Articles

In issuing its second California Environmental Quality Act ruling in seven months, the conservative-leaning California Supreme Court is emerging as one of CEQA's staunchest defenders. The latest decision - the rejection of an environmental impact report's water analysis for a large Sacramento-area housing project - is the court's first foray into such water studies, and the court appears to have set a high standard. >>read more

When San Diego's Multiple Species Conservation Plan (MSCP) was adopted a decade ago, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt declared it "a model to the nation for how to plan for and balance the needs of man and nature." Ambitious in geographical scale, daunting in jurisdictional complexity, the plan was intended to regulate development across nearly a quarter of the fast-urbanizing county in such a way as to minimize conflict over scores of rare, threatened or endangered species and their habitats. >>read more

An appellate court has overturned an award of $33,000 to an irrigation district for the preparation of the administrative record in a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) case. The court found that the district's request for more than $8 per page for preparing the record was out of line with other CEQA cases, that the record included documents prepared after the administrative process concluded, and that the district did not justify the expense. >>read more

A developer is proposing a new town of up to 6,800 housing units and 2.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space in the northwest corner of San Benito County, just across the boundary of Santa Clara County. >>read more

It could almost be a story from a Charles Dickens novel: Nearly 800 lower-income households find themselves evicted from an apartment complex in the Venice district of Los Angeles by developers who reportedly want to build luxury housing. The City Council opposes the deal but is defeated in court. After various attempts at mediation, the developers beckon sheriff's deputies to lock out hundreds of renters from their apartments, only to call off the authorities at the last minute. >>read more

Correction. A story in the December edition regarding downtown Stockton contained two inaccuracies. Weber Point Event Center is 10 acres, not 17. Also, the 156 apartments for senior citizens on the upper floors of the Hotel Stockton have been filled since 2005.

COURTLAND _ In a precedent-setting decision, a state panel has overturned Yolo County's decision to permit development of 162 housing units within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and at the base of a levee of questionable integrity. The vote was closely watched as a measure of state and local commitment to the Delta and flood safety. >>read more

Some of the most intense growth battles of the last 20 years have involved development of classrooms, laboratories, housing and other facilities by the University of California (UC). Local government representatives and residents in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara County and elsewhere have complained that UC shoves development down their throats without considering local impacts or desires. >>read more

Correction. A story in the December edition regarding downtown Stockton contained two inaccuracies. Weber Point Event Center is 10 acres, not 17. Also, the 156 apartments for senior citizens on the upper floors of the Hotel Stockton have been filled since 2005.

Finally heeding a message of alarm that experts have been sounding for a decade, California voters in November authorized an unprecedented investment in the fragile network of levees that protects homes, farms and critical infrastructure in the Central Valley from catastrophic flooding. Between Proposition 1E, which authorized $4.1 billion for levee improvement, and Proposition 84, a water bond that included $800 million for flood-control projects, the levee system stands to get a $5 billion upgrade. >>read more

The Navy is poised to relinquish about 5,200 acres within the Concord city limits. The prospect of so much land becoming available in an area where real estate is at a premium excites city officials, developers, environmentalists and city residents, all of whom have at least slightly different visions for the property. >>read more

San Bernardino County is using redevelopment tools to help a rural community devastated by the Southern California firestorms of 2003 rebuild. The effort is one of the first times a California redevelopment agency has formed a project area specifically to aid recovery from a natural disaster. >>read more

Developing real estate in the City of South Pasadena is a little bit like the lovemaking of porcupines: Both are activities to be approached very, very carefully.

The only way to squeeze a generation's worth of growth into existing urban areas plus 2% more land is with a heavy reliance on infill development. With the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) beginning to finesse its density-driven, "2% Strategy" growth vision from policy into action, Solimar Research Group is producing information of use to those planning and executing infill development. >>read more