Which comes first, the car culture, or the infrastructure for cars?

The Regional Targets Advisory Committee reached agreement on basic principles that the California Air Resources Board should adopt in implementing SB 375 and setting land use/transportation targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions. But if a panel discussion at an SB 375 ev

As the full weight of SB 375 starts to become evident, divisions on the state board charged with implementing the legislation are coming to the forefront. Some members of the Air Resources Board (ARB) are welcoming what they see as an opportunity to overhaul land use planning and

The environmental impact report for the huge Sacramento rail yards redevelopment project was upheld earlier this month by Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connolly. Two lawsuits over the EIR were filed – one by a group of environmentalists and one by Westfield, which owns Downtown Plaz

The Urban Land Institute has a reputation of being an organization in which enlightened developers get together with the occasional savvy planner and designer. So with a real estate downturn in full swing, it's not surprising that the main topic at ULI's Fall Meeting in San Franc

Maybe California's public process for making land use decisions really is "old and sick," as new urbanism champion Andrés Duany said during a recent presentation in Sacramento. Duany's criticism of the system and his praise of a jury-style process used in Perth, Australia, seems

California's water politics are hopeless. That's the only conclusion I can reach, and it was reaffirmed earlier this week when I attended a Great Valley Center forum on water.

Now is the time to roll out new planning ideas – different codes, new public review processes, original ways of thinking. "These are revolutionary times," new urbanism guru Andrés Duany told about 150 planners, state government officials, architects and consultants during a gathe

For the second time this year, we've been reminded that the California Environmental Quality Act is not a set of tablets brought down from Mount Whitney. It's just a state law, and it can be changed whenever the Legislature and the governor can agree on changing it – especially d

Ah, the growth wars. What would we land use journalists do if there were ever a truce?

My ire often rises when the national media or some big-time organization ignores California. Don't they know how important we on the whacky West Coast are? When the American Planning Association released a list of the 10 best streets in the country and not a single California str

Choose your analogy. CEQA is like pi: It goes on without end, for infinity. CEQA is like a "Friday the 13th" movie: Horrifying yet predictable, and it keeps coming back. CEQA is like the Bill of Rights: Ingenious and adaptable for any age.