Steven M. Elrod represents private and public sector clients on a broad range of real estate development, zoning and land use matters. He is the Chairman of Holland & Knight's National Land Use and Government Team.
Mr. Elrod is the Corporation Counsel for the City of Highland Park, Ill., and the Village Attorney for the Villages of Northbrook and Lincolnwood, Ill. He is also actively involved in the general representation of the firm’s Chicago area municipal clients.
Mr. Elrod also represents property owners, tenants, and developers in a variety of real estate and transactional projects. As counsel to national, regional, and local real estate developers, he is actively engaged in securing zoning, development, and government entitlements and approvals. He also handles large tract property acquisition, retail and shopping center leasing, office and industrial building leasing, and synthetic lease financing. His land use and local government law experience includes the drafting and negotiation of:
- zoning ordinance regulations
- annexation, subdivision, and development agreements
- tax incentive and abatement agreements
- redevelopment, business district, and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district plans
- historic preservation regulations
Mr. Elrod also has extensive experience, from both the public and the private sector perspective, in the annexation and disconnection of real property, as well as the litigation of such land use and zoning issues as §1983 Civil Rights; eminent domain; takings and inverse condemnation; development impact fees; procedural and substantive due process, RLUIPA; and the First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion.
As a member of the faculty of the National College of District Attorneys, Mr. Elrod lectures throughout the country on land use and zoning matters.