CP&DR Vol. 27 No. 7 July 2012

CP&DR Vol. 26 No. 15 August 2011

CP&DR Vol. 26 No. 14 - July 2011

CP&DR Vol. 26 No. 13 - July 2011

CP&DR Vol 26 No.16 August 2011

Reversing a trial court judge, the Second District Court of Appeal has denied an anti-SLAPP motion against a developer who has engaged in a long-running legal dispute over negotiations to bring a National Football League team to Carson.

The Second District Court of Appeal has ruled that the City of Los Angeles's ban on billboards advertising offsite businesses is not content-based and therefore not subject to the "strict scrutiny" test under free-speech clauses in either the U.S. or California constitution.

Overturning a trial judge, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that the private water company Cadiz Inc. and two public agencies did not violate the California Environmental Quality Act in moving forward a groundwater pumping and restoration project in San Bernardino County.

An outdoor advertising company that erected a billboard without permits in the City of Corona was not discriminated against and did not have its constitutional rights violated by the city's action, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

Under Proposition 22, neither the state Board of Equalization nor a county auditor-controller can constitutionally withhold tax funds as part of a redevelopment dispute, as called for by AB 1484, the 2012 bill that cleaned up the redevelopment wind-down, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has blocked the City of Anaheim's attempt to build a surface parking lot on a property adjacent to two new hotels rather than a parking structure, as was implied in a conditional use permit the city approved in 1999.

For 10 years now, cities and counties have struggled with the question of how to deal with the potential for “urban decay” in an environmental analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act. But a new appellate ruling involving a Dollar General store in the unincorporated community of Joshua Tree appears to take the pressure off the CEQA analysis of urban decay somewhat – especially if the only evidence for urban decay is the speculative musings of business owners afraid of losing business.