For many jurisdictions that are part of California's "Big Four" metropolitan planning organizations, Senate Bill 375 has ushered in new, unprecedented degrees of collaboration. But whereas SB 375 makes a regional planning revolution for many, for the jurisdictions of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the SCS is business as usual. Having pursued so-called "Blueprint" planning since 2004, and having built its 2008 Metro Transportation Plan (MTP) around it, the Sacramento region's efforts inspired some of the tenets of SB 375 in the first place. The SACOG SCS, released in November and scheduled to be voted on next month, is no novel concept but rather more of a revision of existing plans. It has been met with broad support in part because the heavy lifting was done years ago. "It's been a nudge. It's not like it was a revolution," said McKeever. "The revolution happened when the Blueprint was adopted." Thus far, developers, environmental groups, and member cities alike have hailed the plan. In fact, the enthusiastic support is a far cry from the response to San Diego's SCS, which was hit with a lawsuit at the same time that SACOG released its draft. That lawsuit claims that the SCS favors highway too heavily and increases sprawl in the region. In addition to the environmental groups that filed the suit, Attorney General Kamala Harris recently joined the suit. No such complaints have been lodged in the Sacramento area and scarce opposition has arisen. The SCS responds in part to estimates for population growth that have recently been revised downward. Those residents who do move to, and are born into, the region will, as is typical in smart-growth planning scenarios, have a greater selection of high-density housing stock. The SCS assumes that the region, currently at 2.2 million residents, will grow by roughly 871,000 residents— 400,000 fewer than the 2008 MTP assumes – translating to 361,000 new jobs and just over 300,000 new housing units. The SCS calls for all of this new growth to consume only 56,000 acres of greenfield land. As SACOG executive director Mike McKeever noted, that amounts to a 40% population increase while increasing the region's development footprint only 7%. As a result of this more compact development pattern, the region is expected to meet its goals for greenhouse gas emissions. SACOG's models estimate that vehicle miles traveled per household will decrease by 6%. Traffic congestion is expected to decrease 7% by 2035, as compared to an increase of 22% projected by the 2008 MTP. These reductions in traffic stem largely from new investments in a range of transportation modes. The MTP/SCS calls for the expansion of metro Sacramento's two light rail lines, the introduction of a streetcar in West Sacramento, and a host of bus improvements, including bus rapid transit. It also calls for spending on new arterial roads. Notably, the plan also calls for $2.8 billion in investment in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, which is projected to spur a 32% increase in the hose of those modes. "We've really turned a corner on what's happened in the Sacramento area since about 1980," said Matt Baker, habitat director at the Environmental Council of Sacramento. "We feel it can be improved by developing an implementation plan for a comprehensive network for active transportation – bike and ped – in alignment with the transportation network." McKeever said that the SCS/MTP also projects an increase in transit ridership and, notably, a farebox recovery rate that will increase from today's 24% to 38% in 2035. "That may seem like a boring number to people, but that's a huge difference in terms of having an economically viable transit region in this region," said McKeever. He said that, at those rates, the region would have an extra $1 billion to re-invest in transit. Single-family large-lot housing is planned to grow by 29% while single family small-lot and attached housing is planed to grow by 71 percent. All of this is projected to result in a far smaller growth footprint than that created during the previous few decades, when subdivisions of single-family detached homes spread across former farmland. The SCS approaches land use and new development from three different perspectives: that of community type, Blueprint principles, and Transit Priority Areas. The region's five community types range include (1) centers and corridors (i.e. major employment centers); (2) established communities; (3) developing communities; (4) rural residential communities; and (5) lands not intended to be developed. The plan attempts to focus growth on the more dense, established places. As well, it overlays the concept of Transit Priority Areas (TPA), which are defined as areas within one-half mile of transit service with at least 15-minute headways. This would include the region's light rail lines and certain high-capacity bus lines, both existing and planned. The SCS intends for developments in TPA's to take advantage of SB 375's relaxation of CEQA requirements, thus promoting infill development that will reduce per capita vehicle miles travelled. These predictions come from what McKeever describes as an innovative "activity-based" modeling methodology. The land-use modeling uses I-Places, an industry standard. He described the transportation model as unusually precise—measuring trips on a per-parcel basis—and accounting for the "tours" that drivers take during the day as they travel not only between home and work but also to intermediary locations along the way. McKeever said that this sort of modeling did not necessarily bias the projections towards more trips or fewer trips; rather, he said, it is simply more precise than methods used in the past. "It's not that there's a bias in the model one way or another," said McKeever. "It's more that it's just a more precise way to estimate travel behavior." McKeever offered the example of a transit oriented development: "(Without) a parcel-based ability in both your land use and transportation models…wou lose your ability to figure out whether putting that TOD in that particular place would have any meaningful impact on travel behavior or not." The RTP also calls for the expanded transit service to reach 150,000 residents and 240,000 employees who do not currently have easy access to transit. Between 1988 and 2005, SACOG estimates that the region grew by approximately 657,000 people while consuming 200,00 acres of farmland. The new MTP/SCS calls for 800,000 new residents to consume only 36,000 more acres of farmland. Unlike those in other the three regions that are implementing SCS's, the SACOG SCS takes pains to preserve farmland, as agriculture is to the Sacramento region what tech is to San Francisco and entertainment is to Los Angeles. "It's a particularly big deal to us because our farm economy is a big deal in this region," said McKeever. "Farm products is one of the few things that we actually make in this region and export to the world. We get a lot of extra multiplier value and we want to save as much of that dirt as we can." This avoidance of developing on farmland is complemented by the region's Urban-Rural Connection Strategy. This program seeks to analyze the relationship between agricultural areas and urban centers with respect to issues such as local food supplies, transportation routes, infrastructure demands, and