Remy, Thomas, Moose and Manley LLP is a law partnership focusing on land use and environmental law since 1982.

Mr. Butcher joined the firm in 2007 and is an associate in the firm. His practice focuses on land use and environmental law. Mr. Butcher handles all phases of the land use entitlement and permitting processes, including administrative approvals and litigation. Mr. Butcher’s practice covers the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the State Planning and Zoning Law, the Subdivision Map Act, the Williamson Act and other land conservation programs within California, the California Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the federal Endangered Species Act, the federal Clean Water Act provisions associated with wetlands permitting, and administrative proceedings before the California Public Utilities Commission.

Mr. Butcher is the author of The Forgotten Intent of the Williamson Act (2005) 12 Hastings West-Northwest J. Environmental L. & Policy 37-69, and is a contributing author of California’s Propositions 1A and 1B: Adapting the Results to the Current Landscape of Transportation Finance (2006) Publication of the John Muir Institute of the Environment.

Representative matters include:

• Representing Santa Barbara County Association of Governments in defense of its approval of a transportation sales tax measure adopted pursuant to the Local Transportation Authority and Improvement Act, as well as its approval of the its 2008 Regional Transportation Plan. In October of 2008, the Superior Court for the County of Santa Barbara ruled that the transportation sales tax measure was exempt from CEQA as a government funding mechanism. The decision has been appealed to the Second Appellate District.
• Representing Yolo County in defense of its use of a Mitigated Negative Declaration in approving the relocation of pre-cast concrete manufacturing operation. In January of 2009, the Superior Court for the County of Yolo ruled that the Mitigated Negative Declaration complied with the law and fully supported the project approvals granted by the County in accordance with CEQA. The case is currently pending appeal before the Third Disctrict Court of Appeals.
• Representing the Avondale Glen Elder Neighborhood Association in a proceeding before the California Public Utilities Commission concerning a natural gas storage project proposing to store approximately 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas in a geological formation beneath a community consisting of roughly seven hundred homes.

Mr. Butcher also currently provides pro bono assistance to Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, a homeless services organization, on matters relating to land use planning.

Mr. Butcher graduated in 2002 from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. He obtained his J.D. from King Hall – University of California, Davis Law School – in 2007. While in law school, Mr. Butcher served as co-editor-in-chief and managing editor of Environs, Environmental Law and Policy Journal, co-chair of the Agricultural Law Society, and treasurer of the Environmental Law Society. Mr. Butcher also worked as a research assistant for Professors Jerrold Tannenbaum and Lisa Pruitt, and served as a teaching assistant for the Department of Animal Science’s course in Animal Ethics.