Articles

Faced with rapidly declining revenues and extremely difficult budget choices, local governments are starting to invent their own economic stimulus programs. Cities have begun loaning money to car dealerships, cutting development fees, promoting buy-local programs and undertaking new redevelopment projects, among other things.

A county may not assume that fees paid under a mitigation fee program constitute full environmental mitigation for a project when the program has not undergone California Environmental Quality Act review, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A lawsuit challenging San Bernardino County's approval of billboards along desert freeways has been reinstated by the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The court ruled the lawsuit, filed by a county resident, need not comply with the speedy filing requirement of a state law pertaining to First Amendment matters.

A lawsuit challenging National City's updated blight findings and extended eminent domain authority for about 700 parcels in a redevelopment project area has been reinstated after a trial court judge threw out the suit on procedural grounds.

A San Diego County water district should have completed an environmental study before approving an agreement to provide recycled water to operators of a proposed landfill, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

Even though Olivenhain Municipal Water District was not the "lead agency" for review of the landfill itself, the district was a "responsible agency" with obligations under the California Environmental Quality Act. The district did not fulfill those obligations with a contract that placed CEQA compliance in the hands of the landfill operator, the court ruled.

An appellate court has declined to allow additional compensation in an eminent domain case to San Francisco landowners who argued that they should be made whole for the expected revenue on an approved but unbuilt mixed-use project on their land.

A state appellate court has cleared the way for a property owner to challenge an extension of a Morgan Hill growth control ordinance. The court ruled that the 10-year extension of an ordinance that was scheduled to sunset in 2010 could be contested even if the ordinance was unchanged from the original.

Pressure is rising to "solve" the problems plaguing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and there are indications that state officials may start making difficult choices during 2009.

The Governor's Delta Vision Committee issued a report in January that contains an ambitious schedule for setting policy and beginning on-the-ground improvements to the plumbing system and environment. Only a few days after the Delta Vision Committee report came out, The Nature Conservancy became the first large environmental organization to endorse a peripheral canal (or "isolated conveyance facility"), signaling a potential shift in Delta politics. State lawmakers have begun introducing bills that would implement the Delta Vision report, create a Delta Conservancy, and establish a new governance structure.

Initially, the Uptown Oakland plan may not seem that exciting. But look closely, and you'll see heavy use of pleasant courtyard housing, the promise of better street life and close proximity to two BART stations.

The City of Bell's plan to purchase property from the federal government and lease it to a railroad for use as a truck yard has been stalled and possibly killed by an environmental justice organization's successful California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit. The litigation has also raised questions about $35 million in bonds that the city issued in 2007 to fund property acquisition and improvements.

The City of Concord has chosen a preferred alternative plan for reuse of the shuttered Concord Naval Weapon Station that emphasizes transit-oriented development and job growth while designating 65% of the 5,000-acre site for open space and parks.

In this month's roundup of land use news: Another LNG terminal development has been scrapped; About 60 City of Industry voters have approved $500 million in bonds for infrastructure; A proposed private university and housing development is the subject of two CEQA suits; the lead developer of a controversial San Pedro infill project has been replaced; Former Assemblywoman Nicole Parra has a new economic development position in the Schwarzenegger administration; Madera County has gotten slammed with lawsuits over proposed large-scale housing developments.

A decision by the Coastal Commission not to intervene in a dispute between Malibu property owners was upheld by the Second District Court of Appeal. The court affirmed the Commission's refusal to conduct a hearing on a proposed beachfront house that was approved by the City of Malibu but opposed by the next door neighbors. The court also found that a State Lands Commission failure to investigate the project's potential impact on public tidelands was not enough to disturb the city's approval.