irrigation. Despite this sensitivity to the agriculture industry, some in the region's rural counties are wary of the SCS's prescription for compact growth. "A lot of elected officials don't like to tie themselves to a plan that might limit their ability to do business with developers," said Yuba County Supervisor Mary Jane Griego, a member of the SACOG board. "I think the hangup might have been that this plan felt to some like it was stepping on their land." Griego said, however, that public officials in Yuba County are content with the plan. "We're a small agricultural county and wanted to make sure that growth is in appropriate areas," said Greigo. "We wanted to preserve our farmland and make sure that we kept that business for a long time." Griego added that many pro-development officials in rural counties may be dreaming that the boom of the early 2000s will rise again. Greigo called such predictions "unrealistic." "Content" generally describes the mood of the environmental community. However, the Environmental Council of Sacramento has raised a few concerns about the amount of ecologically sensitive areas that could be impacted by the SCS upon build-out. Baker noted that the Rural-Urban Connections program includes meticulous research about the impact of urbanization on the agricultural community but that the SCS's analysis of ecological impacts is not as deep or conclusive. As well, they believe that the SCS allows land to be wasted on housing types whose time has come and gone. "We do applaud reduced growth footprint, but we also feel that there is too large of a percentage of large-lot, single family residences in the plan," said Baker. "The plan's proportion of large-lot single family housing does not reflect the oversupply that we already have in the area." One crucial constituency that embraces the SCS is that of SACOG's member cities. There seems to be an unusually strong symbiotic relationship between cities and the MPO in that cities in the region have been updating their general plan with the Blueprint in mind. To the extent that the SCS reflects the Blueprint, it is very much in line with what cities are already anticipating. "From the city's perspective, the planning work that we've done to-date – we updated our general plan three years ago – and we did that consistent with the smart growth and blueprint principles that were already laid out," said Erik de Kok, senior planner with the City of Sacramento. "You can't just paste those general plans together and say, ‘this is our regional plan,'" said McKeever. "That being said, our land use pattern is largely consistent with the general plans." This sort of synergy is a reason why Eliot Rose, deputy director of UC-Berkeley's Center for Resource Efficient Communities, considers the SACOG SCS a standout among its peers. Rose praised the plan for clearly describing and explaining the changes in land use that it recommends, for using demographic data in a sophisticated way, and in reflecting cooperation between the regional body and its member jurisdictions. "SACOG distinguishes really clearly between the roles that local land use plans, demographic, and economic trends that sometimes often are best analyzed at the regional level play in shaping land use change," said Rose. In doing so, Rose said that SACOG may have avoided some of the problems that are plaguing SANDAG. "They've taken a lot of steps to demystify this process and be transparent about it rather than rolling a lot of different local decisions and independent policies and programs together and presenting them as part of a package that may not actually be that cohesive behind the scenes," said Rose. Rose might get some disagreement from supporters of the Tea Party movement. Over the past year, Tea Party supporters have voiced strong opinions in public meetings concerning SCS's throughout the state. Many of them object to centralized government planning and contend that SCS's are designed to limit residents' freedom of choice and to socially engineer a less free lifestyle. McKeever said that Tea Party opposition has not been as strong in the SACOG region as it has been in the Bay Area, but he noted that the region's rural counties are strongholds of Tea Party sentiment. In light of the Tea Party's outspokenness, McKeever said that SACOG has been prepared with responses to their concerns. "We try to explain that much of what we try to do is in some ways consistent with what they're saying," said McKeever. "They talk about freedom and variety and options and choice and those are all things that are central to what we're trying to do." Contacts & Resources:  SACOG SCS/MTP  (PDF) Matt Baker, Habitat Director, Environmental Council of Sacramento, 916.444.0022 Erik de Kok, Sr. Planner, City of Sacramento, 916.264.5011 Mary Jane Griego, Yuba County Supervisor, .530.749.7510 Mike McKeever, Executive Director, SACOG, 916.321.9000 Eliot Rose, Deputy Director, UC-Berkeley Center for Resource Efficient Communities, 510.642.0779

In San Diego County, a dispute involving a long overdue application for a conditional use permit has resulted in the closure of a church that had been essentially squatting in a trailer park for over 25 years.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a church's claim that a land use permit regulation violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc ("RLUIPA") was not ripe for judicial review because the church had not completed the requirements for the use permit, and therefore the courts could not determine the particular burden that the church would have to shoulder under the challenged regulation. In 1986, the Guatay Christian Fellowship moved to a recreation building on the grounds of a trailer park in an unincorporated portion of San Diego County. The park was zoned "rural residential." While use permits are not required for religious assembly in five of the county's twelve commercial zones, and in one of the County's residential zones, the building in question was not located within such a zone.  Soon after the church moved into the building, a county employee informed the church secretary that the church would have to submit a use permit application. The secretary then prepared and attempted to submit an application in person to the county offices, but after speaking with several people at the county offices, ultimately did not turn in the application.   A new owner bought the property shortly after the church began using the building in 1986. In March 1988, the owner submitted an application to the county for a minor deviation from the approved use permit in order to relocate six of the park's RV trailer sites.  The plot plan submitted with this application labeled the building as a recreation hall and did not mention a church. The County Planning Department disapproved the proposed minor deviation plan, in part because the existing recreation hall was being used as a church. A county employee again informed the church that "it seemed that the church would probably require a major use permit."   No use permit application was ever completed. Nonetheless, the church continued to use the property for religious assembly for the next 20 years. The County issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) to the Park via the owner in April 16, 2008, which identified numerous violations, including the recreation building being "illegally converted for use as a church."  