James Longtin has been a land use lawyer for over
50 years. During his public practice he was city attorney for Lompoc,
Santa Maria, Thousand Oaks and La Quinta. His private practice included
representation of all sides to land use litigation, including landowners
and developers, environmental and preservationist groups, and public
agencies.
Longtin has presented papers and seminars on land
use subjects since 1972. In a 1974 publication he formally coined the
term "land use" to include all controls relating to land regulation.
In 1976 Longtin self-published his first edition entitled "California
Land Use Regulations," which quickly became a cult classic among practitioners.
Dissatisfied with its organization, Longtin wrote the current
second edition in 1987, which now enjoys popularity as the preeminent
legal text on land use.
Longtin discontinued active law practice in 1994.
However, he continues to study land use and to update Longtin's
Cal Land Use 2d annually. He also continues to reorganize and
rewrite parts of the book, as necessary, to make it more useful to the
reader.
