Intro
Dana Dean has practiced land use, environmental, and real estate law for over two decades. She has worked throughout California on matters involving sustained, long-range advocacy efforts and detailed analyses, as well as extensive communications with governing entities, community groups, developers, and property owners.
With an emphasis on commercial and industrial development, Dana represents landowners, project developers, and community groups at all stages of development permitting, with a focus on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process and litigation. She also represents clients in interactions with state agencies, such as BAAQMD, BCDC, CalRecycle, DTSC, DOGGR, and State Lands Commission, and federal agencies, such as the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including with regard to CERCLA, Clean Water Act, and other environmental litigation matters. Her in-depth land use experience includes traditional development projects as well as cutting-edge projects in the areas of alternative energy, carbon sequestration, resource recovery, and water-related land planning.
In addition, Dana maintains a robust real estate litigation practice, representing companies and individuals in litigation involving boundary and easement disputes, purchase and sale disputes, and other traditional real estate claims in industrial, commercial, agriculture, timber, and residential properties. Dana is also a resource for owners association matters, including the particular requirements of commercial and industrial condominium associations.
Dana is known as a passionate advocate and skilled strategist. With her substantial experience in representing all types of parties in real estate and land use disputes, she brings an experienced, unique perspective to resolving real estate and community land use disputes with empathy and efficiency.
She also has a long history of community involvement, with particular focus on children’s health, well-being, and education. Having previously served five years on the Benicia Unified School District Governing Board, Dana has now served for eleven years on the Solano County Board of Education. She is Past President of California County Boards of Education (CCBE). She has served on the Board of Directors of CCBE, as well as of the California School Boards Association (CSBA.) She served on the CSBA Legislative Committee and the CSBA Education Legal Alliance Steering Committee. She currently serves as a conference presenter on issues of public process and governance and as an expert witness in litigation related to governance.
Dana is a member of Hanson Bridgett’s Land Use Practice Group as well as our Real Estate Litigation Practice Group. She is Co-Leader of the firm’s Environmental Litigation and Compliance Practice Group. Before joining Hanson Bridgett, Dana founded and managed The Law Offices of Dana Dean from 2003-2022. She previously externed with the California Attorney General, Department of Justice, in the Land and Natural Resource Sections and clerked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Regional Counsel.
Areas of Focus
Education
Admissions and Courts
Land Use and Environmental Local Approvals and Litigation Matters
- Represented multiple manufacturing, warehouse, and commercial entity clients in favorable resolution of Federal Clean Water Act citizen suits.
- Secured favorable resolution for a public agency in in a complex enforcement and breach of contract action against a large multi-unit residential property owner.
- Represented a 400+ member senior citizen owners association in successful opposition to the proposed transfer of City-owned property to a private developer under the Surplus Lands Act.
- Represented developer through the entitlement process and transactional negotiations for a 103-unit branded hotel project.
- Managed and successfully resolved CEQA litigation challenging a public agency's denial of client’s CEQA exempt building permits.
- Successfully litigated multiple CEQA challenges to city and county approvals of specific plans for community groups and private, commercial, and industrial clients.
- Managed and successfully litigated multiple CEQA challenges to landfill expansion for private clients and community groups.
- Achieved favorable outcomes in state agency CERCLA/HSAA litigation for a large-scale industrial client.
- Represented a developer of mixed-use commercial and residential development through CEQA litigation, construction, owners association formation, and unit sales to project completion.
Real Estate Litigation Matters
- Represented residential, commercial, and timber property owners in several quiet title, trespass, nuisance suits related to adjacent property owner easement and boundary disputes.
- Advised and represented varying parties in clients in complex purchase and sale disputes, involving breach of contract, failure to disclose, misrepresentation, and fraud actions.
- Represented industrial property owner in action against a manufacturer tenant for breach of lease, breach of contract, and injunctive relief.
- Advocated for unit owners in a dispute with their HOA regarding special assessments.
- Represented a successor trustee in judicial foreclosure action regarding a senior citizen’s reverse mortgage.
Pre-litigation Environmental Compliance and Land Use Matters
- Advised various industrial and manufacturing entities regarding regional and state agency compliance issues and in related negotiations, including those involving regional air districts, DTSC, and State Lands Commission.
- Advised and represented a large agriculture property owner regarding compliance with local agency code enforcement actions and related negotiations.
- Advised and represented developer on subdivision of a mixed-use commercial and residential development project.
Additional Entitlement and Transactional Matters
- Represented a developer of a trucking facility from site selection to purchase, multi-agency entitlement approvals, and project completion.
- Advised and represented facility owner on modifications to conditional use permit and attendant approvals for the modernization of Materials Recovery Facility.
- Managed acquisition and parcelization of manufacturing-zoned property from acquisition through subdivision approvals, leasing, and sales.
State Bar of California, Real Estate Property; Litigation Sections
Solano County Bar Association
Contra Costa County Bar Association, Real Estate Section
Los Angeles County Bar Association
American Bar Association, Environmental; Energy; Resources; Real Property; Litigation Sections
Solano County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 (2013- Present)
Regional Director, California County Boards of Education (2021-Present)
Director, California School Boards Association (2019)
President, California County Boards of Education (2018-2019)
Commissioner, First Five Solano Children and Families Commission (2009-2017) of Education (2018-2019)
Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees, Trustee (2008-2013)
Recipient, Witkin Award for Academic Excellence (Am Jur), Real Property, Evidence, Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Remedies, Business Associations
California Lawyers Association, Wiley W. Manuel Pro Bono Legal Services Award (2023)
"Staying within Legal Ethics Bounds," NBI's Boundary Law and Land Use Legal Toolkit (December 2024)
"California’s Disruption of the Discovery Act and Other Interesting Civ Pro Tidbits," California Alliance of Paralegal Associations 36th Annual Educational Conference (June 2024)
"SB 1383: What it is and How it Impacts Every Jurisdiction," co-presenter, League of California Cities, City Attorneys Spring Conference (May 2023)