Articles

WASHINGTON _ A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a $500,000 fine against a California developer for "deep ripping" about two acres of wetlands on a Central Valley ranch while converting pasture to vineyards and orchards. The justices divided 4-4 in an appeal by Angelo Tsakopoulos seeking to set aside penalties levied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for violating provisions of the Clean Water Act that require a permit before filling or dredging waterways.

The California Coastal Commission has the authority to review an extension of offshore oil drilling leases that the federal government granted to oil companies, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

The San Diego Redevelopment Agency can use a state law to require the owner of property the agency took by eminent domain to pay for cleanup of soil contamination, a state court has ruled.

A city's erroneous denial of a lot line adjustment application did not qualify as a temporary taking, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court ruled that the City of Lafayette had legitimate reasons for handling the application the way it did and that the delay in approval of the application — which eventually was ordered by a trial court — was not unreasonable.

A divided panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed two water districts and two farmers to sue the federal government for damages caused by changes in the management of the Central Valley Water Project, even though the districts and farmers have not yet experienced an injury. The decision appears to set an important precedent regarding when a party has the legal "standing" to seek compensation for damages.

I have a cranky thesis about housing: Working-class people should not be forced to live in projects that advertise the poverty of the residents. "Welcome to Casa Pobreza! We Have Pride in Ourselves — Even if Nobody Else Does!"

Cliff Graves is special advisor to the chancellor at University of California, Merced. Graves has overseen many aspects of planning the Merced campus, which is the University of California's first new campus since the mid-1960s. He spoke with CP&DR Managing Editor Paul Shigley in mid-December.

Make sure to read CP&DR's monthly installments of In Brief, an exclusive selection of updates and fresh ideas on land use planning in California.

Compiled by the CP&DR editorial staff, the following is a complete list of land use ballot measures voted on in the November 2002 election.

At least some blame for one of the most complicated and intractable water-policy conundrums in the West can be laid fairly at the feet of Charles Rockwood and George Chaffey.

Later this month, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors will meet to consider an appeal of the approval of Tentative Tract Map No. TT-5206 and certification of the accompanying Supplemental Environmental Impact Report. At first glance, this tract map approval might seem routine. It is the first of four tract maps that the developer anticipates bringing forward, allowing the developer to build 628 homes, a golf course, and other facilities on 846 acres of unincorporated land. It's a follow-on to a gener

A superior court's decision that invalidated several changes the state made to the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines in 1998 has been upheld almost entirely by a state appellate court.

A city resolution restricting parking on certain residential streets to residents with parking permits was categorically exempt from environmental review, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A state appellate court has halted a project at the Port of Los Angeles because the city never studied the development's environmental impacts. The court rejected the city's arguments that the project was covered by a 1997 environmental impact report and a 2000 subsequent EIR because the project had not been contemplated in 1997, and there was no evidence the 2000 study considered the project.