Articles

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

One of the more startling bits of advice I have heard recently came from a financial planner on television who said: "Don't marry anyone you wouldn't want to divorce." The advice, of course, is to marry only someone who is rational and has the ability to cut a deal, if and when the time comes to part. In urban planning, this advice could be translated as: "Don't build anything you do not want to tear down." >>read more

Redevlopment Law Reform Gains Momentum At Capitol; Loma Linda and Monterey County Voters Decide On Development Projects; Sierra Club Settles Lawsuit With The City Of Stockton; Death Row EIR Upheld; Revised EIR Water Analysis Likley To Face Appeal in Santa Clarita >>read more

A locally written plan to preserve habitat for the endangered Sonoma County tiger salamander has been accepted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in lieu of designating critical habitat.

The environmental impact report for a proposed Highway 50 interchange that would serve an El Dorado County Indian casino has been invalidated by the Third District Court of Appeal. >>read more

Property rights activists and redevelopment opponents are preparing statewide ballot measures that could greatly limit the use of eminent domain. >>read more

People wanting to buy their own place in San Diego for less than $300,000 have essentially one option: apartments that have been converted to condominiums. Owners of approximately 15,000 apartment units have converted them into for-sale condominiums or filed applications for conversions in recent years. >>read more

The state Supreme Court has rejected most claims of a development company fighting building permit fees in the City of Rancho Cucamonga. However, the court did decide that the builder, Barratt American, could contest the validity of a city fee ordinance adopted in 2002 — a reversal of a lower court ruling.