Legal Digest

Orange County judge sides with city in homebuilder's attempt to develop golf course property. City says Lennar's builder's remedy application is incomplete

<p>Developer claims that under the Density Bonus Law, density and height can be calculated based on the entire site, not just an individual building.</p>

A dispute from the Livermore area suggests that general plan designations and zoning ordinances have not kept pace with renewable energy advances -- leading to interpretation disputes. In Livermore, the courts have sided with public agency interpretations and against environme

As in other cities, Redondo claims it "self-certified" its housing element, thus protecting it from a builder's remedy claim. The developer of the city's former beachfront power plant claims HCD approval was required.

When a court told the City of San Diego to engage in more CEQA review, the city abandoned the project. Then the plaintiff tried to get the city to conduct the review anyway -- but an appellate court overruled her.

Montecito homeowners said Santa Barbara County couldn't enforce its encroachment law because the county had to go through a CEQA process. An appellate court said the homeowners who blocked parking spaces on their road were the lawbreakers, not the county

In an unpublished ruling, appellate court uses "noisy Berkeley students" precedent to rule that human noise could be a significant impact under CEQA, thus killing infill exemption for project near USC.

Four new court cases shed light onto the California Environmental Quality Act as well as land-use designations in general plans.

California Supreme Court concludes that localities may regulate the location of oil drilling, but the allowable methods must be determined by the Department of Conservation.

<p>Because 40 rent-stabilized apartments would be eliminated by construction of a new hotel, an appellate court ruled that the city cannot ignore the goals and policies in its own housing element.</p>

In an unpublished ruling, an appellate court concluded that cities challenging RHNA targets can't sue the state. Previous rulings only said that cities couldn't sue their council of governments.

Their project was denied even though they asserted the builder's remedy. The lawsuit sets up a legal battle over whether cities can get out from under the builder's remedy by self-certifying their housing element.