Basic Training Instructors
Instructors in the Land Use Academy are recognized and credentialed professionals in their respective fields. The current roster of instructors includes:
University of Connecticut, Land Use Academy Director, Land Use Educator
860-345-5229
Bruce Hyde is an AICP certified planner who has worked in the planning field for over 30 years. He has served in a wide variety of positions including city planner, regional planner, private sector consultant and local planning commissioner.
Green Valley Institute
University of Connecticut, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture
860-486-1215
Paula Stahl, a licensed landscape architect (ASLA, LLA) and an AICP certified planner, works as a land use educator with the Green Valley Institute. The Green Valley Institute is a partnership between the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Quinebaug-Shetucket National Heritage Corridor, also known as The Last Green Valley. Paula works with municipal officials in the 35 towns in the Heritage Corridor to find ways to protect the region’s cultural and natural resources as its economy grows.
With a dual background in Finance (BS, MBA) and Landscape Architecture (BS), she brings a unique perspective to community planning issues through workshops and presentations. Her topics include Economics of Land Use, Growth and Rural Character, Subdivision Design and Building Sustainable Communities.
Active in her community, she is Chair of her town’s Planning & Zoning Commission and sits on numerous local boards and committees.
Partner, Halloran & Sage, LLP
Member, Planning and Zoning Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association
860-297-4695
Richard Roberts represents municipalities in the full range of their legal needs. He provides legal counsel to them in real estate acquisitions and sales, land use, charter revisions, drafting and review of ordinances, and property tax issues. He also provides legal counsel to individuals, partnerships, limited-liability companies and corporations in real estate acquisitions and sales, financing transactions, general business affairs and contracts and agreements. He represents lending institutions and borrowers in secured, unsecured, asset-based and non-traditional financing transactions as well as in various state and federal regulatory matters, including securities, banking and land use and zoning matters.
Mr. Roberts regularly presents seminars to attorneys, bankers, accountants and other professionals on topics that include commercial lending, limited liability companies and other forms of business entities, real estate and land title law. He is a member of the Connecticut Association of Municipal Attorneys. He has served as Republican Town Chairman in Wethersfield since 1995 and has been a member of the Wethersfield Planning and Zoning Commission since 1991.
Partner, Halloran & Sage, LLP
Member, Planning and Zoning Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association
860-297-4662
Kenneth Slater practices primarily in the areas of land use and environmental law. Mr. Slater has extensive experience in land use matters, and he is frequently consulted to prosecute and defend administrative appeals to the Superior Court regarding the issuance or denial of zoning, planning and wetland permit approvals and enforcement matters. He also regularly serves as counsel to municipalities in land use matters. He is also experienced in complex land use matters involving constitutional and environmental claims and statutory remedies.
He also has significant experience in environmental law matters. He routinely represents current and former owners of real property regarding legal issues relating to transfer or remediation of contaminated properties and in the prosecution and defense of environmental cost recovery actions. He advises businesses, property owners, municipalities and individuals regarding environmental regulation, permitting and enforcement. He appears regularly before federal and state environmental regulatory and siting agencies and federal and state courts regarding environmental matters. He served as lead counsel in several appeals to the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts involving important issues in land use law. He also lectures on a variety of environmental and land use law topics.
Attorney at Law, Branse, Willis & Knapp, LLC
860-659-3735
Mark K. Branse is an Attorney practicing law in Glastonbury.
Mr. Branse is a former Planning Director holding a Masters Degree in government from the
Fels Institute of Local and State Government, Wharton Graduate School, University of
Pennsylvania. He is also a former member of the Glastonbury Town Plan and Zoning
Commission and a former member of the Glastonbury Redevelopment Agency.
Mr. Branse provides, or has provided, representation and/or legal consultation to land use
agencies in more than two dozen municipalities and has represented applicants and
neighborhood associations in more than 70 towns. He is currently Town Attorney of
Griswold, and Scotland, as well as Special Land Use or Planning Counsel of Andover,
Bridgewater, Canterbury, Eastford, East Haddam, Marlborough, Middlefield, New Hartford,
Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Sherman, Westbrook and Willington.
Mr. Branse is a past Chairman and Secretary of the Planning & Zoning Section of the
Connecticut Bar Association and is a current member of the Executive Committee. He has
conducted seminars under the auspices of the Connecticut Bar Association, the
Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association, the Connecticut Association
of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, the Connecticut Association of
Wetland Scientists, the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, the Windham
Council of Governments, the Council of Governments of Central Naugatuck Valley, the
Connecticut Association of Zoning Enforcement Officers, and the Land Use Education
Partnership, among others. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Land Use
Academy.
Partner, Secor, Cassid, & McPortland
Member, Planning and Zoning Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association
203-757-9261
Gail E. McTaggart is a principal in the law firm of Secor, Cassidy, & McPartland with offices in Southbury, Waterbury and Washington Connecticut. Her areas of expertise are land use, municipal law, real estate development and transactions, and commercial law. She has served as Town Attorney for New Fairfield, Southbury, Middlebury and Roxbury. In addition, she has served as land use counsel for the Town of New Fairfield and is special land use counsel to Middlebury on Affordable Housing and senior housing appeals.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. McTaggart was a secondary and college biology teacher for eight years. Ms. McTaggart received her B.A. degree in biology from the California State University at Fresno and received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut. Ms. McTaggart also serves on the Connecticut Association of Municipal Attorneys Executive Board, the CBA Real Property Section Executive Committee, the CBA Planning and Zoning Section Executive Committee and is a member of the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee. She has briefed and argued many land use appeals before the Connecticut Superior, Appellate and Supreme Courts; she has presented numerous seminars on land use throughout the State.
