Two bills that would require greater consideration of fire safety in land use planning appear likely to reach the governor's desk before the Legislature recesses its regular session on September 11. Moreover, a late move to link the fire planning bills to disaster relief legislation could increase the chances that Gov. Schwarzenegger will actually sign the bills.

The state Supreme Court will review an appellate court ruling that California's prevailing wage law does not apply to a charter city's public works projects that are funded exclusively with city revenues.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has successfully defended against a City of Long Beach lawsuit that challenged numerous aspects of a new high school's environmental impact report.

An appellate court has upheld San Diego County's reassessment of the Fashion Valley Shopping Mall in San Diego. The court concluded that Equitable Life Assurance Company's transfer of the mall's title to the operating company of a limited liability corporation, in which Equitable owned a 50% stake, amounted to a 100% transfer of ownership and thus triggered a reassessment for property tax purposes.

In this roundup of state land use news: A proposed freeze of processing development applications in Bakersfield fails to solidify; Kern County supervisors reject a subdivision becuase of climate change; a judge rejects the EIR for high-speed rail in the Bay Area; landscape architects produce a sustainability guide.

California government never fails to amuse. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears poised to eliminate his own Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and nobody – not even the state's planners – is rushing to the beleaguered office's defense. Yet throughout Sacramento, vultures are hovering, because while OPR itself may not be worth saving, the carcass appears to have value.

A fee that the City of San Diego levied on businesses and landlords for processing their taxes has been declared illegal by the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the fee amounted to a general purpose tax that should have been submitted to voters for approval.

Cities and counties have little authority over the conversion of mobile home parks to resident-owned subdivisions, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATE Area of Concentration: Environmental Law & Policy OVERVIEW: This area of concentration will address the roles of local, regional, state, national and international regulatory agencies responsible for protecting natural resources. Air, water, food, energy, land use, transportation and waste management all fall under this heading. Recent legislative mandates regarding climate change and the reduction of green house gas emissions will be consid

Gov. Schwarzenegger's unilateral decision to eliminate payments to counties that offer Williamson Act tax breaks to owners of agricultural land has raised doubts about the future of the state's largest farmland-preservation program. Many representatives of the affected counties have said they would like to remain in the program. But the end of state subventions that help offset lost property tax revenue is causing many counties to re-evaluate their participation.

A state appellate court ruling striking down an affordable housing mandate in the City of Los Angeles could have statewide implications. Affordable-housing advocates and municipal attorneys say the decision, if it stands, calls into question inclusionary housing ordinances that require developers to set aside and price a certain percentage of new rental units at below-market rates.

State lawmakers say that water and the Bay Delta should be the Legislature's top priorities until it recesses on September 11. Democratic lawmakers have introduced a five-bill package that they insist provides a framework for moving forward with the co-equal goals of Delta ecosystem restoration and increased water supply reliability. Republican lawmakers, however, said the package leans too heavily toward environmental considerations at the expense of water reliability.