Articles

WASHINGTON _ A U.S. Supreme Court decision tentatively upholding a Los Angeles zoning ordinance banning multiple adult businesses at the same location left lawyers for both sides predicting victory at an eventual trial.

Sacramento County properly used 1997 conditions as the baseline for the environmental review of an airport project, even though the general aviation airport had been operating and growing without county permits since the early 1970s, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The City of Palm Springs added improper conditions to a subdivision map approval when it considered a property owner's proposal to subdivide a mobile home park so that the park could be converted to resident-owned, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

the full text of the Nevada County 2002 "Property Owner Reimbursement Process Initiative" is contained in this article. For context on the article, make sure to see Paul Shigley's featured article in this same June 2002 edition of CP&DR, entitled "Local Takings Initiative Heads to Ballot."

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service cannot ignore the one-year deadline to decide on a petition for protecting a species under the Endangered Species Act, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

One of the cardinal rules of ballot-box zoning in California is that ballot measures beget ballot measures. That is, once the concept of making land-use decisions gets embedded in the local political culture, there is no getting rid of it — it only burrows deeper and deeper into the political landscape.

Where do housing unit need projections come from? If you answered, "from population projections," you are only partly correct. The little-understood and unappreciated "headship rate" translates population projections into units. Small changes in headship rates could result in significant changes in housing need projections.

While discussing a proposed downtown baseball stadium and adjoining redevelopment project, the San Diego City Council repeatedly violated the California open meeting law because the council's descriptions of closed door negotiations were too general and because some topics should have been discussed in public, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The appellate court also ruled that a trial court judge was correct to issue an injunction detailing how the council should comply with the law in the f

An appellate court has invalidated amendments to the San Bernardino County general plan that gave the county greater authority over development within cities' spheres of influences. The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the county's failure to prepare an environmental impact report on the amendments violated the California Environmental Quality Act.

Imagine this scenario: A major symphony orchestra woos an internationally renowned conductor to become its next music director. After extensive, high-tension negotiations, the conductor at last accepts the job. The day after, however, the orchestra discovers something disconcerting: The conductor is tone deaf. Truth be told, she does not care much for music. After the inevitable flap, the conductor withdraws from the contract, citing unspecified "unsuitable conditions." Given this situation, should

Local regulation of religious land uses has become the latest battlefield in California development. There are at least seven lawsuits pending over government regulation of church development, proposed private schools, and the use of facilities by religious ministries. Lawsuits have been filed against the cities of Concord, Cypress, El Cajon, Los Angeles and Morgan Hill, and against Alameda County and the California Coastal Commission. Additional lawsuits appear likely in Sierra Madre and Hun

The owners of beachfront property are not entitled to compensation for a public access easement that the state required in exchange for a building permit many years earlier, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Supreme Court gave state and local governments a green light to continue using temporary moratoria to limit or block development while devising long-range land use plans.

Not often does one developer slug it out with another developer at the ballot box and in a courtroom. But that is the case in El Segundo, where Kilroy Realty is trying to block Thomas Properties Group from developing 2.175 million square feet of office and retail space on the site for a former aerospace factory near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).