The NOV required that the church stop using the building for religious assembly.  The county separately informed the church that because the property was not zoned for religious assembly and no permit had been obtained to allow such use, the continued operation of the church for that purpose was illegal.   The church ceased all religious assembly on the property and brought an action in U.S. District Court, alleging claims that the county enforced a land use regulation in violation of the church's constitutional and statutory rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and RLUIPA. The District Court granted summary judgment, holding that the church's claims were not ripe for review.  The church appealed.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed.   The court first disposed of the church's argument that the principles of equitable estoppel should spare the church from completing the use permit application process.  The church failed to satisfy several elements of estoppel under California state law.  The county had never expressly stated that the church's use was permitted, and the church could not rely on lack of county enforcement to support its estoppel argument. The court then held that the church's claim was not ripe for judicial review.  As a matter of first impression, the Ninth Circuit applied that ripeness rule to RLUIPA claims because, in land use contexts, the final decision requirement (1) aids in developing a full record; (2) is the sole means by which a court can know precisely how the regulation at issue would finally be applied to the property; (3) might provide the relief the landowner seeks without requiring the courts to engage in unnecessary constitutional analysis; and (4) accords with principles of federalism because, by encouraging resolution of land use disputes at the local level, it evinces the judiciary's appreciation that land use disputes are uniquely matters of local concern.  Here, the Court was unable to determine if the church has suffered a "substantial burden" under RLUIPA until the church had submitted at least one use permit application to the county.  The Ninth Circuit did not consider, and left for another day, the church's argument that the costs of complying with the county's use permit requirements (a) is a "substantial burden" under RLUIPA because such costs are "unreasonable and unattainable" for a non-profit organization in its position, and (b) implies that the county has deliberately imposed these requirements to quash the church's religious exercise.   The Case: Guatay Christian Fellowship v. County of San Diego , ___ F.3d ___, 2011 U.S.App. LEXIS 25581 (9th Cir. 2011) The Attorneys:  Peter D. Lepiscopo, Lepiscopo & Morrow, San Diego, California, for the appellant Thomas D. Bunton, Senior Deputy, County of San Diego, San Diego, California, for the appellee

As the adage goes, they may not be making any more real estate these days. But, for some bargain-hunters, the death of redevelopment may be the next best thing.  In the coming months, successor agencies and their oversight boards will be deciding which in-progress redevelopment projects will go forward and, conversely, which assets will be disposed of. Presumably, all of those assets that are not placed on respective agencies' lists of enforceable obligations will be sold and their proceeds dedicated to local taxing entities. Uncertainty about the fate of those properties—both the prices they will fetch and, perhaps more importantly, the developments that could result—are adding to cities' anxieties during the wind-down of redevelopment.  Properties held by successor agencies fall generally under a few categories:  • Larger, developable sites that need no unusual preparation or environmental remediation. • Small parcels that had been intended to be merged with others to form viable development sites. • Contaminated sites awaiting publically financed remediation. • Dilapidated historic structures awaiting publically or privately renovation. • Sites acquired and designated for affordable housing.  • Sites acquired and designated for infrastructure and public services.  The number of such holdings ranges from zero in some cities to roughly 400 in Los Angeles. The former Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency holds around $300 million in property that was intended to be leveraged into roughly $3 billion in investments, according to CRA/LA spokesperson Richard Bloom. But those numbers do not necessarily have anything to do with the values once properties are liquidated—that figure is unknown even to the agency itself.  The city is hoping for a few blockbusters, at least in high-profile former project areas such as Hollywood.  "It's location, location, location," said Bloom. "Some of these properties are going to be extremely attractive to developers." Renata Simril, managing director at real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle and formerly a developer with Forest City Enterprises, said that many former RDA properties will be inherently unattractive to developers, if not because of their site characteristics then because of their locations.  "I think it's important to note that redevelopment's function was to help provide tools in blighted or underserved," said Simril. "So by nature of them being RDA project areas, the majority are very depressed areas." Bloom said that the agency is currently putting together a list of its assets, but even the most detailed list will not reveal the properties' market values.  "There's a conflict between expeditiously selling this stuff and selling it at the highest value," said Bloom.  Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge put it even less diplomatically. "The instructions are to sell them ‘expeditiously,'" said Loveridge." "I'm not quite sure what that phrase represents." Loveridge estimated that Riverside has about 160 properties that could be liquidated. He said that figure is comparable to those of neighboring cities in the Inland Empire, which has been famously hard-hit in the recession.   "Across the state, you multiply ours and a lot of properties are going to be on the market at a very down time in the economy," said Loveridge.  A notable foil to Los Angeles and its large Southern California neighbors is San Francisco. Tiffany Bohee, interim executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, said that the city has relatively few un-contracted properties on its books. San Francisco is often considered an anomaly in the redevelopment world because the city and county are one in the same; therefore, the city had less incentive to shield tax monies through redevelopment.   