Ari D. Bruening

Ari Bruening represents clients in land use planning and zoning, entitlement, and complex real estate transactions. Mr. Bruening has a long history of working with owners of large properties to establish robust strategies to establish visions and strategies, position properties, obtain legal approvals, and plan and fund infrastructure. He has worked extensively with local officials and written zoning ordinances, development agreements, general plans, and other documents for some of the largest landholdings in America. He has also been a key part of many complex development projects, advising on transportation, entitlement, transactional, and project finance matters.

As the former CEO of Envision Utah, Mr. Bruening has worked extensively with state and local officials, as well as the private sector, on policies and visions relating to housing, water, transportation, economic development, and even healthcare and education. He has built relationships, knowledge, and trust.

Mr. Bruening is widely viewed as an expert on Utah growth- and planning-related issues including housing affordability, water, and transportation and has given numerous presentations and guest lectures on these and other topics. In addition, he has been quoted in dozens of newspaper articles and broadcast news stories. He led Governor Herbert’s effort to establish a recommended state water plan that has influenced water policy for many years.

With relationships throughout the public and private sectors, Mr. Bruening is able to work seamlessly and collaboratively with approval authorities and development partners to achieve client goals.

Representative Matters

• Deseret Ranches of Florida. Over almost a decade, Mr. Bruening helped lead the planning and entitlement work for the 300,000-acre Deseret Ranches of Florida. Mr. Bruening’s work led to a 50-year-plus strategic plan for preserved natural communities, ongoing agriculture, and quality communities that include regional local multimodal transportation and a full spectrum of housing, commercial, and industrial uses. Working with multiple counties, Mr. Bruening’s team conducted long-range planning on multiple fronts that resulted in adoption in the county comprehensive plan through one of the most complicated land use approval systems in the nation. The team also influenced regional transportation planning to open up access through, for example, identifying a new expressway into the center of the property that was formally adopted by the expressway authority.
• Daybreak. As Kennecott Land Company’s counsel for the nationally-recognized Daybreak project, Mr. Bruening was instrumental in the project. He renegotiated land use approvals to significantly increase the allowable units, negotiated multiple land transfer agreements, reviewed and edited subdivision plats, drafted agreements with homebuilders, and advised on CC&R and owner association-related matters. He also worked with multiple cities, transportation agencies, and landowners to plan and advance a new light rail line into Daybreak so that it was built prior to development reaching the station areas. During the land transfer negotiations for the light rail line, Mr. Bruening negotiated the right to build a third station in Daybreak in the future—which is now built and operational.
• Point of the Mountain. On behalf of the Point of the Mountain Development Commission, Mr. Bruening led the visioning work for the area from Sandy to Lehi. The vision engaged numerous stakeholders and thousands and residents to lay the groundwork for the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority. New transportation connections that came out of the visioning work are now moving forward in various stages of planning and construction.

Previous Experience

• CEO and COO, Envision Utah, 2012–2025
• Partner, Grow & Bruening PC, 2009–2014
• Project Manager, Robert Grow Consulting, 2005–2012
• Associate, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, 2005–2009