas, which operates safari-inspired luxury tent campgrounds near national parks, in obtaining entitlements from public agencies throughout California for its expansion into the Golden State.

    • Ms. Truman represents Brookview Ranch LLC in its efforts to obtain entitlements, including a Significant Ecological Area conditional use permit, from the County of Los Angeles for an event facility within the Resort-Recreation zone in the unincorporated area of the Santa Monica Mountains.

    • Ms. Truman represented the Playa Vista project, the largest and one of the most controversial development projects in the City of Los Angeles, during the federal, state and local entitlement processes and in over twenty lawsuits brought by project opponents.

    • Ms. Truman represented the developers of the IAC Commerce Center, a large industrial park, and the Sterling Gateway Project, a 222-unit residential development, in the unincorporated area of the Santa Clarita Valley in the successful pursuit and use of entitlements from the County of Los Angeles.

    • Ms. Truman represented the developer of the Melrose Triangle Project, located at the western gateway of the City of West Hollywood, in obtaining entitlements from the City and successfully defending those entitlements in a legal challenge regarding historical resources to the California Supreme Court, Ms. Truman represented The Malibu Institute in obtaining entitlements from the County of Los Angeles for an educational retreat on a 650-acre site previously operated as the Malibu Golf Club in an unincorporated area in the Santa Monica Mountains.

    • Ms. Truman obtained entitlements for Strategic Hotels & Resorts to build a mixed-use commercial and housing project on Ocean Front Walk in Santa Monica, California. With guidance from the firm, this LEED™ Platinum Project received unanimous approval from the City's Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board and the California Coastal Commission.

    • Ms. Truman successfully represented the City of Glendale in its effort to obtain approval from the California Public Utilities Commission for an at-grade railroad crossing, working closely with executives from Metrolink, Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Walt Disney World Co. and the California Department of Transportation to develop an agreement to enhance safety along the entire railroad corridor in the City, and ultimately persuade Commission staff to support the City’s application.

    • Ms. Truman successfully defended entitlements obtained from the City of West Hollywood for the Melrose Triangle Project, a mixed-use project to be located at the western gateway of the City of West Hollywood, in a legal challenge regarding historical resources to the California Supreme Court. See Los Angeles Conservancy v. City of West Hollywood, et al., Court of Appeal Second Appellate District, Case No. B284089.

    • Ms. Truman, along with other lawyers, defended over twenty legal challenges to the Playa Vista Project under CEQA and other federal and state environmental laws. See, for example, City of Santa Monica et al. v. City of Los Angeles et al., Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BS093502 and Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, et. al. v. the City of Los Angeles, et al., Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BS093507 (challenges to the Village at Playa Vista Project); California Brown Pelican, et al. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, et al., CV 98-621 RSWL (C.D. Ca.) (challenge under the Endangered Species Act); Environmentalism Through Inspiration and Non- Violent Action (“ETINA”), et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al., Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BS073182 (CEQA challenge based on methane issues); Sierra Club, et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al., Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BC273358 (challenge under the California Coastal Act); Ballona Wetlands Land Trust v. City of Los Angeles, et al., Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BS085234 (CEQA challenge regarding grading issues).

    • In 2008, Ms. Truman, in Vista Hidalgo Neighborhood Association v. City of Malibu, Los Angeles Sup. Ct. Case No. BS 115861, obtained a preliminary injunction preventing the City of Malibu from constructing a road through an active land slide adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains. As a result of their efforts, the local government and project proponents were forced to prepare an environmental impact report and to properly pursue coastal development approvals.

    • In Inland Empire Waterkeeper v. Corman Leigh Communities, CV 06-1002 DDP (Feb. 17, 2006), Ms. Truman defended four Clean Water Act lawsuits, alleging violations of construction storm water regulations, developed novel approaches to storm water controls along with the client and storm water consultants, and negotiated a comprehensive settlement agreement covering four construction sites.

    • In Wetlands Action Network v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 222 F.3d 1105 (9th Cir. 2000), Ms. Truman was instrumental in obtaining the reversal in the Ninth Circuit of a district court summary judgment invalidating Playa Vista’s Clean Water Act Section 404 permit on the grounds of segmentation and insufficient analysis of impacts as well as an injunction preventing construction in 16 acres of federally delineated wetlands.

Contact

Practice Areas

Land Use

Environmental Law

Litigation

CEQA

Related Environmental Clearances