Cities are, of course, hoping that these properties fetch top dollar from developers who are eager to carry out the cities' redevelopment plans. But that's a best-case scenario. The process and timelines by which these sales may take place have yet to be determined. Timing could drastically affect the value of certain assets, as California's real estate market remains soft and successor agencies may be forced to take relatively low bids unless they are permitted to wait until more opportune moments. Meanwhile, certain properties may find few, or no, bidders no matter when they go on the market. Statewide, redevelopment held countless marginal properties and even properties that would be considered useless to anyone but the agencies themselves. Agencies acquired slivers of real estate with the intention of folding them into larger assemblies, and they own untold acres of contaminated properties that many of them were intending to remediate with funds provide by the "Polanco" brownfields program. (The Polanco program, created by AB 3193 in 2005, provides some immunity from liability for redevelopment agencies and successor property owners of contaminated sites.) While small agencies may have no trouble cataloging their holdings, some larger agencies are struggling just to figure out how many properties they own and what those properties are like.  "Part of the challenge of compiling the list of things you're going to sell is not only figuring out the properties but also tracking down all the funding sources...and the strings attached in that regard," said Bloom. "Are there environmental remediation issues or anything else that might affect the value of a piece of property...and then look at the market value?  It's sort of hard to know until you put it on the market."  Many of the properties that are likely to catch developers' eyes—and therefore fetch the highest prices—are also those that cities considered crucial for their redevelopment plans. In downtown San Diego, the former Centre City Development Corp. may have to liquidate properties that had been set aside for such crucial facilities as parks and fire stations. Though those projects were in only the early planning stages, CCDC had acquired properties with the express purpose of securing them before developers did.  CCDC contends that selling those properties—and thus losing the opportunity to build parks and fire stations—imperils the robust residential development that is planned for the area. Intended high rises and their thousands of would-be residents will have inadequate fire protection and limited access to open space, both of which, planners say, are crucial for creating a viable community there.  "If downtown continues to build out and absorb up to 90,000 people by 2030 with no new parks and no new fire stations, at some point it's just not going to be a livable place anymore," said Graham.  Many cities fear that developers who acquire former RDA properties will have little incentive to build anything resembling that which the redevelopment plans had envisioned.  "One of the uncertainties about this is that if you have five people want a property and the one who bids the most money is the worst of the five, do you go to the highest bidder?" said Loveridge. "If you're the highest bidder and you're not selected, do you go to court?"   Moreover, without redevelopment agencies will no longer be around to negotiate for other ancillary community benefits.  "The agency was able, in its day, to not only get projects built, but also to get other community benefits in exchange for the agencies subsidies they were able to extract various commitments from developers to help get these projects built....a whole lot of that stuff obviously goes by the board," said Bloom.  Zoning controls may thus offer cities their only remaining means of controlling land uses in former project areas. Graham said that the City of San Diego is considering a zoning change that would make its intended fire station and park sites for "public use." The city had not previously done so because CCDC controlled the properties already.  "There are some controls available to a city to help maximize some of the more marketable properties because they have the ability to impose zoning/land use planning controls," said Iris Yang, at attorney with Best Best and Krieger, who specializes in redevelopment.   Of course, the potential for selling properties, no matter how attractive or marginal they may be, first depends on the decisions of successor agencies' oversight boards and the state Department of Finance. Cities are intensely wary of the process by which both entities will decide properties' fates.  "There's absolutely no direction on how the oversight board conducts its meeting, how it liquidates assets, there are no procedures in place to standardize any of that," said Graham, echoing common criticisms of Assembly Bill X1 26, the bill that guides the dissolution process. "It appears that each county and city will be crating its own process as it plods along." Cities are particularly anxious about what will happen in the event of disagreement.   "We don't know how forcible the Department of Finance is going to be in reviewing the decisions of 400-plus oversight boards throughout the state," said Graham. "How fair is that?"  Contacts:  Richard Bloom, Spokesperson, Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, 213.977.1600 Jeff Graham, Spokesperson, Centre City Development Corp. (San Diego), 619.235.2200 Ron Loveridge, Mayor, City of Riverside, 951.826.5311 Renata Simril, Jones Lang LaSalle, 213.239.6000

Though most cities maintained full-time redevelopment teams, not all the work was done in-house. That would be hard to do in a $5 billion annual industry, with countless moving parts in hundreds of agencies across the state.  As with many public sector entities, redevelopment agencies retained consultants for a wide range of services and special projects and services. Consulting firms often to helped to devise plans, draw up deals for market rate development and affordable housing, and identify project areas in accord with redevelopment law.   When Gov. Jerry Brown announced his intention to shut down redevelopment agencies early last year—and then when the California Supreme Court handed down a nightmare ruling for RDAs—consulting firms were as surprised as anyone else was.   "Many assumed that ‘worst case' translated into ‘least likely,'" said John Oshimo, of RC Associates, of the Supreme Court's ruling.  Whatever the aggregate benefit of the shutdown of redevelopment may be, the abrupt cessation of a six-decade-old industry has taken a tremendous human toll, not just among redevelopment staff but also among the dozens of consulting firms whose practices depended, in part and sometimes in whole, on contracts with redevelopment agencies.  "Some of the consulting firms are going to shrink – of course they are!" said David Rosen, principal of David Paul Rosen & Associates. "You've easily got a couple of billion in cash flow that's gone."   Rosen said that, because his is a national firm, it is large and diversified enough to weather the loss of redevelopment-related business. But others are not so secure.  Oshimo, whose employs only five consultants, said that the disappearance of redevelopment came abruptly, even with projects underway.  "(Dissolution) has been tremendous. It eliminated all the projects that we were scheduled for," said Oshimo. "We were in the middle of a few projects that got put on hold." Oshimo said that he has not had to let any of his staff go. The same cannot be said for Kathleen Rosenow, principal of the Rosenow Spevacek Group, Inc. of Santa Ana. Rosenow said she has laid off roughly one-third of her staff in the past year.     Rosenow said that most of their work was on a project-by-project basis. All projects that did not already have construction projects are unlikely to be approved as enforceable obligations by successor agencies' oversight boards. As such, any project that was still being evaluated by consultants is unlikely to make the cut.  "How we have dealt with that is through layoffs and attrition," said Rosenow.  The Feb. 1 deadline did not of course eliminate all redevelopment-related work in California. To the contrary, successor agencies are working as intensively as ever on their wind-down. But former redevelopment agency staff are clinging to their own jobs, and the budget for the wind-down does not necessarily enable successor agencies to call for consulting help, no matter how badly it may be needed.  "There's a lot of trying to figure out how to administer a lot of paperwork," said Rosenow.  Successor agencies are, however, seeking legal advice.  Unlikely their consultant counterparts, lawyers who specialize in redevelopment law have found themselves with plenty of new business – at least those who have quickly developed expertise in the new world governed by Assembly Bill X1 26.  "We're very busy right now and have been probably for the last year because of the threat of dissolution, the ups and downs of what bills would be passed, and trying to help agencies work through all the various issues during that time," said Iris Yang, an attorney with Best Best and Krieger.  Short of earning legal degrees in a pinch, consulting firms are holding out for a new version of redevelopment to arise. By then, the decimation of city staffs may create a greater demand than ever for consulting services. May think that affordable housing is likely to be revived relatively soon, especially with a bill pending in Sacramento that would restore the equivalent of the 20% set-aside.  "I think that everyone feels that at least the affordable housing or the set-aside funds will eventually come back," said Oshimo.  Not everyone is so optimistic, however.  "I don't really have a lot of hope for those companies," said Larry Kosmont, whose firm, The Kosmont Cos., performs a wide range of land-use consulting services. "They are going to have to retool dramatically. Many of these companies have been involved in the arcane business for a long time."  Contacts:  Larry Kosmont, The Kosmont Companies, 213.417.3300 John Oshimo, RC Associates Inc., 626.331.6373 David Rosen, David Paul Rosen & Assoc., 510.451.2552 Kathleen Rosenow, Rosenow Spevacek Group, Inc., 714.541.4585

Smart growthers tout transit-oriented development more often than any other strategy. Yet with the exception of a few few showpiece developments, TOD has yet to catch fire in practice. This year, the American Planning Association recognized one such development in the hopes that, finally, the trend will catch on.  The Contra Costa Centre, located between Walnut Creek and Concord in the inland reaches of the Bay Area, will be receiving the 2012 National Planning Excellence Award for Implementation, one of 15 awards to be presented April 16 at the APA's National Conference in Los Angeles. (They will be joined by two other recipients from California: San Francisco's Hunters Point redevelopment and Pasadena's 1925 City Beautiful plan.) The award comes roughly three decades after the concept of developing a mixed commercial and residential around the Pleasant Hill station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's Pittsburg/Bay Point line. Though not yet fully built out, CCCTV sits on 125 acres in unincorporated Walnut Creek and features approximately 2.4 million square feet of Class A office/commercial space, two full-service hotels, 50,000 square feet of retail/restaurants and nearly 2,700 multi-family residential units.  Planners say that the project has created a 30% decrease in traffic congestion in the area as commuters have opted for BART and other means of transportation that do not require single-passenger vehicles.  Despite the popularity of the TOD model, planners say that the center's development was anything but smooth. It was, in fact, a complicated partnership between developers, Contra Costa County, the Contra Costa County Redevelopment Agency, and, as is inherent to transit-oriented development, a major transit operator. Notably, the redevelopment agency, now forced into dissolution, assisted the project with land assemblage, funding for affordable housing, and some of the placemaking efforts. (The agency was led at the time by Jim Kennedy, now interim executive director of the California Redevelopment Association.) "It was remarkable that the project spanned political leadership. We felt it was an example of what should be done across the country," said Ann Bagley, who is a planner in the Dallas area and chair of the APA's awards jury. Maureen Toms, program manager with the former Contra Costa County Redevelopment Agency, noted that the plan took as long as it did in part because market conditions never would have accommodated so much vacant space all at once. The tenancy, and the related commuting benefits, took time to reach critical mass.  "The Contra Costa Transit Village will accomplish positive changes as a result of planning, and the implementation award emphasizes long-term measurable results," said Bagley.  Initially, not everyone was so enthusiastic about the project. It received intense local opposition from neighbors who were accustomed to the area's bedroom-community feel. Gail Murray, BART's District 1 director, said that a series of charettes helped diffuse that initial opposition, in part as residents discovered that the transit village, though large, would likely be an improvement over existing conditions.  "The BART property was all parking; it wasn't attractive; it was just a sea of thousands of cars," said Murray. "Putting all the cars in a garage and building this TOD was an amenity to the surrounding neighborhoods."  Murray also said that the logic of TOD took hold when residents came to understand that the project would not encroach on their lifestyle.  "People are accepting the fact that around the BART station is the right place to have more density," said Murray. "It doesn't make sense to have single-family homes around a station." CCCTV operates on the familiar premise that commuters will opt for rail rather than driving because of the project's proximity to the rail station. But planners say that the project required careful planning and programming in order to actually realize those goals. In particular, developers included several programs to encourage commuters to stay out of their cars during the workday and to make sure that non-driving workers could get around.  Toms cited such features as a car-sharing program, a circulator van, and a hiking/biking trail that runs alongside the freeway. The Contra Costa Association – the business association that includes all office tenants – also sponsors regular traffic monitoring, with the goal of maintaining or improving upon that 30% traffic reduction.  "That's something that we keep tabs on," said Toms. "We want to make sure that that isn't moving backwards." A few variables, however, remain to be defined. The village's master plan includes several large parcels that remain vacant.  "It's taken a number of years to complete the vision that they had back in the '80s to do this kind of project," said Toms. "It can't be that you adopt the general plan and you have build-out right away. You have to really stick with the plan." Even among the relatively high concentration of transit oriented greenfield developments in the Bay Area, CCCTV is considered a standout.  "One of the original ones, at Fruitvale Station (in Oakland), is also in stages," said Murray. "It wasn't as successful because it was the first one out the door." Meanwhile, other communities are looking forward to forming their own plans, inspired by what the CCCTV has done. Toms said that delegations from other cities have come to observe the project, and Bagley said that California seems to be on the leading edge of transit oriented development.  "We're always fascinated with California planning because y'all do a good job," said Bagley, the APA jury chair. "It's very important that we draw attention now to these transit areas. All over the country people are needing to live in more urban situations, by choice or by necessity. A successful transit area is critical to that." Contacts:  APA 2012 National Planning Awards

