North Natomas
A lawsuit challenging a habitat conservation plan for Sacramento's North Natomas area has been filed in federal court by a group of environmentalists. A popular tool promoted by the Clinton administration, HCPs are intended to end disputes with landowners over plants and animals covered by the Endangered Species Act.
Under the Natomas HCP, an acre of land is to be preserved for every two acres developed in the area, a few miles north of downtown Sacramento along Interstate 80. Habitat is to be protected for the threatened giant garter snake, the Swainson's hawk, and other plants and animals. Much of the land has been used for rice production and serves as winter habitat for waterfowl.
The suit was filed by a coalition that includes the National Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Friends of the Swainson's Hawk, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Sierra Club.
Environmentalists told the Sacramento Bee that they hoped the lawsuit — only the third filed to challenge a complete HCP — would force higher standards for all HCPs.
"There's a lot of endangered species in the Natomas region that are not getting enough protection," John Kostyack, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, told CP&DR. "It exemplifies all that is going wrong with the HCP process."
Kostyack said the plan ignores species' recovery needs. He also contended the land preservation plan is speculative. "There's no real basis for believing funding will be there to do that," he said.
The lawsuit is the latest dispute over North Natomas after earlier problems with failed development plans and flood control issues (See CP&DR, September 1994). Current plans call for mixed-use development.
The North Natomas HCP covers 53,000 acres in the city of Sacramento, Sacramento County and Sutter County. Only the city of Sacramento has so far approved the HCP for the 7,000 acres within its city limits. Grading has been completed for an initial phase of home construction, according to Gregory Thatch, an attorney who represents developers and landowners in the area. The lawsuit does not seek injunctive relief to stop construction, he said
Contacts:
Gregory Thatch, attorney, (916) 443-6956.
John Kostyack, National Wildlife Federation, (202) 797-6879.
Monterey County voters rejected a general plan initiative while sending mixed signals on a general plan update adopted by the county. Voters also rejected a 1,100-unit subdivision during a special election on Tuesday.
The "no" side won all four ballot measures, even though two of the no votes conflicted with each other in the contentious and confusing election with a low turnout.
In a split decision, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that the City of Riverside's requirement that poolrooms be closed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. is unconstitutional because it denies poolroom owners equal protection under the law.
Noting that the ordinance dates back to 1909, Acting Presiding Justice Thomas Hollenhorst wrote for the majority: "Unfortunately, times are different today, and there are many establishments that cater to idleness and are open all night. The City...
In a split decision, the California Supreme Court has once again expanded the scope of the anti-SLAPP law. This time, the court concluded that an allegation of racism in small-claims court and a complaint to the federal government does constitute the type of "issue of public significance" described in the law.
In overturning a ruling by the First District Court of Appeal, the five-member Supreme Court majority rejected the argument that a nonprofit organization's tenant counseling activities wer...
The lack of precise engineering plans in an environmental impact report's project description of a proposed gravel mine expansion did not violate the California Environmental Quality Act, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
"CEQA requires an EIR to reflect a good faith effort at full disclosure; it does not mandate perfection, nor does it require an analysis to be exhaustive," Justice James F. Thaxter wrote in the unanimous decision for the three-judge panel.
When considering an ...
The Del Mar City Council had enough evidence to deny a permit for a two-story home addition based on aesthetic grounds only, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled. In so doing, the court reversed San Diego County Superior Court Judge Lisa Guy-Schall's decision to grant the homeowner a writ of mandate requiring the city to issue the permit.
In overturning the trial judge, the appellate court found that Del Mar had not violated the landowner's civil rights under federal law. Significantl...
Elsewhere Near River City …
West Sacramento hopes to become home to a minor league baseball team in little more than a year. The 12-year-old city is forming a Joint Powers Authority with Yolo and Sacramento counties to issue $40 million worth of taxable bonds to build a 10,000-seat baseball stadium near the Sacramento River. The new owner of the Oakland A's Triple-A franchise, now located in Vancouver, B.C., wants to play ball in West Sacramento in April 2000.
Under the plan all three entities appr...
The defendants in an alleged SLAPP suit are entitled to attorneys fees even if the plaintiffs drop the case before the SLAPP motion to strike is heard, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.
The appellate panel overturned the ruling of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, saying that Kuhl's ruling "constitutes a nullification of an important part of California's anti-SLAPP legislation" because it denies the defendants monetary relief and relieves the plaintiffs of punis...
Santa Cruz Lumber Rules
Santa Cruz County supervisors are clamping down hard on the logging industry, and have approved "in concept" new ordinances that limit logging near residences, helicopter harvesting, and logging near riparian corridors.
The ordinances are expected to be presented to the state Board of Forestry next year as proposed rules that would impact only Santa Cruz County. The county is one of a handful of California coastal counties that have special authority to propose rules to the ni...
In Riverside County, the county supervisors have never been big fans of federal endangered species regulations. So it should be no surprise that the board recently granted individual home builders a exemption basically excusing them from complying with those regulations. But the supervisors were forced to rescind those regulations once a judge ruled against them.. The issue arose in the southwestern part of the county, home to the Quino checkerspot butterfly, which last year was listed as an endangere...
The state's new Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, ran for that office as a friend of the environment, and early indications are that he intends to have a high profile on environmental issues.
Lockyer mentioned protection of natural resources in his inaugural speech, and, in one of his first official acts, announced greater involvement by his department in a lawsuit to ban personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis, from Lake Tahoe. Since then, the Democrat from Alameda County has requested more money to beef...
When 5.7 million people say they want to shield local funding from grabbing hands – as they did in November -- that should be the end of the story. At least, that's what California's redevelopment agencies would hope after this annus horribilis in the redevelopment world.
In Year Three of the Great Recession, it's comforting to think that California has heard all the bad news it's going to hear. Or at least we're so accustomed to bad news, that we've stopped getting depressed by it. As a result, many of this year's top stories come with silver linings.
The no-growth vs. slow-growth vs. build-everything debate has become a faint murmur, since not much of anything is getting built anyway. What is getting built, though, is generally pleasing to the smart growth crowd.
Fans of infrastructure development have surely cheered the progress on projects like High Speed Rail and Los Angeles Metro's 30/10 Initiative. Then again, skeptics may be assuring themselves that these projects will never get built.
