Articles

Some of the most desirable office jobs are leaking overseas, and no one seems to know how to plug the hole in the employment dike. If the globalization trend continues as expected, it could dampen demand for commercial development and affect economic development strategies throughout California, especially in the Bay Area. >>read more

A proposal to expand the authority of the Delta Protection Commission and alter its membership is setting up a classic local-versus-state confrontation. Some state officials say greater oversight of land use decisions is needed to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's natural resources and farms, while locals say the state is trying to intrude on local control.

As you drive west from Santa Barbara along the Pacific Coast, fighting your way through the commuter congestion of Goleta and the scrum of caffeine-addled students buzzing around the University of California campus, you quickly leave suburbia behind. Almost without warning, Highway 101 deposits you in a corner of California that time seems to have overlooked. >>read more

There is a hole in downtown Livermore where a downtown should be. Knowing this and seeing a rare opportunity to create a new downtown out of whole cloth, the city opted for a pleasant, small-town downtown with nice old buildings intermixed with some new ones, residential neighborhoods within walking distance, some retail, new pocket parks, and professional offices, all under the shady canopy of newly planted street trees. Basically, what Livermore wants is what nearly every California city has opted for. >>read more

Two bills that would alter the housing element process are speeding through the Legislature. The bills address the regional housing needs allocation process, land inventories, and by-right development. Neither piece of legislation, however, tackles the sticky issues of enforcement and production. >>read more

Like most cities in western Riverside County, Lake Elsinore is very receptive to growth. The city's population has nearly quadrupled in 20 years to about 35,000, with many of the newcomers drawn by inexpensive homes. However, development of a largely empty part of town - 3,000 acres known as the "back basin" - has been the subject of failed plans, litigation and sensitive politics for 15 years. >>read more

In 1999, the landowners of the Broadview Water District (BWD) in the grasslands of western Fresno County collectively decided that it might be in their best interest to quit farming their land. Five years later, they appear on the verge of closing a deal to sell their land and water supply in an unprecedented deal. >>read more

Proposals to create two new state conservancies - one covering as much as a quarter of the state and one focused on a single Southern California river - are alive in the state Legislature. A proposed Sierra Nevada Conservancy appears to have gained some bipartisan momentum, while a proposed Santa Ana River Conservancy struggles to gain ground. Neither proposal is a sure thing during this budget-constrained legislative session. >>read more

In a remarkable political turnabout, two land use organizations that vigorously fought one another during the 2000 election in Sonoma County have issued a joint report calling for more intensive city-centered growth to protect agriculture and natural resources. San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau jointly released "Preventing Sprawl: Farmers and Environmentalists Working Together."

Long a land of big dreams and failed schemes, California City has lured a major automobile company to town with a redevelopment deal and environmental planning assistance. In March, Hyundai Motor America started building a test track and related facilities in California City that will employ about 100 people, which would make Hyundai the second largest employer in town. The project does have detractors, though.

Architects often talk about the need to design with an awareness of context, but few architects have taken the issue as literally as Richard Matteson. The Los Angeles-based architect has designed a building that, from certain angles, not only fits in with the surrounding landscape-in this case, a lush forest in a Los Angeles canyon-but from certain angles is well-nigh invisible.

A story in the March edition regarding the Castaic Lake Water Agency's urban water plan listed incorrect terms of office for Lynne Plambeck. She has been a member of the Newhall County Water District board since 1999. She previously was a member from 1993 to 1997, when her slow-growth alliance controlled the board majority.

Red flags went up in the environmental community during May 2002 when the Bush administration announced it was forming a task force to "modernize and improve" the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Two years later, release of the task force's final report suggests that many of the fears voiced by defenders of this landmark federal statute have yet to materialize.

A long-proposed new town in Madera County, north of Fresno, appears to be inching closer to reality. This month, the Madera County Board of Supervisors expects to give final approval to the 1,800-acre River Ranch Estates, a proposed housing subdivision within a designated 15,000-acre growth area known as Rio Mesa.