Rivermark has been praised as a progressive project for providing some New Urbanist-inspired architecture, affordable housing and open space. However, Rivermark is an uneasy amalgam of urban and suburban.

Voters in two Solano County cities on the edge of the Bay Area approved urban growth boundaries during the November election, providing two major victories for slow-growth advocates. Overall, however, local land use balloting in November demonstrated neither a slow-growth nor a pro-growth bent among voters.

The administration of new Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger started coming together in November, but Schwarzenegger's appointments were as difficult to peg as the new governor himself. Schwarzenegger has sprinkled his administration with moderates and Democrats, and he counterbalanced those appointments with business-oriented veterans of the Wilson administration.

The largest development project along the newly extended 210 freeway at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains is finally proceeding after years of planning and financial difficulty. However, all is not smooth sailing for the Colonies Crossroads project, as a November appellate court order halted grading on a portion of the site because of a fight over flood control facilities.

Developers are building residences in California at the fastest pace in years. From recent economic reports suggesting a slowing economy, the construction might appear to be risky. But builders are banking on two irrefutable facts: There is no end in sight to the state's population growth, and all of those people need a place to live.

The first update of the Governor's Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR) was issued in the final moments of the Davis administration. However, it was unclear how seriously the Schwarzenegger administration and state lawmakers would take the report. One member of the stakeholder advisory committee called the EGPR an "instant historical curiosity."

The wildfires of late October and early November - which some fire experts claim were the worst in the state's history - have stimulated a whole new round of debate about whether and how to permit urban development in areas with naturally high fire risk.

A federal appeals court has rejected two Sacramento-area cities' challenge of Interior Department decisions that resulted in the development of an Indian casino. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia ruled that the Interior Department acted within the meaning of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and a statute that provided federal recognition to the United Auburn Indian Community.

An appellate court has decided to allow Caltrans to transfer 130 acres near Carmel for use as a state park despite a constitutional provision prohibiting the sale of Caltrans property for less than market value. The court ruled that a constitutional exception for property in the coastal zone applied because about 20% of the property lies within the zone.

An appellate court has published its opinion of what belongs in the administrative record for a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit. The decision is the second opinion published in the second half of 2003 that addresses directly the contents of the administrative record under CEQA.

A lawsuit contesting the environmental study for the Cal-Fed Bay-Delta project may proceed, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The three-judge appellate panel overturned a district court that ruled the lawsuit was filed too early and threw it out.

An appellate court has given the City of Alameda new life in a lawsuit over the city's attempt to acquire railroad property for far less than market value. The First District Court of Appeal overturned a trial court ruling that a nearly 80-year-old contract between the city and the railroad owner was too vague to enforce.

Competing desalination projects - one public, one private - have been proposed to serve the thirsty Monterey Peninsula.

The most famous definition of architecture comes from Vitruvius, the ancient Roman writer, who said the word applied to structures that are (in my inexpert translation) beautiful, useful and well-built.