He has successfully litigated a variety of land use and environmental matters under state and federal law. His environmental practice includes environmental regulatory compliance, CERCLA, RCRA, and Proposition 65 litigation. He also represents clients on transitional matters involving Brownfields and other environmentally impaired real property.

At Cox, Castle, Waite will continue to advise clients on zoning and land use matters, CEQA compliance, discretionary permits and entitlements, subdivisions, development agreements, public-private partnerships, infrastructure agreements, and compliance with climate change laws.

Waite tells GlobeSt.com that the regulatory environment is among the pressing issues facing Los Angeles. “In L.A. in particular, the market is actually relatively strong, particularly in multifamily, creative office and a couple of key areas that have had some strong and robust growth,” he says. “But with all things, the regulatory environment is never at pace with the market. There are some problems we continue to see in processing projects through entitlement. It takes longer than it should or needs to, and that's really a function that things move grindingly slowly through bureacracy in various cities and public offices throughout the region.” Waite notes that it takes 18 months in L.A. to get a project through a full environmental impact study.

Waite praised L.A.'s new mass transit facilities, and while acknowledging the city has “a long way to go,” he says the city is “reaching a critical mass of opportunity to get people out of their cars and using public transportation and using walkable/biking communities.”

He also noted the growing city acceptance of density. “We're starting to see L.A. embrace a level of densification that the region can support and should support. For a long time, density was a bad word in L.A., compared to San Francisco and some other communities pushing 100 dwelling units per acre. There's a shift there. The infrastructure can support it, and density is not a bad word. Hollywood is a great example, because the infrastructure can support it.”

Waite received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. A frequent author and speaker on land use issues, he is chairman emeritus of the Southern California Real Estate Alliance and a member of the Westside Urban Forum. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the California Infill Builders Association.

Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco.

As reported earlier by GlobeSt.com, Cox, Castle & Nicholson organized a forum called "Is China Buying?" in cooperation with the Asian Business League.