CP&DR

EIR Delays Earn Civil Rights Suit: City Can't Blame Applicant for Document's Tardiness

Aug 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 08 Aug 1999

A city has an obligation to complete an environmental impact report and may not just continually reject an EIR prepared by a developer's consultant, the Fourth District Court of Appeals has ruled. The court also ruled that foot-dragging on an EIR by the City of Redlands gives the developer of a proposed housing complex a right to seek damages under the federal Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The City of Redlands three times rejected a proposed draft EIR prepared by consultants of a ho...

Second Diablo Grande EIR Rejected by Superior Court

Aug 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 08 Aug 1999

Opponents of a 5,000-unit subdivision and golf resort in the western foothills of Stanislaus County continued their courtroom winning streak when Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Donald Shaver ruled a supplemental environmental impact report was inadequate. In a July decision, Shaver said the county "failed to adequately evaluate the environmental impacts and the cumulative impacts, failed to accurately describe one portion of the project and failed to recirculate the SEIR." In the fi...

Coastal Act: Lot Line Adjustment Qualifies as Coastal Act Development

Aug 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 08 Aug 1999

A proposed lot line adjustment constitutes a development under the Coastal Act of 1976, even though the proposal would not result in more parcels, the Second District Court of Appeals has ruled. The decision means the Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over the proposed lot line adjustment. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel upheld the decision of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Yaffe, who compared a lot line adjustment to a lot split. "In either case, the reconfigurat...

Coastal Commission Alters UCSB Housing Plan

Aug 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Public Development, Vol. 14 No. 08 Aug 1999

University of California, Santa Barbara, officials proposed building 200 dorm rooms a little too close to wetlands, the California Coastal Commission had decided. The commission approved the student housing but ordered the university to keep the planned construction at least 100 feet from a slough, coastal pools and other wetlands. The decision requires a major redesign of the San Rafael housing addition and will delay the project by a year, according to Tye Simpson, UCSB director of physical and env...

Schools Use SB 50 To Hike Impact Fees

Aug 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Vol. 14 No. 08 Aug 1999

A 1998 law that builders hoped would keep a lid on school impact fees is instead becoming a tool for some districts to charge far higher fees than builders envisioned. The 1998 measure, known as SB 50, capped school fees at $1.93 per square foot. The Legislature passed SB 50 as part of a deal in which developers then agreed to support a $9.2 billion school facility bond on the November 1998 state ballot. Voters subsequently approved Proposition 1A. (See CP&DR June 1999.) However, SB 50 al...

General Plans: City Must Process Application During General Plan Update

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

A city may not use an interim ordinance to suspend the processing of development applications during a general plan update, the Fourth District Court of Appeals has ruled. The appellate panel threw out a City of San Juan Capistrano interim ordinance that stopped the processing of applications for certain large parcels. The ordinance, first adopted in June 1998, stalled Concorde Development's application for the 356-unit Whispering Hills subdivision and golf course on the eastern edge of the south coas...

Disabilities Act Applies to Zoning: Court Bolsters Group Homes, Treatment Centers

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act applies to local zoning ordinances, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. The decision stemmed from a City of Antioch urgency ordinance that prevented a methadone treatment clinic from opening on an appropriately zoned site. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel reversed a ruling by District Court Judge Susan Illston, who agreed ADA applies to local zoning but refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the city. ...

Exactions: Connection, Capacity Charges Not Subject to AB 1600

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

Sewer connection fees and capacity charges are not the same as development fees imposed as a condition of project approval, meaning they are not subject to the conditions of the Mitigation Fee Act, The Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court decided that a hotel builder was not entitled to a refund of unspent sewer connection fees, as the developer might be to unspent development fees. The unanimous three-judge panel ruled that the Government Code (§ 66013) specifically excludes sewer con...

Landmark Preservation Backers Gain Cal Supremes Review

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

The California Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of a 1994 law that allows religious organizations to exempt themselves from local historic preservation laws. The court agreed to take the case of East Bay Local Development Corp. v. State of California, 69 Cal.App.4th 1033 (1999), in which the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that the exemption for religious groups did not violate the federal and state constitutional ban on establishing religion. Historic preservation advoc...

State Tries to Halt Local Bond Sale

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

Treasurer Phil Angelides and Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed papers in San Bernardino County Superior Court to halt a planned $15 million bond sale by two Central Valley cities. The bonds would finance a housing development 300 miles away in San Bernardino County. Angelides and Lockyer filed an answer to a validation action submitted by the Rancho Lucerne Valley Public Financing Authority. The Superior Court will now conduct a trail to determine if the bond sale can go forward. Waterford, a 6,60...

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