Articles

An appellate court has overturned a jury's verdict on the fair market value of property that the City of Ripon took through eminent domain. The appellate panel ruled that the trial judge allowed the jury to hear inadmissible evidence about how the city allegedly blocked development of the property to diminish its value.

Challenges to a City of Indio redevelopment project area expansion from three other government agencies have been thrown out on a technicality by the Fourth District County of Appeal.

A water district in Fresno County has the authority to pursue incorporation as a city, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court rejected arguments from Fresno County that the Malaga County Water District needed special legislation to proceed with creation of a new city.

The tortured history of a development in downtown Oakland added another chapter when a state appellate court overturned a lower court decision against Citicorp Real Estate, which had foreclosed on the project. The appellate panel found that the jury had been instructed incorrectly and that Citicorp had done nothing legally wrong in respect to its handling of the "Old Oakland" project.

In a case that pitted open space protection against eminent domain law, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled that a Sonoma County open space district did not need to get voter approval before granting an easement for a treated wastewater pipeline across district property.

Since the mid-1990s, most new market-rate housing in California has been of the single-family detached (SFD) variety. Under traditional assumptions, these units should be generating school-age children at a predictable rate — because they would be occupied by families with a predictable number of children. But when single-family homes represent the only housing being built, those assumptions might go out the window. All types of households might occupy the new houses. And that r

It was cool and foggy along the Santa Barbara Channel coast in early June. So the delicate layer of ash coating everything outside and the faint smell of burnt sage seemed a bit incongruous.

The state Supreme Court has struck down a common method that cities and counties use to select temporary administrative hearing officers for land use controversies and other issues. The court ruled that San Bernardino County's unilateral appointment and payment of an attorney as a temporary hearing officer created the possibility of a conflict of interest for the attorney. The court accepted the argument from a massage clinic owner that the attorney might provide the county a favorable decision

A state appellate court has invalidated a City of Upland redevelopment plan because the city improperly manipulated the base tax year for one parcel, and because the area was neither predominately urbanized nor blighted.

Spurred by a 1999 ballot initiative to find new revenue sources, San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency is examining some of its real estate holdings with an eye toward development opportunities. Muni has a development agreement with a hotel builder for one piece of prime property near the Ferry Building. Other properties could be developed with housing, stores and offices � possibly above ground-level transit facilities.

One of the largest housing developments ever proposed for the Central Valley received approval from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in July. After about a decade of planning, environmental reviews and public hearings, supervisors backed the 2,600-acre, 10,000-unit Sunridge Specific Plan — a detailed subset of the 6,000-acre Sunrise-Douglas Community Plan, which supervisors also approved in July.

Movies, music and television have created a global image of California as the land of sunshine and surf. Like many caricatures, the mystique has a nugget of truth at its core: Californians do love their beaches.

Check out this month's installment of CP&DR's infamous in brief column, the only place to consult to keep abreast of the latest events shaping the land use stories across the Golden State!

In September, the San Diego City Council is scheduled to vote on "City of Villages," the new "strategic framework element" of the city's general plan. Designed to provide a foundation for revising the city's 1970s general plan, City of Villages makes all the usual politically correct statements about promoting smart-growth ideas.