As does every year, 2011 included a wide range of published appeals court cases, some setting major precedents and others tinkering with the arcana of land use law. Here are some highlights from CP&DR 's Legal Digest compiled over the course of the year, organized by area of law. This compilation draws on a presentation given by CP&DR contributor and Sacramento-based land use lawyer Bill Abbott, of Abbott & Kindermann , at the UCLA Land Use Law and Planning Conference earlier this month.  Billboards Hill v. San Jose Family Housing Partners  Density Bonuses Wollmer v. City of Berkeley First Amendment Alameda Books et al. v. City of Los Angeles Housing Element Challenges Haro v. City of Solano Beach Medical Marijuana Traudt v. City of Dana Point Religious Land Uses (RLUIPA) International Church of the Foursquare Gospel v. City of San Leandro Variances West Chandler Boulevard Neighborhood Association v. City of Los Angeles California Environmental Quality Act Statutory and Categorical Exemptions Wollmer v. City of Berkeley South Orange County Wastewater Authority v. City of Dana Point Negative Declarations Citizens for Responsible Equitable Environmental Development v. City of Chula Vista Save Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach Schenck v. County of Sonoma EIR Baselines Citizens for East Shore Parks v. California State Lands Commission EIRs Oakland Heritage Alliance v. City of Oakland Santa Monica Baykeeper v. City of Malibu Valley Foundation v. City of Rocklin Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment v. City of Santa Clarita LandValue 77, LLC v. Board of Trustees of the California State University Ballona Wetlands Land Trust v. City of Los Angeles Flanders v. City of Carmel-By-The-Sea CEQA Litigation Latinos Unidos de Napa v. City of Napa Citizens Planning Association v. City of Santa Barbara

Having already prepared one environmental impact report that was set aside by a court, the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea undertook a new EIR for the purposes of evaluating the impacts of the City disposing, by sale or lease, of a historic mansion. That EIR and the special circumstances surrounding publically owned historic structures were at issue in Flanders Foundation v. City of Carmel-By-The-Sea.  In 1971 and 1972, the city acquired the Flanders Mansion and surrounding preserve property, which is located 3.5 miles from the center of town. Constructed in 1924, the mansion was a "two-story Tudor Revival English Cottage," designed by a prominent architect Henry Higby Gutterson and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city had used the property for various purposes: including residential, gallery, and office space, but had been vacant since 2003. Facing ongoing ownership of a property with significant deferred maintenance, the city proceeded with an EIR to deal with disposition options.  Pursuant to the EIR, the city's primary objective was to divest itself of the mansion, with secondary objectives of (1) preserve the mansion as a historical resource; (2) put the mansion to productive use; (3) provide that ongoing use of the mansion would not impact the surrounding neighborhood; (4) protect the public's enjoyment of surrounding preserve; (5) protect the environmental resources and (6) provide the public as many park benefits as are practical.  The DEIR included four alternatives: no project; residential lease; public use lease; sale with conservation easements and mitigations. The DEIR concluded that all the project alternatives had fewer environmental impacts than the project as proposed, but only the sale alternative would meet the basic objective of divestment. The administrative record, although not the EIR, included an economic feasibility analysis of the various options. One of the letters on the DEIR commented on the feasibility analysis, the Surplus Lands Act, and the alternative of selling the home on a smaller parcel. The FEIR responded to the first two, but not to the third comment in this particular letter.  In May 2009, the city adopted various resolutions certifying the EIR, adopting a mitigation monitoring and reporting program, adopting a statement of overriding considerations, and approving the project (sale with conservation easements and mitigation measures). Following the CEQA challenge, the trial court held that the EIR failed to consider the impacts of selling the property in compliance with the Surplus Lands Act as well as failure to respond to one comment. The city appealed and the Flanders Foundation, the petitioner, filed a cross appeal implicitly to prevent the city from relinquishing ownership of what it considered an important public resource. The appellate court ruled for the city on all issues save one.  First, the court concluded that while the Surplus Lands Act applied to the sale, the evidence was that the development of an affordable project was unlikely. Therefore, sale to another government agency—at anything resembling a fair price—was irrelevant and, therefore, there was no requirement to study this potential scenario in the EIR. The appellate court also concluded that there was no obligation for the lead agency to include the economic feasibility in the analysis, and in a detailed critique, that the evidence contained within the analysis constituted substantial evidence. Notably, the court held that analytical framework in the study of what a reasonable prudent property owner would do, as compared to what the city could afford to undertake, was appropriate.  The court writes, "The Foundation insists that…restoration and maintenance of the Mansion property ‘can be achieved" without selling the Mansion property. This argument ignores the fact that…substantial evidence supports the City's finding that it would be economically infeasible for the City to retain ownership of the Mansion property." The appellate court also rejected the foundation's challenge to the statement of overriding considerations, after determining that there were multiple independent grounds stated in support of the override (and that the opponents failed to demonstrate a lack of substantial basis for each one). The appellate court did concur with the trial court that the City's non-response to the question regarding the viability of mitigation to park impacts through the sale of a smaller parcel (along with the home) warranted a response, and that the "City's certification of the FEIR was therefore invalid." Flanders v. City of Carmel-By-The-Sea (January 4, 2012, H035818) ___Cal.App.4th ___

