Martin P. Stratte

Martin Stratte is an attorney in the Government, Land Use, Environment & Energy Department and a member of the Natural Resources and Mining Group.

He assists with the entitlement of complex projects throughout California with an emphasis on projects for the mining, construction, and building materials industries. His experience includes work for large quarries, metallic mines, aggregate transloading facilities, and operations located within sensitive areas, such as national monuments and national parks.

Martin helps prepare environmental documents in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the state’s ever-changing greenhouse gas and climate change regulations.

He also defends the entitlements when challenged through litigation and, in addition to mining projects, has previously defended the entitlements for multiple Supercenters, several million square feet of warehouse and distribution space, and large residential projects.

Martin has trial experience, maintains an active appellate practice, and was selected as a 2019 Rising Star in Land Use & Zoning by Super Lawyers.

He has experience with: the Bureau of Land Management surface management regulations; California Fish and Game Code section 1602 Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreements; Clean Water Act section 404 permitting and section 401 certifications; the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP); the federal and state Endangered Species Acts; the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA); the Mining in the Parks Act and its implementing regulations; the Mining Law of 1872; the National Park Service Organic Act; and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA).

• Drafted briefs in two CEQA actions and the subsequent appeals filed in opposition to a large residential development that was approved in 2015 through an environmental impact report that had been previously certified in the 1980s. (27 Cal.App.5th 771 (2018); 2017 WL 6274420).
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a large egg and poultry ranch in a complex, years-long environmental action in which the plaintiff sought significant damages as a result of the alleged contamination of organic farmlands. Drafted and argued a motion for summary judgment that was based on the Raw Supplier Doctrine, as adopted in Artiglio v. General Electric Co., 61 Cal.App.4th 830 (1998).