CP&DR -

Cities Must Pay Takings Judgments Even If Debt Limits are Exceeded

Nov 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

California's constitutional prohibition on excessive municipal debt doesn't apply in situations where cities must pay involuntary judgments such as inverse condemnation awards, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled. Furthermore, the court suggested that a city may be legally obligated to increase taxes without a vote, as otherwise required under Proposition 13, in order to pay the judgment. The ruling came in a case by several farming companies against the City of Lindsay, in Tulare Co...

Court Hears Takings Case: But Del Monte Dunes Decision May Not be Sweeping

Nov 1, 1998

Kenneth Jost, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

U.S. Supreme Court justices gave mixed signals during the oral arguments in the Del Monte Dunes case, a closely watched dispute from California that may determine whether developers should have the right to compensation for unreasonable delays because of land-use regulations. However, it appears the high court will not issue a sweeping decision on the question of whether developers have the right to a jury trial in such cases. The muddled arguments and questions suggested the court's decis...

Ahwahne Principles Survive a Sandstorm

Nov 1, 1998

Morris Newman, Places, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

An interviewer once asked the celebrated designer Charles Eames how he dealt with the issue of accepting compromises in his work. "I have never been forced to accept compromises," Eames replied, "but I have willingly accepted constraints." The answer is a subtle, even wily, one; it's the kind of statement whose truth slowly creeps on you and changes the way you think. Eames, in effect, issued a challenge to all designers to regard constraints not as forces that erode design, but as the very...

Natural Hazards: CIty Not Liable for Landslide Despite Violating Code

Nov 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

The City of Los Angeles should not be held liable for landslide-related damage to a property in the Pacific Palisades even though it violated municipal code requirements because the code sections had been repealed and the statutes of limitations had run out, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The case involved a house owned by Paul Haggis that was damaged by a landslide triggered in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and later condemned and demolished by the city. After the house wa...

Cityhood Bill Likely to Return Next Year: But Will State Hold Counties Financially Harmless?

Nov 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Timm Herdt, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

A Republican lawmaker who tried earlier this year to end the standoff between counties and prospective cities by creating a state subsidy for incorporations has abandoned that plan and instead will try next year for an outright repeal of a 1992 state law that has effectively kept new cities off the map. Following a legislative hearing in October on his plan to require state government to reimburse new cities for the costs of traffic enforcement and wildlands fire protection now borne by stat...

Expenditures Not Needed to Create ‘Fundamental' Right

Nov 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

The revocation of a conditional use permit involves a fundamental vested right even if the landowner has not made a major financial investment in reliance of it, the Second District Court of Appeal. However, the Second District declined to remand the particular case back to the Superior Court, saying that there was no possibility of a reversal even though the trial judge had used the wrong standard of review. The case arose when the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission revoked the ...

Redlands Embroiled in Battle Over Competing Malls

Nov 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Local Watch, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

Efforts to build retail centers in the Inland Empire city of Redlands have all the drama and twists and turns of a soap opera these days. Jilted suitors seeking justice, promises made and then broken, dashed hopes ï¿½ and the arrest of one popular shopping center developer ï¿½ are all part of a long-running battle over development in the slow-growth, upscale city. Not surprisingly, the matter has ended up in court. At least eight lawsuits have been filed. The city's legal fees so far are approxi...

Controversy Swirls Around Proposed Bay Bridge Re-Design

Oct 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

Disagreements both petty and profound continue to swirl around the proposed rebuilding of the Bay Bridge. The $1 billion proposal, which is intended to replace the eastern portion of the bridge damaged in the Loma Prieta quake, seems to please no one except officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is vexed that the proposed design will cast a shadow some prime development sites on Yerba Buena-Treasure Island. In the East Bay, mayors of the cities ...

State -of-the-Art Redevelopment

Oct 1, 1998

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

Something about the development agreement between Chiron Corporation and the City of Emeryville reminds me of the relationship between Paul Newman and George C. Scott in "The Hustler." In that movie, you recall, Newman was the young and talented pool shark, while Scott was the older, calculating gambler who backed up the bets of people like Newman, in hope of taking a considerable cut if he won. The movie is perhaps not the best analogy. There is nothing dark or underworldly, for example, in the r...

Revision of CEQA Guidelines Near Completion

Oct 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

After a long and contentious effort, the Wilson administration has submitted final revisions of the state's California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines to the Office of Administrative Law. OAL will now review them and decide before the end of October which revisions to approve. The final revisions include some of the most controversial guideline changes, which have been strongly opposed by some environmental groups and Democratic legislators. But the final shape of the revisions is far fr...

Most ‘98 Bills Make Minor Legal Changes; Only School Bond Would Have Widespread Impact

Oct 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998, William Fulton

Nineteen ninety-eight will not go down in history as a year when the California Legislature made sweeping changes in California planning and development law. Instead - like most legislative sessions since the passage of term limits in 1990 - it was a year in which legislators who sought minor changes were more likely to succeed. In general, the Legislature passed a series of small bills that made changes on the margins of planning and development law. The big exception, of course, was SB 50, the...

Eastern Contra Costa County Explodes with Growth

Oct 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Local Watch

One of the last undeveloped regions of San Francisco Bay Area land - eastern Contra Costa County - is booming so much that a county supervisor has asked local cities to consider a temporary halt to residential growth. Eastern Contra Costa County, with its rich delta topsoil, is where the Central Valley meets the Bay Area. For years, agriculture was the main industry in this area east of Mount Diablo and south of the Sacramento River-San Joaquin River Delta. The region is made up of the local citi...

NEPA: Presidio Golf Analysis Consistent with NEPA

Oct 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

The federal government's review of potential impacts of a new public clubhouse at the Presidio Golf Course was adequate under both federal environmental and historic preservation laws, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The federal analysis had been challenged by the Presidio Golf Club, a century-old private golf club which owns an historic clubhouse adjacent to the Presidio. A predecessor to the Presidio Golf Club built the golf course on the grounds of the Presidio in 1895, as well a...

A Lake for Downtown San Bernadino?

Oct 1, 1998

Public Development, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998, William Fulton

Seeking to improve local groundwater problems and possibly expand redevelopment activities as well, the City of San Bernardino has created a joint-powers authority with a water district and an economic development agency to pursue some kind of "water feature" near downtown San Bernardino. The project would cover some 300 acres in the Base Line area north of the current downtown and might involve condemning some 900 parcels of land at a cost of more than $100 million. The San Bernardino Municipal W...