Steven M. Elrod represents private and public sector clients on a broad range of real estate development, zoning and land use matters. Mr. Elrod served on Holland & Knight's national Board of Directors for two consecutive terms, and was the Executive Partner of the Chicago office. He is now 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, and retail and shopping center leasing. His land use and local government law experience includes:
- zoning ordinance regulations
- annexation, subdivision, and development agreements
- intergovernmental agreements
- tax incentive and abatement agreements
- Tax Increment Financing (TIF), redevelopment, and business district plans
- historic preservation regulations
- special service areas
- affordable housing regulations
- Federal Fair Housing Act restrictions
- sustainability and green building initiatives
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. He recently successfully argued a religious land use case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
As a member of the faculty of the National College of District Attorneys, Mr. Elrod has lectured throughout the country on land use and zoning matters.