CP&DR

Revenue Neutrality Does Not Prevent Incorporations

May 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

As the debate over revenue-neutrality continues at the state Capitol and in local board chambers, something strange is happening. New cities are incorporating anyway. There is no tidal wave of incorporations, but the City of Laguna Woods in Orange County started business March 24, and the Contra Costa County community of Oakley will become a city on July 1. Also, leaders of Elk Grove incorporation appear near an agreement with Sacramento County officials, who bitterly fought the 1997 incorporation of ...

Lawmakers return to Public Bonds; Bills to Link Water, Planning Stalled by Builders, Wet Winter

May 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

General obligations bonds to rehabilitate California's crumbling infrastructure and build new public facilities are rising toward the top of the state Legislature's agenda now that Gov. Davis' education reform package is complete. The bonds, which could start hitting the ballot as soon as next March, would pay for everything from roads and water systems, to parks, libraries and homes. Lawmakers have introduced $30 billion worth of general obligation bond proposals. Some of the proposals compete with o...

MIll Reuse Program Offers Rural Towns Another Chance

May 1, 1999

Economic Development, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields redevelopment program is geared toward inner cities, but state officials would like to bring Brownfields aid to rural areas where timber mills have closed. For more than 100 years, timber companies erected sawmills all over northern and central California. However, as nature and government regulators restricted the timber supply, many of those sawmills closed, leaving a huge hole in the economy of the rural towns that grew up around the m...

Amphitheatre and Speedway Find a Home in Yuba County

Apr 1, 1999

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 04 Apr 1999

Auto racetracks and rock concert venues are often seen as noisy land uses with the potential to generate monster traffic jams. Rare is the homeowner who wants a speedway or concert amphitheater in his back yard. Thus, the lack of opposition to plans to build a speedway and amphitheater in southern Yuba County is extraordinary — but no more extraordinary than the fact that this $90 million development is pegged for one of California's poorest counties. Preliminary grading and road work has commenced ...

Cities Struggle To Regulate Adult Business

Apr 1, 1999

Adult businesses, Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 04 Apr 1999

They raise the ire of homeowners and merchants, councilmembers and supervisors, police chiefs and chamber of commerce leaders. They are seen as blights on a town, attractions for the wrong element. They should be run out of town, is the common sentiment.

San Diego Waterfront Continues Transformation

Apr 1, 1999

Paul Shigley, Public Development, Vol. 14 No. 04 Apr 1999

The San Diego waterfront, already the scene of a growing San Diego Convention Center, is on the verge of adding 750 hotel rooms, a massive retail village and an expanded public park. The project is the first phase of the Port of San Diego's South Embarcadero Redevelopment Project. Two to three year's worth of construction is likely to begin this spring, according to Ralph Hicks, the port's director of land use and planning. The project involves three separate undertakings: adding a 750-room tower to ...

San Bernadino County Planner Indicted for Hiding Public Records; Valery Pilmer Denies Wrongdoing in Failed Desert Landfill Propo

Mar 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 03 Mar 1999

The lengthy story of a proposal to bury Los Angeles County trash in San Bernardino County took a surprising turn when San Bernardino County's long-time planning director was indicted on charges of allegedly hiding, altering or destroying public records and lying about it in a sworn statement. Land Use Services Director Valery Pilmer pleaded not guilty after being indicted in late January by a special San Bernardino County grand jury investigating the Rail-Cycle landfill project. She has since been pla...

Smart Growth Hits the Agenda of California and National Leaders; Al Gore Supports ‘Livability Initiative' as an Elixir for Subu

Mar 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 03 Mar 1999

State and national politicians are jumping on the anti-sprawl bandwagon like never before, with no less than Vice President Al Gore launching a "livability initiative." Gore's proposal, which President Clinton mentioned during the State of the Union speech, promotes mass transit, open space conservation and development within existing cities. Pundits expect Gore may make the issue a cornerstone of his presidential campaign. Although new California Gov. Gray Davis has yet to discuss the subject...

El Dorado County May Reconsider Long-Range Development Plans

Mar 1, 1999

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 03 Mar 1999

A Superior Court ruling invalidating the environmental impact report for El Dorado County's general plan is likely to reopen debate over the amount of growth allowed in the county and puts into question the future of several large developments. In a 142-page ruling, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Cecily Bond determined that the EIR violated the California Environmental Quality Act in 23 different ways. The judge found the county did not adequately address, among other things, impacts on w...

L.A. County OKs Newhall Ranch Development Project; But Approval Raises Familiar Water Supply Issues

Jan 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

By importing water from at least three sources, the largest housing subdivision ever processed by Los Angeles County could actually enhance the health of the wild river that splits the project site, according to proponents. Opponents of Newhall Ranch, however, see the proposed 12,000-acre development as a threat to the Santa Clara River, the region's last undammed river, and to Ventura County farmers and urban water customers. No matter who is right, Newhall Ranch is being closely watched statewide by...