Lona Laymon is a partner with the Firm, experienced in the representation of local public agencies. She currently serves as Assistant City Attorney for Morro Bay. Lona’s practice emphasizes economic development, solid waste contracts and services, land use and environmental, wireless telecommunications, jurisdictional tax sharing agreements, affordable and market-rate housing developments, mining (SMARA), and mixed-use and commercial projects. Her transactional experience includes assisting public agencies with general plans, zoning codes, public parks, subdivisions, telecommunications projects, and complex real property acquisitions and conveyances. She regularly assists her municipal clients with the Political Reform Act (conflicts of interest), Brown Act (public meeting laws), Public Records Act, elections laws, solid waste management, revenue and tax measures, and Propositions 218 and 26.
Lona has substantial litigation experience. Her litigation, administrative hearing, and appellate practices span the areas of CEQA, eminent domain, land use and zoning law, First Amendment jurisprudence, elections laws, commercial development disputes, breach of contract, quiet title, and redevelopment dissolution issues.
Lona’s experience spans years of both general and special counsel work for public entities across California ranging from Northern California, Central Valleys, high desert areas, and Southern California metropolitan regions.
• Solid Waste Regulations and Contracts. Drafting and implementation of numerous ordinances and agreements for municipal compliance with latest State mandates related to solid waste, recycling and organics recovery. Represent several cities in solid waste matters, including negotiating and drafting contracts for waste hauling franchises, development and planning of solid waste facilities, guidance upon waste hauler bidding and RFP processes, and litigation relating to such issues.
• Land-Use / CEQA. Regular transactional and litigation oversight of environmental impact reports and other environmental reviews required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Includes client-favorable settlement of CEQA and eminent domain litigation relating to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
• Elections and Revenue Measures. Successfully drafted and navigated multiple special and general local revenue measures through the ballot process.
• Wireless Telecommunications Special Practice. Complex zoning matters relating to the specialty practice of Wireless Telecommunications Facilities, federal preemption and local zoning, including advising municipalities on many specific wireless applications, as well as ordinance drafting and general legislative guidance.
• Senior and Affordable Housing. City representation and negotiation of several affordable housing projects, including senior-restricted projects, tax credit financing, local grant funds, private lending and equity.
• Economic Development; Tax Sharing. Represented multiple public agencies in the negotiation and approval of multi-million dollar, long-term tax sharing arrangements, including agreements between different public jurisdictions and governmental arrangements with private corporations.
• Economic Development; Commercial Projects. Represented several cities in negotiation and approval of large commercial, retail and auto dealership projects.
• Tax Credit Financing Developments. Represented a redevelopment agency in connection with the substantial rehabilitation of a large affordable rental housing project involving tax credit financing.
• Housing Rehabilitation. Represented a housing authority in connection with a senior citizen affordable apartment project that involved both unit rehabilitation and new construction.
• Development Litigation. Represented city and redevelopment agency in “disgruntled developer” litigation involving a breach of an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement.
• Title-Related Litigation. Successfully represented city in breach of contract litigation involving an attempted fraudulent conveyance of title to the city.
• Specialized Revenue Measures. Developed a local “mining tax” with the potential to generate upwards of $1 million per year for municipality. This included guiding the new tax through the election process and ultimately prevailing in multiple litigation challenges to the validity of the tax.
• RDA Dissolution Practice. Successfully represented city against the State Department of Finance in the course of redevelopment dissolution, resulting in the former redevelopment agency’s $29 million bond issuance being upheld as an “enforceable obligation.”
• Brownfield / Former Landfill Litigation; Bonds. Supervisory counsel on litigation relating to $90 Million bond issuance for remediation of former landfill in light of State laws dissolving redevelopment agencies.
• Assistant City Attorney, Morro Bay
• City Attorney, Town of Yucca Valley
• City Attorney, Banning
Lona N. Laymon, Note, Valid Where Consummated: The Intersection of Customary Law Marriages and Formal Adjudication, l0 S. CAL. INTERDISC. L.J. 353, 365 (2001). https://clhc.usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/10-2%20Laymon.pdf
University of CA, Irvine Dual BA 1998, magna cum laude, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
• University of Southern California, JD, 2001
• University of CA, Irvine, Dual BA, 1998, magna cum laude, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa