Paul R. Gougelman

Paul is a senior member of our Municipal Government Law division. He handles municipal law, land use, planning and zoning matters for governments. His work includes negotiating development agreements and approvals, drafting municipal codes and plans, advising municipal staffs, managers and attorneys, handling public hearings and counseling elected officials, as well as advocating for municipalities on legislative issues in his field.

He currently serves as Town Attorney for the Town of Indialantic and has served in that capacity since the late 1980s.  He served as City Attorney for the City of Melbourne for eighteen years, City Attorney for the City of Cocoa Beach for two years, and Town Attorney for the Town of Melbourne Beach for twenty-four years.

Paul also currently serves as General Counsel for the Space Coast League of Cities. He has served as special counsel to the cities of Maitland, Longwood, and Lake Mary and as a hearing officer for Orange County, Florida.

Paul has a strong background in transportation planning law. He has been General Counsel for the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, the statewide governmental agency consisting of 27 Metropolitan Planning Organizations, for over twenty years.  He also has served as General Counsel for the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization for over twenty years.

Paul has a significant background in representing community redevelopment districts. He has assisted several cities in creating four community redevelopment agencies and has represented several such agencies in various municipalities.

He also serves as a member of our Public Land Use and Zoning Group, which handles land use matters for numerous municipalities. The Group also provides outside counsel services on planning, zoning and land use matters to additional Florida cities on an as needed basis.

In recent years, these cities have included Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Sunrise, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Coconut Creek, Dania Beach, Cape Coral, Coral Gables and Miami Springs. Paul is available to assist various South Florida and Central Florida municipalities as needed.

A believer in public service, Paul was appointed by three different Florida Governors, both Republican and Democrat, to serve on the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council for thirteen years, where he chaired the Project Review Committee which provided oversight and regulatory review of over thirty developments of regional impact.

He chaired the Brevard County Charter Commission in the mid-1990s, which brought charter government to Brevard County.  County voters had twice rejected a county charter in Brevard County, but the Charter that his Commission wrote received over 60% of the vote.

Paul also served as a member and Chairman of the Brevard County Planning and Zoning Board for many years. In the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Harbor City Volunteer Ambulance Squad, a public ambulance squad with over 100 employees and 500 volunteers. During his Chairmanship, the Squad was awarded the distinction of the top ambulance squad in America at the annual Clincon competitions for emergency rescue.

Paul speaks and publishes frequently on municipal, planning, zoning and land use issues at Bar and continuing education conferences. Paul grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, moving there in 1958 from Chicago. Prior to becoming a member of the Florida Bar, Paul worked for both the Florida House of Representatives and the Broward County League of Cities in the 1970s.