Lan B Kennedy-Davis

Lan and her partner, Brad Davis, essentially saved our community from having an unwanted development of over 300 homes on the golf course in the center of our community. After our first lawyer spent over $14,000 and then told us that the development could not be stopped, Lan and Brad were contacted f...or help. They were very honest with us about what we could expect but felt that a good case could be presented that would convince the City of Palm Bay to deny approval of the development even though it was zoned for single family. They understood our limited financial resources and worked closely with us to minimize costs. We did a lot of the research to find the data they needed to document the legal reasons to stop the approval of the development. They worked together with our community from the beginning meeting with our community residents to answer our questions and get acquainted. They always were available by email, by phone or in personal meetings. They took immediate timely actions during every aspect of the development approval process. They provided letters to the city during the approval process explaining our legal positions to Growth Management, the CIty Lawyer, the City Manager, the Planning and Zoning committee and the City Council. The letters were professionally done and often several pages to insure a complete understanding of the various legal aspects of issues concerning building codes, traffic issues, environmental issues, arsenic contamination, wetlands, preservation of specimen trees, endangered wildlife, degradation of property values, comprehensive plan violations, drainage issues,etc, to name a few. Several of our community board members or residents were served with lawsuits designed to discourage resistance to the development. They personally represented one community member, advised our board members of separate actions to be taken, prevented conflicts of interest and all lawsuits were dismissed with reduced fees as further evidence of how much they cared for our legimite cause. They volunteered to reduce the final billing to a level available from our community association. They worked closely with us on the strategy to be used at each stage and even allowed the president of our community association to selectively present information to the planning and zoning board to prevent their lawyers from knowing what would be presented to the City Council during the final hearing. This worked like a charm since the developers were totalled unprepaired to defend against the issues presented. A powerpoint presentation over 50 pages was presented during the City Council hearing which lasted five hours until a final decision was made with a 5-0 vote to disapprove the development plans. This legal presentation was professionally done which provided information which made it easy for the City Council to turn the development. Lan was questioned unmercifully by the Council Members, the CIty Manager and the CIty Lawyer. It was obvious that she was properly prepared and skilfully answered every question and rebutted professionally as required. Even though the developers immediately filed lawsuits against the city to overturn the ruling, the City has been able to successfully defend their actions even after over $400,000 has been spent by the CIty over the last fur years. The Developers utilized the skills of one of the best real estate lawyers and their firm's resources unsucessfully. It appears that an unknown mediation settlement has been reached that is satisfactory to the developers and the CIty. Since the CIty has supported our community's position, I assume it will be beneficial to our community, also, In summary, I still stay in contact with them because Lan and Brad are such a pleasure to be around. I can truthfully say that I totally recommend them because of their knowledge of the many laws, the immediate response to any situation that arises and their professional presentations during legal proceedings.