Charles M. Haar, one of the greatest land use and urban development lawyers of the second half of the 20th Century passed away Jan. 10 at his home in Key Biscayne, Florida. He will always be known for his brilliant articles on establishing the comprehensive plan as the constitution of land use planning in the United States in the 1950s, which has become increasingly important in the U.S. and California.  It is truly sad to see one of the greats no longer with us. Charles Haar was a good friend and colleague. We solidified our friendship when I was a visiting professor of law at Harvard in 1985 and later when we taught together at the University of Miami law school as visiting professors teaching land use courses.  Professor Haar had a brilliant career. After service in Naval Intelligence in World War II, and practice in real estate law, in 1952 he became a Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School and later on was named the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law. Together with Professor Jacob Beuscher of Wisconsin, he pioneered one of the first classes in the nation on land use law and in 1958 wrote one of the first, and for 30 years, the most influential, casebooks in the field, Land Use Planning: A Casebook on the Use, Misuse and Re-use of Urban Land. Professor Haar's most original work was his two 1955 seminal law review articles on the comprehensive plan. That is what Charlie will always be remembered for, as well as having conducted one of the first law school classes on Land Use Planning law. Charlie was the first to break away from the 1930's, 40's and 50's  influence of zoning attorneys and their narrow detailed zoning and subdivision treatises by emphasizing the need for comprehensive planning to serve as the underlay for land use implementation.   He particularly decried a series of 1950 New Jersey Supreme Court cases expressing the "majority view" rejecting the requirement of comprehensive planning to lie behind zoning.  For this alone he will always be one of the greats for having shaped a new direction for consideration of environmental, economic, architectural and planning multidisciplinary approaches and to escape from the parochialism and lack of planning embodying local controls.  The greatest tribute to Charlie's efforts was the case of Udell v. Haas, 235 N.E.2d 897 (N.Y. 1968) in the New York Court of Appeals, which attributed the need for planning as central to rational urban growth to Charlie's articles, citing Haar, In Accordance with a Comprehensive Plan, 68 Harvard Law Review 1154 (1955), and "The Master Plan: An Imperfect Constitution, 20 Law & Contemporary Problems 353 (1955): The mandate of the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act, § 4, that zoning be in accordance with a comprehensive plan, is not a mere technicality which serves only as an obstacle to overcome in carrying out their duties. Rather the comprehensive plan is the essence of zoning. Without it there can be no rational allocation of land use. It is the insurance that the public welfare is being served and that zoning does not become nothing more than a Gallup Poll…. As Professor Haar points out zoning may easily degenerate into a talismanic word like the "police power" to excuse all sorts of arbitrary infringements on the property rights of the landowner. To assure this does not happen our courts must require local zoning authorities to pay more than mock obeisance to the statutory mandate that zoning be "in accordance with a comprehensive plan."   In California, the influence of Professor's Haar's articles resulted in the adoption of California Government Code § 65860 (in 1965) "Consistency of zoning ordinances with general plan" with one great omission, charter cities, with the exception of Los Angeles, are exempt from the consistency requirement, Cal. Gov't Code § 65803, 65860 (d). Nevertheless in City of Del Mar v. City of San Diego, 133 Cal. App. 3d 401, 414 (1982) the court held that: While the trial court was correct in concluding that charter cities such as San Diego are statutorily exempt from the technical zoning consistency requirement contained in Government Code section 65860, Del Mar persuasively argues that a city's general plan may be viewed in many ways as the city's articulated perceptions of what constitutes the locale's "general welfare." Thus, to the extent that a city approves a zoning ordinance which is inconsistent with the city's general plan, the inconsistency must at least give rise to a presumption that the zoning ordinance does not reasonably relate to the community's general welfare, and therefore constitutes an abuse of the city's police power. In the 1960s, Professor Haar's career path shifted to working with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations on federal solutions to poverty, redevelopment and housing. His finest contributions were the drafting of the Model Cities legislation in 1966, which for the first time directed federal grants to renew poverty and minority neighborhoods through economic development and minority citizen participation, in contrast to the federal Urban Renewal program which bulldozed and obliterated inner cities through eminent domain, leaving vast wastelands, such as those discussed in Martin Anderson's The Federal Bulldozer (M.I.T. Press, 1964). Two years later he drafted Sections 235 and 236 of the 1968 National Housing Act which introduced the most effective federal subsidy programs the country has ever seen. Unfortunately his extensive and valuable work on national issues fell by the wayside with the demise of the Johnson Administration. Charlie's efforts then shifted to the world of exclusionary zoning and discrimination in the provision of housing, basic services and infrastructure systems. In 1971, working with Daniel Fessler of Harvard, he won a great victory in the case of Hawkins v. Shaw, 437 F. 2d 1286 (5th Cir. 1971) in establishing the constitutional right of minorities to equal services. Charlie continued his work, over the years, in housing and exclusion, publishing a number of well received books: Housing the Poor in Suburbia; Fairness and Justice, Law in the Service of Equality; The Wrong Side of the Tracks; and Suburbs under Siege: Race, Space and Audacious Justices (highlighting the Mount Laurel Supreme Court cases in New Jersey).  He also wrote definitive works on Property and Law, The End of Innocence, and The Golden Age of American Law. In 1982, Charlie was appointed Special Master in a state court case resolving the problems of pollution in Boston Harbor.  In 2005, he highlighted his experience in Mastering Boston Harbor: Courts, Dolphins and Imperiled Waters (Harvard University Press): Professor Haar said the courts were indispensable in solving what was known as the tragedy of the commons. Though the harbor belonged in principle to everyone, "no single entity felt duty-bound to care for it." Thus it was being lost to all. "The energetic judicial response to prior legislative inertia was the most extraordinary and precedent-setting feature of Boston Harbor's journey from a national disgrace to a symbol of national pride."  Attorney Robert H. Frielich teaches land use law at the University of Southern California and is the author of over 10 books, most recently, of  From Sprawl to Sustainable Growth, Successful Planning, Law and Environmental Systems.

