Alameda County

A hypothetical or speculative use of property is not a proper basis for determining damages caused by a city’s temporary construction easement, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The unanimous three-judge appellate panel overturned a jury’s decision to award a Fremont homeowner $195,000 in temporary severance damages. The First District ruled that the trial court judge improperly permitted the jury to consider compensation for hypothetical — rather than actual — injuries. » read more | add to cart

The city of Dublin in Alameda County bears little resemblance to the English countryside of the late 1800s. The scene is not sylvan, to put it mildly. Instead of a landscape of mills, farms and contented cows, we see one of the Bay Area’s fastest growing cities, proliferating with enormous apartment blocks and office buildings. Although there are easily accessible, undeveloped hills rising just beyond the west and east sides of Dublin, it’s doubtable that Constable, the painter of lowing herds and hayricks, would have memorialized the town on canvas.

What Dublin and the English countryside of 100 years ago have in common, however, are carefully planned villages that attempt to combine city living, including factory work and shopping, with the healthfulness of open space and farms. » read more | add to cart

Like boxers vying for a title, two very different ideas of planning are competing for the future of Alameda Point, a 770-acre community carved out of the former military base next to Alameda, the city. » read more | add to cart

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 owner of two parcels that the City of Berkeley wants to merge may not avoid the merger with a paper transfer of title to his wife, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. However, the court stopped short of canceling the grant deed, ruling only that the city may be entitled to an injunction prohibiting further transfer of the property title.

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One of the most ambitious transit-oriented redevelopment projects in the state is taking shape in an unlikely location. Union City, a mostly working-class suburb just north of Fremont in Alameda County, is converting about 175 acres into a dense urban environment surrounding what city planners hope will become a regional transit hub. » read more | add to cart

The City of Alameda’s approval of a development and disposition agreement (DDA) with a developer for restoration of an historic theater and construction of a new theater and parking structure was a “project” under the California Environmental Quality Act, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling was a loss for historic preservation advocates who did not challenge the City of Alameda’s environmental review of the DDA when the city approved the study. » read more | add to cart

Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch sent shock waves rippling through California’s water community in late March when he ordered the giant pumps at the heart of the State Water Project (SWP) to shut down, potentially cutting off water to two-thirds of the state’s population.

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