Articles

The largest development project in Tuolumne County in decades could wind up as a referendum on the March 2002 ballot.

Three bills intended to create a tighter link between land use planning and water supply topped the land use measures approved by the state Legislature this year.

The California State University system has developed 22 campuses and six satellite centers, but none of those efforts is similar to CSU's project in Ventura County.

The fight over Klamath River water is not solely about the conflicting needs of farmers and fish, as protesters and newspaper headlines suggest. Nor is it about local control versus Washington bureaucrats. The simplistic slogans of the sagebrush rebels are inaccurate. Instead, it is about the false assumptions of the past finally colliding with the realities of the present, about faith in the land's boundless bounty finally running up against the truth of limits.

Everybody who watches old movies knows this story line: A girl from a rich family falls in love with a boy from the poor side of town. It goes without saying that the parents of the rich girl are snobs, and they offer the boy a thick wad of cash to go away. But his heart is pure, and he spurns the dough. Boy and girl subsequently elope amid the sound of swelling music.

In a 2-1 ruling, a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled that federal agencies have the authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate "deep ripping" of wetlands by farmers.

You learn in school that planning is about vision, but in the real world planning usually boils down to numbers � numbers about what's going to happen in the future. But you can never really know what's going to happen in the future. The best you can do is guess.

A general plan requirement that placed a one-mile buffer on private land around a landfill in Placer County was supported by evidence in the record even though there appeared to be no scientific basis for it, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

An appellate court has ordered the City of Concord's Rent Review Board to reconsider a request for rent increases filed by the owner of two mobile home parks.

Gov. Gray Davis completed the 2001 legislative year by signing every high-profile planning bill that hit his desk. Davis signed a bill that severely curtails the use of lot line adjustments and certificates of compliance in creating subdivisions. He approved a three-package bill that forces a closer link between planning and water availability. The governor also signed a $2.6 billion park bond initiative that will appear on the March ballot, and a measure that allows redevelopment agencies to extend thei

A project proponent can eliminate previously adopted mitigation measures so long as the proponent provides a reason for the change that is supported by substantial evidence, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. But the court also decided that the lack of mitigation measures created a conflict with the general plan, so the court invalidated the project.

A federal court has ruled that San Diego's adult business zoning ordinance violated the First Amendment because the city did not prove that there are enough sites available for adult businesses.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected federal arguments for dropping a desert lizard from consideration for Endangered Species Act protection. In its ruling, the unanimous three-judge panel encourages a broader, more flexible reading of the act than the Clinton administration had offered.