CRA Legal Workshop: “Hot” Legal Issues in Redevelopment
9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Palma Ceia 1-2
This course is geared toward CRA attorneys and others who want to learn about some specific “hot topics” in legal requirements for CRAs. These issues by their nature also very much apply to the cities and counties that create the CRAs. This course this year will feature instructors who are members of The Florida Bar with a great deal of specific CRA legal experience. We will review case law, Attorney General Opinions and legislative reports. This is designed for CRA lawyers, practitioners, board members and volunteers who work with Community Redevelopment Agencies in Florida. The topics specifically that will be covered include: introduction to the new law under Chapter 163, Part III, effective October 1, 2019 (changes to the statute from the 2019 legislative session); review of “what you can spend tax increment on”; and guidelines, tips and best practices.
Moderator: Brenna Durden, Shareholder, Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A. and Past President, Florida Redevelopment Association
Speakers: Susan Grandin, Assistant General Counsel, City of Jacksonville; Kathyrn B. Rossmell, Attorney, Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A. and Clifford B. Shepard, Attorney at Law, General Counsel, Florida Redevelopment Association, Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, P.A.
FL BAR 1906148N
CM I 1.5
CM I L 1.5
Brenna Durden Ms. Durden has substantial experience in land use, environmental and administrative law. She represents public and private clients in matters related to land development, community redevelopment, sustainability, transportation, zoning, comprehensive planning, port plans, water supply, campus master plans, developments of regional impact, real estate transactions, vested rights and concurrency, historic preservation, hazardous materials, brownfields, contamination and remedial actions, solid waste and air quality regulation. Ms. Durden also has significant experience in transactional due diligence, administrative and land use litigation and local and state government rulemaking and legislation. She is AV-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Land Use and Zoning Law, Real Estate Law, and Real Estate Litigation.
Her background includes holding various positions as a City Planner in Florida and California, as well as Assistant General Counsel for the City of Jacksonville. She is a former President of the Florida Planning & Zoning Association (Northeast Chapter) and former Chair of the Jacksonville Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section. Ms. Durden currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Florida Redevelopment Association and on the Management Committee for the Urban Land Institute North Florida District Council. Economic Development Trust Fund Advisory Committee, appointed by former Mayor John Peyton. Ms. Durden is a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law.
Susan Grandin Ms. Grandin is the Assistant General Counsel for the City of Jacksonville. She rejoined the General Counsel’s Office in March 2014 (she was also with the office from 1992-1997).
Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel in 2014, Ms. Grandin worked at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as the Director of the Division of State Lands for the State of Florida. The Division serves as staff to the Governor and Cabinet and handles all real estate matters for the 12 million acres of land, both upland and submerged, owned by the State. As Director, Susan oversaw the Bureau of Appraisal, Bureau of Real Estate Services, Bureau of Survey and Mapping, Bureau of Public Land Administration, Office of Environmental Services, and the Office of Cabinet Affairs. Prior to joining FDEP, Ms. Grandin was the N.E. Florida Field Office Director for the Trust for Public Land.
Ms. Grandin is a member the Florida Bar and is admitted to the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida and the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. She is a graduate of Mercer University, Walter F. George School of Law (J.D. 1993) and the University of Florida (Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, 1981).
Prior to her legal career, Ms. Grandin practiced landscape architecture and land planning in Jacksonville.
She is a member of Leadership Florida (Class XXIV), Jacksonville Rotary Club, Urban Land Institute and the Congress for the New Urbanism. She sat as an appointed member of the State of Florida Environmental Regulation Commission, City of Jacksonville Waterways Commission, City of Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission, Jacksonville Downtown Development Authority Design Review Committee, and the Jacksonville Landscape Commission Enforcement Committee. She was previously a member of the Memorial Park Association Board of Trustees, JaxPride, Inc., Riverside Avondale Preservation, Inc., and the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.
Kathyrn B. Rossmell Ms. Rossmell’s practice focuses on land use, environmental, local government and natural resources law. She represents private clients on land use matters; public and private clients on natural resources permitting issues and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance issues; practices civil litigation for public and private clients; and represents and advises public clients as general and special counsel, including legal analysis of special assessment methodology.
Kathyrn received her J. D., cum laude, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Florida. She is graduated from Leadership Palm Beach County and is their General Counsel. The Past President of the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals, Treasure Coast Chapter, and a board member of the FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, Kathyrn also is a committee member of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies’ Moments Committee. She was admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and is a member of the Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section, City County and Local Government Law Section, Administrative Law Section, and the Young Lawyers Division. She is also a member of the Palm Beach County bar, the Palm Beach County Planning Congress, and Florida Brownfields Association and the FRA.
Clifford B. Shepard Mr. Shepard is the general counsel of the Florida Redevelopment Association. He and his law firm of Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand serve in a city attorney capacity to several cities in Florida. He is also a certified Circuit Court mediator. He obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism (News Writing and Editing) and graduated law school from the University of Florida, where he was a member of the Trial Competition Team, Managing Editor of The Verdict student newspaper, and a member of the law school’s student government.
Cliff’s practice developed in the areas of local government law, complex commercial litigation, real estate development, insurance defense and construction law, as well as homeowner and condominium association representation, an area he developed after serving as association president to a 2400 home development in Seminole County. In 1995, Cliff attained the AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers®. Cliff practices and mediates extensively in the areas of government law, employment, defense, real estate, construction law, complex commercial litigation and community association law. He is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in City, County and Local Government Law.
Cliff has been honored by Florida Trend Magazine as one of Florida’s Legal Elite™ (2005-2009) in the areas of Governmental and Administrative Law and Commercial Litigation. Each year the magazine names a new group of top lawyers who have earned the confidence of those who know their work the best. Attorneys and judges throughout Florida were asked to name lawyers whom they hold in the highest regard – lawyers they have worked with or would recommend to others. The Legal Elite™ represent the top 1.7% of the 56,513 Florida Bar members who practice in the state. Cliff was also named a “Florida Super Lawyers” (2005-2010) by Law & Politics Magazine. “Florida Super Lawyers” is a consumer’s guide to the best attorneys in the state.
Community service has also been a staple of Cliff’s personal and professional life. He has served as a member of the Land Planning Agency for the City of Oviedo and as a member of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Florida. He has also served as the Chairman of the Board for Kids Beating Cancer, Inc., a multiple award-winning local charity that assists families touched by childhood cancer through the recruitment, DNA testing and matching of potential bone marrow donors to patients whose best hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplant. Cliff also serves as a court appointed guardian-ad-litem to children who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by their parents.