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Tax, Budgeting, CEQA Initiatives Proposed

California voters could overhaul the state and local tax system, as well as the state budgeting process, in November. Ballot initiatives that would constrict state and local government funding, and, conversely, dramatically increase state and local government revenues are in circulation for signatures.

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Revised FEMA Flood Risk Maps Raise Ire

Many California cities and counties are wrestling with flood waters these days, but, perhaps more importantly, they are also wrestling with revised flood risk maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new maps have raised the consternation of local government officials, homeowners and developers in numerous locales, and in a few places the new maps are forcing reconsideration of growth plans.

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Development Outlook Remains Negative

It’s an exaggeration to say that 2010 will be the year in which nobody builds anything. But it might not be much of a stretch.

The consensus found in numerous prognostications from economists, academics and analysts is that a “normal” level of development activity is still two to four years away. In the meantime, as Chuck DiRocco, director of real estate research at PricewaterhouseCoopers summed up, “Now is not the time to develop.”

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The Biggest Stories Of 2009

Many people in the planning and development community are saying good riddance to 2009. It was a year marked by extreme financial distress for government agencies and private industry. If 2008 was a year to “do more with less,” then 2009 was a year to “do less with even less” – a year simply to hunker down and try to endure.

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The Emergence Of 2 Californias

California is often considered to be two different states – north and south. But when it comes to planning and urban development patterns, the state is more properly divided east and west, or possibly inland and coastal. The real estate boom of earlier this decade only exacerbated the differences between coastal cities and inland suburbs.

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Stewardship Council Created To Manage Delta

The package of water legislation approved by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger earlier this month may be the most ambitious attempt yet to address the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. However, the legislation angers and worries many interests in and around the Delta, including local government leaders concerned about their ability to approve development.

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Decision Time Nears For Local Initiatives

Formation of new cities, building-height limits in Santa Barbara and Ventura, and a developer-written specific plan for a vacant industrial site near Ukiah are among the land use proposals up for a vote in the November 3 municipal elections. At least 21 measures with land use implications are on the ballot in 12 different California jurisdictions.

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Kern County Approves Tejon Ranch Resort

A major residential and resort development on the Tejon Ranch has won unanimous approval from the Kern County Board of Supervisors. The project, known as Tejon Mountain Village, is proposed to have 3,450 housing units, two golf courses, 750 hotel rooms, a resort and extensive highway commercial development on about 5,000 acres east of Frazier Park.

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Panel Urges More Work Before Regional GHG Targets Set

A committee of experts appointed by the California Air Resources Board should come up with a list of best management practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by new development by January 2010. The practices, combined with estimates of future transportation demand, should provide the basis for the board to establish regional targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions later in 2010, according to the advisory committee.

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Football Stadium Lawsuit Settled

Forced into negotiations by the state Legislature, the City of Walnut has dropped its lawsuit contesting the adequacy of an environmental impact report for a proposed professional football stadium and 3 million-square-foot entertainment complex in the neighboring City of Industry.

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