Larry Sokoloff

The downtown in the East Bay city of Hayward has many features that any redevelopment agency would envy — an Amtrak station, a Bay Area Rapid Transit station, historic buildings, and a modern grocery store with additional shops. Soon to come is a 12-screen movie theatre and more retail shops. But what may be helping the downtown area even more is years of work to create additional housing in and around downtown, within walking distance of BART and its connections to jobs in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties.

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The Salton Sea sits likes a time bomb in the desert, serving up a brew of bad smells, turgid waters and the potential to increase air pollution in an area where thousands of homes are planned. But under a proposal making its way through the Legislature, some of the sea’s lurking hazards may be stopped. Instead, the Salton Sea may be shrunk to a third of its current 240,000 acres and revived as a recreational lake for sport fish and migrating birds. All it will take is billions of dollars and at least 75 years of maintenance. » read more | add to cart

Placer County is finalizing its first land conservation plan, designed to keep 60,000 acres from being developed in the rapidly-growing region northeast of Sacramento. An initial conservation map for the western part of Placer County was adopted by the Board of Supervisors during late January, and a final map could be approved later this year. » read more | add to cart

Hundreds upon hundreds of real estate developments, planning efforts, economic development projects and related matters have received coverage in the pages of CP&DR during the past 20 years. We present here an update on some of the most important, and some of the weirder, stories from that period — while keeping in mind that most of these stories still have not ended.

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It’s easy to overlook the San Diego River, especially as it reaches the final stretch of its 52-mile journey from the inland mountains to San Diego’s Mission Bay. The river is not a focal point of Mission Valley, as it winds past the parking lots of hotels, shopping centers and Qualcomm Stadium.

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When the Army closed the doors at Fort Ord in 1994, Monterey County was presented with an unparalleled opportunity to create a new town out of prime real estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

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A lawsuit challenging a Wal-Mart store on the grounds that it would create downtown urban decay was rejected by the Third District Court of Appeal. The court did rule, however, that the Central Valley city of Anderson needed to require additional money to pay for the project’s fair-share for improvements to a freeway interchange.

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The City of Oceanside, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, is preparing for a major civic improvement: rehabilitation of a 465-acre former sand quarry for parkland and public buildings. However, financing for the project — estimated to cost more than $100 million over 25 years — is far from certain.

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If there was ever a city that needed to roll the dice and get lucky, it's Richmond. Facing problems of poverty, crime and budget deficits, the city really could use a new pair of shoes.

The city's plight might explain why the City Council recently made a controversial deal with an Indian tribe to allow the development of a casino on prime real estate on San Francisco Bay.

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Stockton's inland shipping port is poised to triple its capacity if port officials can stave off a lawsuit filed by environmentalists and port neighbors.

At issue is a plan to enlarge the port by 1,400 acres of land on the San Joaquin River that the Stockton Port District acquired from the federal government three years ago.

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