Articles

A city that acquires land for two roads through eminent domain does not have to compensate the property owner for the growth-inducing impacts of the roads, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The right to pump groundwater does not equate to the right to store water in the same groundwater basin, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. In perhaps the first published ruling of its kind, the court held that unused groundwater storage space is a public resource that must be managed for the public benefit.

A Santa Barbara County property owner has been allowed to pursue a lawsuit alleging that the county violated his rights of free speech, equal protection and due process by giving him a hard time with proposed developments.

A Santa Barbara County property owner has been allowed to pursue a lawsuit alleging that the county violated his rights of free speech, equal protection and due process by giving him a hard time with proposed developments.

Three years ago — back when California had money — Gov. Gray Davis came up with a clever idea to push more money into transportation projects in a way that would benefit his core political constituencies without raising taxes. Today, Davis's Transportation Congestion Relief Program appears to be self-destructing, along with the entire system of funding state transportation projects.

In response to a new state law that mandates the easier regulatory processing of second units, cities and counties across California have been revising their regulations. Most jurisdictions are relaxing their rules, although some cities and counties appear to be adding performance standards that could discourage second-unit development.

Voters in the Contra Costa Water District will decide early next year whether to quadruple the capacity of five-year-old Los Vaqueros Reservoir in the hills east of Mount Diablo. The reservoir expansion would increase water reliability and improve water quality but would not provide more water for growth, water district officials insist.

California State University is not required to fund mitigation measures that offset a new campus's traffic and fire safety impacts, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A Bush administration framework for Western water is drawing praise from some surprising circles, while normal administration allies are showing skepticism or outright hostility.

An appellate court has reinstated a Santa Monica Rent Control Board lawsuit against a landlord that a trial court had dismissed as a SLAPP suit. The lawsuit was the board's legitimate attempt to get a judicial determination that the landlord was violating local rent control laws, the Second District Court of Appeal ruled.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal has upheld an environmental impact report's water analysis for the proposed University of California, Merced, campus.

"Buildout" is a funny term. It is the word that most planners use to describe what their town would look like once everything that is called for in the general plan has been built. In today's world, buildout is easily quantified. Most cities and counties can point to their general plan and identify precisely how many houses and how many square feet of commercial and industrial space buildout involves. In California, where the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is always bird-dogging loc

In their effort to address the disproportionate health risk faced by working-class blacks and Hispanics, air-quality regulators in Southern California may soon find themselves playing a greater role in local land-use decisions — a prospect embraced by environmental justice advocates but alarming to many in the business community.

Stanislaus County, the City of Patterson, and a North Carolina-based developer have teamed together on a business park that all parties hope will bring employment to an area that has seen rapid housing development but minimal job growth.