Articles

Urban sprawl has been blamed for everything from vanishing farmland and dwindling wildlife to Baby Boomer obesity. Central Valley air pollution regulators are blaming it now for much of the region's persistently dismal air quality, and they have embraced a radical fix never before tried.

A decade-long effort to adopt a plan for protecting endangered species in the Coachella Valley is threatening to unravel, at least partially. Some cities that would be covered by the multiple species habitat conservation plan (MSHCP) appear hesitant to approve the plan because it could block large-scale development projects.

With the debate over infrastructure crashing to a halt, state lawmakers have turned their attention to housing legislation. >>read more

An unusual collection of more than 30 farm groups, environmental organizations and regulatory agencies has signed onto a California Rangelands Coalition, marking the first time that some of the entities have worked together. >>read more

It was a case of hopeless infatuation in 2001, when the City of Los Angeles finally landed a developer who was rich and optimistically cock-eyed enough to build that long-dreamed-of-but-never-consummated project, the convention center hotel. >>read more

A scandal involving development of a hub for cargo carrier DHL has raised questions about reuse of the March Air Force Base in western Riverside County. >>read more

Redevelopment plans in downtown San Bernardino appear to be advancing after many years of fits and starts. In January, proponents of a plan to replace an older neighborhood with a 44-acre lake won two lawsuits over the project. In February, LNR Properties, a subsidiary of homebuilding giant Lennar Corp., acquired a long-struggling mall. The developer plans to build at least 900 housing units on the site. >>read more

Some people hissed in January when landscape architect Ken Smith won the competition to design the future Orange County Great Park. The 1,347-acre portion of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in south Orange County was a covetable plum if ever there was one. Still, I think Smith's scheme, as it stands, is an inspired beginning.

Twenty miles south of San Francisco, the City of San Mateo has approved a specific plan calling for a major, mixed-use development next to the busiest Caltrain station in San Mateo County.

In recent years, matters related to planning and development have not appeared at the top of state lawmakers' agenda. But 2006 is different. >>read more

Two new chapters have been written in one of California's longest-running environmental dramas. The latest installments lack the emotional wallop of earlier parts, which featured celebrities, death and torture, but may ultimately prove more significant. >>read more

In an unprecedented effort at regionalism in California, a task force appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger is attempting to address the many problems troubling the San Joaquin Valley. The governor has assigned no fewer than eight cabinet members to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, of which Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak is the chair. >>read more

Civic leaders in the Orange County town of Stanton hope that the reuse of a failed commercial strip for medium-density housing and small shops will start a local trend. Developers of the Renaissance Plaza propose 175 townhouses, 25 live-work units and about 18,000 square feet of commercial space on approximately 12 acres. >>read more

Fontana has broken ground on a large new library that, city officials and library boosters say, could become a building block of downtown revitalization. At 93,000 square feet, the Fontana Library and Resource/Technology Center will be more than four times the size of any existing facility in the San Bernardino County-run library system. >>read more