Overview
Practice Areas
Industry Experience
Lisa John-Basta is a member in the firm’s Real Estate, Development & Land Use Group. Lisa has close to 20 years of experience representing both municipalities and private developers throughout the local and outside agency land use and redevelopment entitlement process.
Lisa regularly appears before governing bodies, planning boards and zoning boards of adjustment across the State on behalf of developers in connection with applications for site plan, subdivision, variances and zoning interpretations.
Her practice also heavily concentrates on guiding developers through the redevelopment process. This process entails working closely with municipal government to designate areas in need of redevelopment, adoption of redevelopment plans, negotiation of redevelopment agreements and the entry into long-term and short-term tax abatement agreements.
Lisa is the co-author to the most preeminent treatise on land use and zoning in the State, entitled, New Jersey Zoning & Land Use Administration, 2015-2023 Editions, published by Gann Law Books and commonly referred to as the “Cox Book” in the land use field.
She is also the co-author of the Municipal Land Use Law Chapter of the Complete Guide to Planning in New Jersey, 2010 Third Edition, as well as the 2018 Fourth Edition, published by the American Planning Association, New Jersey Chapter.
Prior to joining the firm, Lisa was counsel at Genova Burns Giantomasi & Webster. She also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable B. Theodore Bozonelis, Assignment Judge of the Morris and Sussex Vicinages of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
Honors
- Included in The Best Lawyers in America®, Real Estate Law (2024)
- Included in NJBIZ, Best 50 Women in Business (2021)
- Included in NJBIZ, Forty Under 40 (2015)
- Selected to the New Jersey Super Lawyers – Rising Stars list, Land Use and Zoning Law (2010)
Award Methodology
*No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Involvement
- Newark Regional Business Partnership, Board of Directors
- New Jersey State Bar Association, Land Use Law Section, Board of Directors
- Essex County Environmental Commission, Former Commissioner, 2013-2015
- Essex County Bar Association, Redevelopment and Land Use Law Committee
- Restart and Recovery Advisory Council, Facilities & Construction Subcommittee
- Urban Land Institute Northern New Jersey
- NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association
Education
- Seton Hall University School of Law (J.D., 2003)
- Ramapo University (B.A., 2000)
Admissions
- New Jersey
- U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
Overview
- Represented nationwide insurance company in the redevelopment and historic approval process for a two-block mixed use development project totaling over 1.4 million square feet in gross floor area in Newark, NJ.
- Represented one of the world’s largest investment and construction groups in securing redevelopment and land use approvals for two independent mixed-use projects totaling 22,500 in retail square footage and 431 residential units in Jersey City, NJ.
- Represented one of the largest self-storage services in the U.S. to attain rezoning, historic and land use approvals to convert a full-block historic warehouse building into a self-storage facility with ground floor retail in Jersey City, NJ.
- Represented developer in procuring development approvals for the first high rise residential building in Newark in 50 years. The project proposed over 16,000 square feet of ground floor retail along with 245 residential units in Newark, NJ.
- Represented national extended stay hotel operator in connection with the acquisition of land use approvals in order to rehabilitate a vacant office buildings into a 124 room hotel with ground floor leasable office space in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.
- Represented electrical power generation facility during the initiation and designation of its property as an area in need of redevelopment through the zoning and land use approval process for expansion of its facility in Bayonne, NJ.
- Represented national big box retailer to obtain land use approvals for new construction and store expansions in Edison, Cinnaminson, Union and Freehold, NJ.
- Represented urban property management company to initiate and designate its property as an area in need of redevelopment and adoption of a redevelopment plan in Bloomfield, NJ.
- Represented national developer in connection with a mixed use redevelopment project totaling over 1.5 million square feet of residential, retail and hotel space in Fort Lee, NJ.
- Represented health care operator in securing development approvals for a three-phased health care facility in Little Egg Harbor, NJ.
- Represented a non-profit in the conversion of a historic building for use as a charter school in Camden, NJ.
- Represented national developer in the conversion of a vacant 11 acre tract of land into a mixed-use redevelopment project with over 150,000 square feet of retail space and 160 residential units in Newark, NJ.
- Represented national developers in obtaining various retail development approvals in Edison, NJ.
- Represented developer in securing redevelopment and land use approvals for a full-block mixed-use redevelopment project with retail and residential space in Bloomfield, NJ.
- Represented master redeveloper in rehabilitation and reuse of iconic entertainment venue in Asbury Park, NJ.
- Served as local counsel to municipal planning and zoning boards of adjustment in Kinnelon, Vernon and Boonton, NJ.
*Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.