In the first published ruling on the subject, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled that the newly incorporated City of Goleta had the discretion to reject a final subdivision map.

Monterey County should have completed an environmental impact report for a proposal to demolish a county jail that many people consider historic for cultural and architectural reasons, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear three cases during its 2004-05 session with potential implications for planning, land regulation and development in California. The court has accepted for review an eminent domain case from Connecticut, a case involving the installation

The purely aesthetic impacts of a housing project in an urban area are not enough to require preparation of an environmental impact report, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. In a lengthy opinion, the court appeared to conclude that where aesthetics are the lone issue,

State legislation approved in 2001 permits a Southern California wholesale water agency to sell water directly to retail customers, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling was a victory for the Castaic Lake Water Agency over leaders of the Newhall County Water D

A state appellate court has rejected the City of Malibu's argument that the state Legislature could not require the California Coastal Commission to adopt a local coastal program (LCP) for Malibu. The court also ruled that the Coastal Commission-prepared LCP is not subject to a l

In a ruling with potential implications for development projects impacting wetlands, streams and lakes subject to federal jurisdiction, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an injunction against a development in suburban Phoenix that environmentalists challenged bas

An amendment to a local coastal plan is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, even if the local agency adopts an environmental impact report for the amendment, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Court of Appeal has again upheld a public agency's dismissal of project alternatives as economically infeasible, even though the project's environmental impact report did not include an economic analysis. The ruling is the third published decision in two years in which a cour

A county has the authority to regulate the development of a private water storage reservoir, and that authority is not pre-empted by state water law, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appears to have thrown into doubt many of the approximately 100 mobile home rent control ordinances in effect in California cities and counties. A divided three-judge panel ruled that the City of Cotati's mobile home rent contro

The state Supreme Court has sided with a landowner in a dispute over Santa Cruz County's regulation of second dwelling units. But the state high court only cleared the way for the landowner to pursue his claims in court and did not rule on the merits of those claims. The court ru