Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

The City of Fresno is close to adopting a general plan that would allow the city’s population to increase by two-thirds within the existing sphere of influence. The proposed general plan, which contains many New Urbanist concepts, presents a marked departure from past Fresno planning practices that encouraged low-density development on the fringes.

"For the first time, we’re not proposing to extend our sphere of influence line outward," Fresno Development Department Director Nick Yovino said. "For ...

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A major industrial project in the City of Los Angeles has received approval from the city’s new Central Area Planning Commission. However, opponents of the "Cornfield" development next to Chinatown have vowed to continue fighting with a variety of legal and political tools. (See CP&DR Economic Development, January 2000)

The commission voted 4-2 in late July to approve Majestic Reality’s plans for a 950,000-square-foot industrial and warehouse development on 32 acres of the 47-acre Cornfield. The commi...

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The City of Los Angeles has chosen a developer for a wholesale produce market and additional manufacturing space on a site where a controversial state prison was once proposed. The city chose Richard Meruelo to develop the 20-acre parcel near Washington Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue near L.A.’s Eastside neighborhood.

In the mid-1980s, activists fought a proposal from Gov. George Deukmejian to build a high-rise prison on the site. Residents of the heavily Latino district said the state was d...

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It goes without saying that in land-use planning, as in most other aspects of governance, where you stand depends on where you sit. One person’s sprawl is another person’s prosperity; one jurisdiction’s responsible stewardship of resources is another jurisdiction’s lost opportunity for economic development.

When you get this kind of conflict in California land-use planning, usually you wind up in court — simply because there is no other forum for appeal. And so it is not surprising that the City of Br...

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In an important water rights ruling, the state Supreme Court has held that farmers’ long-standing water rights superceded water claims by downstream cities. The unanimous court ruled in favor of seven alfalfa and dairy farmers in the Mojave Valley that had refused to join a pact that allocated water to more than 200 farmers, cities and other entities without regard to historical water rights. "This preserves the farmers’ position at basically the top of the water chain," Robert Dougherty, t...

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A sharply divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an environmental impact statement prepared for expansion of the Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii. The court majority ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration had taken the "hard look" at the project’s impact on native habitat required by the National Environmental Policy Act, while a dissenting judge called the FAA’s study inadequate and deceptive.

The FAA and the Hawaii Department of Transportation proposed repa...

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The State Supreme Court decertified a Second District Court of Appeal opinion that overturned portions of Santa Monica’s rent control law.

The appellate court ruled that Santa Monica could not modify conditions established by state law under which landlords can increase rents for voluntarily vacated units. The court also held that the city cannot demand more information than state law requires when registering rent-controlled units. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, June 2000.)

In reviewing the Cos...

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An appellate court has ruled against environmentalists in a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit because the project in question was not approved and because environmentalists did not exhaust their administrative remedies.

In a peculiar case from Rancho Cucamonga, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, ruled that the lawsuit brought by opponents of a 40-home subdivision was moot because the city denied the developer’s design review application for a previously approved su...

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Demand for industrial space in Los Angeles County remains high, but development is not keeping pace. Instead, large-scale industrial projects are going to the Inland Empire, where empty land is plentiful and most local governments have open arms.

The trend is distressing to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and some other business boosters, who note that Los Angeles County manufacturing employment has declined in recent years. The manufacturing segment now accounts for only about 13% of...

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"Your money or your life," says the hold-up man in an old Jack Benny joke. "Didn’t you hear me, buddy?" the irate gunman says after Jack fails to answer. "I said, your money or your life!"

At last, Jack responds: "I’m thinking, I’m thinking!"

Jack Benny’s difficulty in making up his mind mirrors my struggle with Pacific Shores Center, a 106-acre office park currently under construction in Redwood City. It is true that the project — a group of 10 office buildings containing a...

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