Michele Maresca is an attorney in our Land Use Practice Group, where she focuses on land use and real estate matters.
Ms. Maresca's land use practice includes representation of commercial and institutional developers, private landowners, and neighborhood or environmental opponents in zoning and wetlands proceedings before local administrative agencies and in related litigation before trial and appellate courts. Ms. Maresca's real estate practice includes the representation of sellers and local and national lenders in connection with the sale and financing of commercial and residential real estate. In working on land use and real estate transactions, she has analyzed permit requirements as well as title, zoning, and environmental issues.
Ms. Maresca's practice has consisted of a variety of projects, including representing a national developer in an appeal from a local agency's denial of a wetlands application; assessing whether the Fair Housing Act Amendments and the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to an institutional development proposal; analyzing title and site development issues for a wireless telecommunications company; analyzing special acts and title history of beach properties to determine beach access rights and littoral rights; and assisting with the real estate due diligence and mortgage documentation for administrative agent and syndicate of national lenders in connection with a multimillion-dollar term loan and line of credit secured by more than twenty properties. She also reports on and analyzes trends in smart growth, green building, and land use planning at the state and local levels across the country as part of the firm's services to a national real estate client.
Prior to law school, Ms. Maresca worked for more than four years as a land use planner with a regional agency in northwest Vermont, where she was responsible for delivering technically sophisticated planning projects, including a regional build-out analysis and a regional landscape suitability analysis. During law school, she served as a research assistant for the Vermont Law School Land Use Institute, providing support to a statewide land use planning initiative.
Professional Associations
- American Bar Association
- American Planning Association
- Connecticut Bar Association
- Congress for New Urbanism
Experience
- Representation of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut in connection with the sale and financing of property in Watertown, Connecticut, to The Taft School.
- Reporting on and analyzing trends in smart growth, green building, and land use planning at the state and local levels across the country as part of the firm's services to a national real estate client.
- Assisting with the real estate due diligence and mortgage documentation for administrative agent and syndicate of national lenders in connection with a multimillion-dollar term loan and line of credit secured by more than twenty properties.
- Analyzing special acts and title history of beach properties to determine beach access rights and littoral rights.
- Analyzing title and site development issues for a wireless telecommunications company.
- Assessing whether the Fair Housing Act Amendments and the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to an institutional development proposal.
- Representing a national developer in an appeal from a local agency's denial of a wetlands application.
Publications & Presentations
Presentations
- "Primer: Zoning and the Fair Housing Act Amendments and Americans with Disabilities Act" (10/22/2010) presented at Connecticut Bar Association Planning and Zoning Section Advanced Program, A Potpourri of Hot Topics: A Spicy Mix of Land Use Issues, New Britain, Connecticut
- "Robinson & Cole Annual Review of Land Use Case Law," copresented with John P. Casey (6/21/2010) at Planning and Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association
- "Accommodating Zoning: Uses and Limits of the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act" (4/30/2010) presented at American Bar Association State and Local Government Section Spring Meeting
- (2010) Comoderator of monthly webinar series, sponsored by the Connecticut Chapter of the Counselors of Real Estate and the University of Connecticut Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies, focusing on current real estate issues and trends
News
12.02.10, National Association of Realtors® honors LandLaw Partner and Firm
11.03.10, Attorneys Cochair Connecticut Bar Association Planning and Zoning Section Event
7.09.10, John Casey and Michele Maresca Present a Review of Land Use Case Law to the Connecticut Bar Association
5.11.10, Robinson & Cole Attorney Speaks at Land Use Hot Topics Program in Miami