Dakota Carruthers helps clients navigate the full life cycle of zoning and development approvals, from preliminary entitlement research to rezoning to land disturbance and final building permits. Her background in municipal and private planning and development informs her interactions with clients, planning staff, architects, engineers, and local stakeholders, helping her successfully navigate political nuances for clients and build relationships with third parties that are invaluable to a land use project. Clients and her peers at Parker Poe have turned to her as the project manager for a range of developments, including involving commercial and residential real estate, eminent domain, utility-scale solar, and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
As clients are selecting sites, Dakota helps them assess historical zoning and how that aligns with their business goals. This includes handling open records requests, uncovering past code enforcement violations, verifying current zoning, and determining applicable development regulations. She then manages the public hearing process when needed, walking clients through the applications and hearings with cities and counties to secure rezonings, conditional use permits, and variances. This includes representing clients at neighborhood meetings, board of appeals meetings, planning commission meetings, and city council or board of commissioners meetings. She also helps clients secure final plat approvals, land disturbance permits, building permits, certificates of occupancy, and code compliance following eminent domain actions.
Supplementary to standard entitlement and development processes, Dakota navigates varying interpretations of ordinance language and proposes text amendments to meet client goals. In the event of eminent domain actions or site redevelopments, she assists with code compliance measures and permitting, as needed, to address site, building or sign non-conformities.
Dakota began her career as a planner for the City of Woodstock, Georgia. Her role included evaluating rezoning and variance petitions, creating and revising city ordinances, and presenting recommendations to city officials and the public. She later worked directly for a residential developer, managing land planning, acquisition, and entitlements, including obtaining all necessary zoning and development approvals.