David E. Pierson

DAVID E. PIERSON practices primarily in the area of land use and environmental regulation in litigation and administrative proceedings; he has represented developers, landowners, and nonprofit organizations in land use, natural resources, and related matters in Michigan, Maryland, and Pennsylvania including participation as amicus curiae in major regulatory takings cases, counsel on land use amendments in the Michigan Legislature including conditional zoning, the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, and Land Division Act, and legislative and regulatory workgroups on revision of the Drain Code, consolidation of the Michigan planning acts, and the committee to revise Michigan subdivision regulations. He chairs the Zoning and Land Use Committee of the State Bar of Michigan Real Property Law Section and has presented seminars around the state for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the Michigan Association of REALTORS®, local REALTOR® Boards, and municipal officials. He is listed in Best Lawyers In America in Land Use and Zoning Law and Real Estate Law. Mr. Pierson received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and law degree from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979.
David Pierson’s practice includes:

• Advice and representation for land owners, developers, and lenders in land use approvals before local officials (including city councils and commissions, planning commissions, and zoning boards of appeals), and in court, for zoning, special use permits, planned unit developments, site plans, subdivisions, land divisions, and site condominiums.
• Litigation in state and federal courts challenging local regulation through zoning, land division, and natural resource controls such as wetland and woodland regulation and the Drain Code.
• Advice, planning assistance, and litigation regarding state and local natural resource regulations affecting wetlands, floodplains, woodlands, sand dunes, inland lakes and streams, drains, and erosion control measures.
• On a statewide policy level - counsel on proposed land use statutory amendments and participation as amicus curiae in Michigan Supreme Court and Court of Appeals including cases deciding for the first time under Michigan law when wetland regulation is a taking of property by the State.