Legal Digest

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a more expansive legal standard for exactions. But on remand, a California appellate court has found that the "averaging" system used in El Dorado County meets the narrower legal tests from the Nollan and Dolan cases.

Judge also says city can't rely on greenhouse gas reduction plan that was kicked out by appellate court.

In a small town in Kern County, a water district is using California Environmental Quality Act litigation to fight the city's plans to create more housing as required by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process.

The city had denied the project, claiming it was inconsistent with the general plan. But the judge, a former city council member, said the inconsistency was not identified during the "shot clock" period under the Housing Accountability Act.

Agreement on Village at Palisades Tahoe -- formerly Squaw Valley -- ends 14 years of legal wrangling over the expansion of one of the nation's largest ski resorts.

In a CEQA case involving a Tejon Ranch project in the Antelope Valley, an appellate court concluded that a land use project is not a "covered entity" under the cap-and-trade law the way an oil refinery is.

Despite a vote requirement ordinance for major General Plan amendments, Housing Element did not have to be submitted to the voters.

The First District Court of Appeal published a ruling that favored the City of Eureka over opponents of an affordable housing project downtown. The city had separated the surplusing of the land from the selection of the affordable housing developer.

Appellate court rules that county can't condition permit completeness on additional environmental information not on the checklist -- but can do so if the checklist is more complete.

Mt. Shasta charter school case shows that subjective design standards still matter and the threshold for an environmental impact report is low -- at least for non-residential projects.

But after getting thumped in a local election, parking lot supporters -- backed by a local billionaire -- lose one in court as well.

But the ruling is not all bad news for LA Metro, as future development plans for stadium's parking lots do not have rto be considered.