Marc D. Jonas

Biography

Among his notable and distinguished accomplishments, Marc Jonas has been named by Best Lawyers in America® the 2023 Lawyer of the Year for Litigation in Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia Area. He received the same recognition in 2021 and 2018. In 2017, he was Lawyer of the Year for Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia Area.

Marc is co-chair of the firm's Land Use and Zoning practice group. He has well-recognized experience in real estate, land use/zoning, and municipal law matters, representing individuals, businesses, institutions, non-profit organizations, and local government boards.

In his extensive career, Marc has appeared as counsel in Pennsylvania state and federal courts in matters involving land use and real estate law.

Marc’s diverse practice has included the representation of developers of residential, commercial, institutional, and religious land uses. He has represented neighbors concerned about the impacts of certain proposed land uses. He has successfully obtained land use approvals despite significant local opposition. His experience and credentials have motivated other attorneys to retain Marc as an expert witness in an assortment of legal matters, ranging from condemnation to family law. Some of his recent accomplishments:

• Land use approval on behalf of a nonprofit organization for athletic fields to be constructed in 2 phases -- the first consisting of a synthetic turf field with lighting; the second to include a natural grass athletic field, a baseball field, playground, parking area, and lighting. The project required both conditional use and land development approvals. The township granted the request for a land development waiver which enabled the client to accelerate its timetable for the project.
• Zoning and land development approvals for a family-owned developer to permit a new automobile dealership on land occupied by 2 other automobile dealerships. The approvals included convincing the local municipality to forego some current land development requirements based on the history of the property and prior approvals.
• A zoning ordinance map amendment for a large multi-building, mixed use property to permit a new medical office building on land previously earmarked for parking.
• Securing a number of zoning variances to pave the way for a mixed use residential and commercial property comprised of 3 multi-story buildings with 95 dwelling units and 16,250 square feet of commercial space.
• A zoning ordinance amendment for a ground-mounted solar array to service a local municipal authority.
• After 24 public hearings, helping to convince the municipality to reject a challenge to its zoning ordinance, a challenge, which if sustained, would have transformed a pristine agricultural property into an array of intrusive, oversized commercial uses.
• Successfully represented Penn State Abington, the Montgomery County campus of Penn State University, in its effort to construct a new academic building on its campus following the township’s enactment of zoning ordinance text and map amendments. The three-story, LEED-certified building, now underway, will provide academic space with state-of-the-art classrooms and technology. With over 74,000 ft2, this is the first new building on the campus since the 1970’s.
• Successfully represented a commercial real estate developer in its effort to transform a 2-acre infill property in Glenside (Montgomery County) from an existing array of old office buildings into a new mixed-use development of 4-story buildings, comprising apartments, retail space, office space, and related amenities.

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Marc serves as solicitor to the Zoning Hearing Boards of Towamencin, Upper Merion, and Lower Salford Townships. Mr. Jonas has been qualified as an expert witness in zoning law in the Courts of Common Pleas of Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties and provided an expert opinion in a federal case arising out of Philadelphia. He has published articles in the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, the Tri-State Real Estate Journal, Commercial Investment Real Estate Journal, Township Solicitor, The Legal Intelligencer, and The American Bar Association ABA Journal. He was interviewed by Lawyers Weekly USA with regard to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, and by Alan Colmes for the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes regarding the same federal statute (watch video).

Marc previously served as solicitor to the Montgomery County Development Corporation, a nonprofit corporation established to serve as the administrator for business loan programs offered by the County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he was appointed by the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners to serve as Chairman of the Board of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.

Marc offers his professional expertise and experience to work with clients who choose mediation, a form of dispute resolution, to resolve their conflicts outside of the courtroom or town meeting. This approach to resolving issues in real estate, land use and zoning disputes presents significant opportunities for dialog and control in a non-adversarial manner, allowing the parties to maintain a working relationship while lessening or eliminating the areas of conflict in a more informal, and less time-consuming and less expensive process.

For more than 15 years, Marc has served as the chair/co-chair of the Montgomery Bar Association’s Real Estate committee, a committee whose membership includes real estate, municipal, and land use law practitioners. Under his leadership, that committee twice was recognized by the Montgomery Bar Association as the Committee of the Year. He previously served as a member of the Association’s Judiciary Committee which evaluates judicial candidates, and he served on the Board of Directors of the Montgomery Bar Association.

Memberships

Marc is a member of the Pennsylvania and Montgomery Bar Associations.

Bar Admission

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Education

Marc is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received his J.D. from its law school in 1972.

Honors and Awards

• Named the Best Lawyers in America® Lawyer of the Year for Litigation in Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia area, 2023
• Named the Best Lawyers in America® Lawyer of the Year for Litigation in Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia area, 2021
• Named the Best Lawyers in America® Lawyer of the Year for Litigation in Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia area, 2018
• Named the Best Lawyers in America® Lawyer of the Year for Land Use and Zoning Law in the Philadelphia area, 2017
• Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of Land Use and Zoning law and Litigation in Land Use and Zoning law, 2012 – present
• Selected for inclusion in Real Estate/Land Use law by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2014 - present
• Selected by peers for inclusion in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers magazine, 2004 – present
• Rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell

Clerkship Experience

Marc served as a law clerk to President Judge James S. Bowman of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Military Service

Marc served in the United States Air Force Reserve.