Articles

The downtown in the East Bay city of Hayward has many features that any redevelopment agency would envy — an Amtrak station, a Bay Area Rapid Transit station, historic buildings, and a modern grocery store with additional shops. Soon to come is a 12-screen movie theatre and more retail shops. But what may be helping the downtown area even more is years of work to create additional housing in and around downtown, within walking distance of BART and its connections to jobs in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties.

Billboard ordinances in five cities have survived constitutional challenges, as the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal has rejected claims filed by three billboard companies. In three published decisions, the Ninth Circuit upheld billboard regulations in San Diego, Beaumont and Oakland. In unpublished memoranda, the court upheld regulations in Chula Vista and Lemon Grove.

Voters in Palm Springs threw out a 10-year extension of a development agreement for a project on the side of Mt. San Jacinto during the November 6 election. Slightly more than 60% of voters said yes to the Measure C referendum, which called for setting aside the development agreement extension.

If any part of Los Angeles begs for redevelopment, it would be a 2,600-acre terrain in the northeast San Fernando Valley known as Sun Valley.

When voters approved the incorporation of Elk Grove in Sacramento County in early 2000, the town had a population of about 54,000. Today, Elk Grove's population is heading past 140,000, and the city is looking at a 13,900-acre area for potential expansion.

Should planning departments in California force developers to steer clear of fire-prone areas? Or should building departments force developers to fireproof their neighborhoods instead?

The state Supreme Court has modified its most recent California Environmental Quality Act ruling, but it rejected the losing side's request for a re-hearing.

Local zoning trumps a valid easement, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. In a case from Los Angeles, the court determined that one property owner's easement on his neighbor's property was valid but unenforceable because it violated the zoning.

A settlement agreement between the City of Los Angeles and an Orthodox Jewish congregation that permits operation of a synagogue in a residential district has been invalidated by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A state law that permits landlords to go out of the rental business does not trump the California Environmental Quality Act, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A San Diego merchant who has become one of the state's leading fighters against eminent domain has not only lost his appeal of a trial court decision upholding the taking of his shop, but he has also lost a $9 million award of compensation and attorneys' fees.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a mobile home park owner's attempt to invalidate San Luis Obispo County's mobile home rent control ordinance.