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An administrative hearing that the City of Beverly Hills conducted for an adult business permit renewal violated the business's right to due process, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The problem was that a city attorney — who earlier had contended that the business failed to submit a complete permit renewal application — also advised the hearing officer who considered the business's appeal of the decision to deny the renewal application.

A Southern California housing developer that has aggressively fought a wide variety of government fees in recent years has lost a building permit and plan review fee case at the Fourth District Court of Appeal. In a terse opinion, the unanimous three-judge appellate panel ruled that Barratt American's claims were either time-barred or attempted to rely on the wrong statutes.

The California Supreme Court has ordered the publication of another round in the litigation involving a doughnut shop owner and the City of Hawaiian Gardens.

Cities and counties are charged with the responsibility of developing not only communities in which people live and work, but also with protecting the health of the surrounding natural environment and agricultural lands. To achieve balance between these core values, advocacy groups and government agencies alike have taken interest in understanding the available supply of land and the capacity for planned growth in their regions.

In the course of only a few years, Indian casinos have grown into a major land use concern for counties across California. But now a matter that has been a land use issue mostly in rural areas is coming to urban areas, as tribes look for casino sites near population centers and as some public officials start to view the casinos as economic opportunities.

Riverside County supervisors have approved two-thirds of the closely watched Riverside County Integrated Program (RCIP). In June, supervisors approved a new general plan and a multi-species conservation plan for the western third of the county.

A proposal from residents of northern Santa Barbara County to divide the county in two is making progress. An election on the creation of Mission County could occur as early as fall of 2004, although voting in 2006 appears more likely. Different approaches to land use — the north is seen as much more amenable to development than the south — lie at or very near the heart of the movement.

The Sonoma County Water Agency's environmental impact report for a project to increase the agency's withdrawals from the Russian River has been thrown out by the First District Court of Appeal. The EIR's analysis of cumulative impacts and project alternatives, and the document's description of the environmental setting were all inadequate, the court ruled.

The City of Buena Park has successfully defended a lawsuit against city ordinances that prohibit long-term occupancy of motel rooms. The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the ordinances were not unconstitutional takings and did not deprive the motel owners of equal protection.

The California Coastal Commission lost its jurisdiction over development of a proposed elementary school in Encinitas because the Commission did not determine within 49 days whether a "substantial issue" existed, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling appears to knock down a practice in which the Commission within 49 days of receiving an appeal sets a later hearing date without addressing any of the issues.

The experiences of two developers — one a large-scale master plan developer and the other a smaller, apartment developer — are snapshots of the uneasy relationship between home building and environmental policy in North San Diego County at a time when newly minted environmental laws are racing to keep pace with rapid home building.

With negotiations over the 2003-04 state budget ongoing, it appears that redevelopment agencies will avoid the major financial hit proposed in January by the Davis administration. Adjustments to the current 2002-03 budget did move $75 million from redevelopment agencies to school districts. However, a Davis administration proposal for the state to take all unencumbered housing funds from redevelopment agencies went nowhere in the Legislature.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a revised environmental impact report for the proposed Newhall Ranch development in the hills just west of Santa Clarita. The revised EIR was required because a Kern County judge in 2000 found the original study lacking.

A specific plan for a slice of northern Monterey County that has long been seen as a potential growth area could be released this summer. However, the second version of a Rancho San Juan specific plan is unlikely to settle long-running disputes over how the area between the City of Salinas and the unincorporated community of Prunedale should develop.