Daniel Golub

Holland & Knight

@Holland_Knight   Daniel R. Golub is an attorney in the West Coast Land Use and Environment Group in Holland & Knight's San Francisco office. Mr. Golub brings nearly a decade of policy, planning and political organizing experience to his practice, as well as litigation experience gained during an 18-month clerkship for the Honorable Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Mr. Golub is a committed advocate for building the infill housing California needs to meet the state's growing affordable housing crisis, and his practice focuses on the following areas:   California Housing Law. Mr. Golub is highly knowledgeable about California's cutting-edge laws that aim to promote streamlined approval of infill housing, including recent reforms to the Housing Accountability Act, also known as the "anti-NIMBY" (not-in-my-backyard) law, SB 35 of 2017 (streamlined ministerial approval for qualifying housing development projects), recent reforms to the State Density Bonus Law, and recent reforms to the state's Housing Element law and Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. Mr. Golub has represented numerous housing developers in invoking these laws through a mix of entitlement and litigation strategies to secure long-delayed project entitlement approvals. Working with housing advocates, he authored and successfully advocated for revisions to the California Department of Housing & Community Development's official guidelines for implementing SB 35 of 2017. In addition, he has written and presented extensively on what is new, and what is next, for California housing law. Land Use, CEQA and NEPA Litigation. Mr. Golub's litigation experience assists project developers and public agencies in negotiating and resolving conflicts over project approvals – and, when necessary, resolving these conflicts through litigation. Mr. Golub has significant experience representing project developers as plaintiffs challenging unlawful project denials, as well as representing public agencies and developers as defendants and real parties in interest defending project approvals from attack. In addition to litigating claims under California housing laws, Mr. Golub has experience with constitutional takings claims, exactions, due process and equal protection claims, and all aspects of compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Some of his representative engagements include bringing a path-breaking Housing Accountability Act lawsuit that secured approval for long-delayed 389-unit, 20 percent very-low-income, housing project, representing a public agency in obtaining the complete dismissal of a NEPA lawsuit challenging the agency's renewable energy projects, and defending several complex regulatory projects and mixed-use development projects from wide-ranging CEQA and constitutional challenges. Planning & Zoning and Municipal Law. Drawing on his experience as a public planning official, Mr. Golub advises project proponents and public agencies on all aspects of California's Planning and Zoning Law, Permit Streamlining Act, California Public Records Act and California Open Meetings Law (Brown Act). Infrastructure Financing and Tax Increment Financing. Mr. Golub has presented on, and assisted clients in using, California's post-redevelopment financing laws – including the creation of Infrastructure and Revitalization Financing Districts (IRFDs) and Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFD) – in order to obtain much-needed infrastructure financing for projects. Pro Bono. Mr. Golub's pro bono practice focuses primarily on representing nonprofit organizations who develop and advocate for affordable and supportive housing, and defending affordable and supportive housing projects from challenges by anti-housing advocates. He was proud to represent a nonprofit supportive housing developer, A Community of Friends, in defeating a "not in my backyard" CEQA lawsuit, which cleared the way for the client to proceed to build 78 units of supportive and affordable housing for veterans at risk of homelessness, individuals with special needs and low-income families. As a former planning official, Mr. Golub has extensive experience with land use and regulatory matters. While serving as deputy director of Land Use, Planning and Development for Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer in New York City, Mr. Golub helped oversee a staff of urban planners conducting public review and negotiating compromises on a diverse array of complex projects and planning initiatives. The projects included campus plans by Columbia University and Fordham University, and rezoning and development initiatives in East Midtown, Tribeca and the Upper West Side. He authored the borough president's proposal for a special zoning district in West Harlem, which won the endorsement of The New York Times and paved the way for a 90-block rezoning. Mr. Golub also worked to reform capital planning processes for new public school construction and organized community-based organizations to respond to comprehensive redevelopment proposals, co-authoring a "Land Use 101" seminar presentation to explain the basics of land use to neighborhood groups.   After returning to his native California to attend law school, he earned a certificate in environmental law, served as an articles editor of the California Law Review and interned for the California Coastal Commission.