CP&DR's Top Stories of 2017

What is it about duplexes that make them such a popular topic? And why did only one CEQA case make the top five legal stories of the year?

The pandemic, racial injustice, an end to California's population growth -- has California planning ever seen a year like this before?

The state’s housing shortage and affordability crisis yet again dominated CP&DR’s coverage.

With the economy humming along, innovative ideas sprouting up around the state, and, of course, the occasional dispute, 2015 was as lively a year for land use as any other in recent memory. To mark the new year, CP&DR presents its most-read stories of 2015. 

The difference between California and, sadly, many other states is that our decline is taking place by choice.

Locals officials are agents of the state when they are adopting an SB 10 ordinance, thus allowing them to overrule density caps imposed by voters, judges say.

New legislation would try to give both cities and developers something they want, while putting guardrails on builder's remedy projects. Meanwhile, HCD revoked Portola Valley's housing element approval. 

Concluding that the Attorney General's Office is likely to win its case against the recalcitrant city, the judge granted both temporary relief and a preliminary injunction while the case moves forward.

This year's land use and housing bills may focus on refining recent overwhelming policy change rather than pushing new policies forward.

Grant program would focus on commercial-to-residential conversions, community land trusts social housing, and more. Whether the idea will get through Congress is another story -- but it's part of a big Biden effort on housing supply and affordability.

Appellate court says revised disposition and development agreement was not merely a "quasi-judicial action" under the redevelopment wind-down law.

Recent rulings from the high-profile cities of Berkeley and Beverly Hills got a lot of publicity. But less publicized settlement agreements from Davis and Clovis show just how scared cities are getting about housing litigation.