Alan Murphy
- San Francisco
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Alan offers clients innovative solutions to complex and sensitive land use and development challenges, drawing on 18 years of experience.
Emphasizing land use and development matters, Alan Murphy helps secure and defend land use entitlements in addition to counseling clients on preparing development applications and navigating complex entitlement processes. He has extensive experience with the California Environmental Quality Act, general plan and zoning interpretation and amendments, use permits, variances, development agreements, the Density Bonus Law, the Housing Accountability Act, and other state housing legislation.
Alan represents developers, landowners, educational institutions, and other clients before city councils and boards of supervisors, planning commissions, and local decisionmakers. He has successfully helped clients secure entitlements to develop thousands of new single-family and multifamily residential units across the San Francisco Bay Area, redevelop former industrial property into three life sciences buildings totaling nearly 600,000 square feet, and redevelop more than 500,000 square feet of office and research and development space.
Alan lectures annually on land use and environmental law at Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and he co-chaired CLE International's last four conferences on California land use law from 2017 to 2025. Alan also co-authors the housing chapter of California Land Use and Planning Law (40th ed. 2026).
Areas of focus
Education & Credentials
Education
- Yale Law School, J.D., Editor, The Yale Law Journal, 2008
- Stanford University, B.A., Political Science, 2003
Bar and Court Admissions
-
California
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Related Employment
- Bingham McCutchen LLP, San Francisco, CA, Associate, 2010-2011
Clerkships
- Hon. Richard Clifton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Impact
Professional Leadership
- Bay Area Council, Housing Committee
- Urban Land Institute
- SPUR - San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association
- California Association of Environmental Professionals
- Bar Association of San Francisco
Professional Experience
Experience
Mixed-Use Redevelopment
Represented a property owner in securing entitlements to develop more than 1,400 townhomes and multifamily apartments and 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space in San Rafael, California.
Residential Redevelopment
Represented a developer in preparing entitlement applications to redevelop San Francisco Bay Area property with nearly 800 dwelling units in reliance on the Density Bonus Law.
Residential Land Use Approvals
Represented a property owner in obtaining the necessary land use approvals to establish dwelling units in existing live/work buildings in the Central SoMa and Potrero Hill neighborhoods of San Francisco, California.
Life Sciences Complex Development
Represented a developer in securing entitlements and vested rights to redevelop property into three state-of-the-art life sciences buildings in Foster City, California, totaling nearly 600,000 square feet of office, R&D and laboratory uses.
Technology Office Campus Redevelopment
Represented real estate investors and developers in analyzing reuse rights and securing entitlements to redevelop a vacant office campus in Mountain View, California, with over 500,000 square feet of premier office and R&D space for a leading technology company.
Mixed-Use Project Development
Represented a developer in completing the development of a partially-constructed multi-family residential and retail project purchased from the City of Hercules, California, and in forming a residential parking district to serve the project.
Defense of Air District Rulemaking
Assisted with defense of litigation challenging the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s rule amendments that regulate wood burning in beach fire rings on Orange County and Los Angeles County beaches.