LOS ANGELES -- For the wind-down of redevelopment to be anything short of a train wreck, successor agencies and oversight boards are going to need a keen understanding of real estate, public policy, economic development, and, of course, accounting. They're also going to need a lot of coffee and patience. But, according to Timothy McOsker, a member of the three-person board serving as successor agency for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the successful completion of the wind-down process is going to require something more subtle.  At this Tuesday's UrbanScape conference, presented by UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate and  UCLA Lewis Center , McOsker posited that ultimate agreement on crucial matters such as what to do with agencies' assets and how to approve enforceable obligation will be as much a matter of negotiation and people skills as they are of bean-counting. This was just one of countless insights posited by a panel charged with the unenviable task of explaining what the next year or so will bring for cities, RDA staff, and the nebula of professionals who used to work on redevelopment projects. McOsker noted that the Los Angeles City Council chose not to serve as successor agency because "presumably because they thought the job was impossible." Los Angeles' list of potential enforceable obligations amounts to a reported $1.8 billion.  The challenge McOsker and his colleges around the state face is one of many reasons why, if nothing else, Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to kill of redevelopment in California has led to a profusion of conferences, workshops, discussions, and task forces. Rather than the standard affair in which panelists discuss faraway plans or rehash information that is already well known, yesterday's conference took place in front of a rapt audience. And why shouldn't they be rapt?  Among the small sample of attendees with whom I chatted, there was a landscape architect who is now seeing projects dry up. An executive from one of Los Angeles' biggest affordable housing developers who now doesn't know where much of his funding is going to come from. There were consultants, developers, and public officials all of whom came for real information and usable insight into one of the swiftest changes in the history of California public policy.  CP&DR publisher Bill Fulton led a panel exploring the current state of affairs: the organized chaos that is the wind-down process and the immediate future in which newly formed agencies and oversight committees will try to figure out which pieces of the RDA pie get sold off and which can be kept by cities that are now starving for ways to stimulate their economies. Keep in mind, it's a pretty big pie: at the time of its demise, redevelopment's tax increment accounted for a full 12% of the state's property tax revenue. No wonder Gov. Brown was so eager to get his hands on it.   For Fulton's part, he presented himself as "the only mayor in California who supported the governor." Recently stepped down from his post as mayor of Ventura, Fulton felt that redevelopment needed reform and that gridlock in Sacramento was unlikely to loosen without radical action. None of his panelists necessarily disagreed: it seems, indeed, that the argument over the wisdom of the governor's plan is long gone. Now cities are too busy figuring out what to do with the wreckage of redevelopment.  But it's not just cities, of course. In the coming weeks and months, county auditor-controllers will be inundated by RDAs' books. They will help confirm the share of tax increment that used to go to different entities and the share that will now flow back to those entites in the absence of RDA. oversight boards, which have yet to be formed, will get to wrangle over which projects get to live and which get to die. The negotiations will be intense between those who want not another dime of tax incremnt to go to local projects and those who believe that it would be a waste to let projects die on the vine.  Then there's the Department of Finance. If the death of redevelopment had played out as the Legislature intended -- i.e. if it had been a voluntary culling rather than a massacre -- all of this might work might be taken in stride. The Legislature reasonably expected that a few agenices here and there -- a handful per county -- might have folded rather than agree to the "voluntary" transfer payments to the state. Instead, Finance has 400 dead agencies on its hands, and county auditor-controllers have to deal with every agency in their respective counties.  This is why McOsker was so adamant about the need for "social IQ." Many of the decisions that will be made in the coming months will not necessarily be the result of careful deliberation but rather will take place in frenzy. The Department of Finance likely will not care to appreciate the nuance of every question that arises, and, in many cases, it may tell oversight boards simply to make their own decisions. The ability for public officials to get along with each other may therefore determine the fate of what's left of redevelopment agencies. This is especially important for cities, which, as Fulton noted, are outnumbered, 2-5, on the oversight boards.  Conversely, if Finance doesn't make big decisions, then what about the small decisions? McOsker noted that AB X1 26 is fuzzy on successor agencies and oversight boards' powers and obligations. He posited the "paper clip problem": if the legislation doesn't specifically authorize the purchase of paper clips, then what do successor agencies do when they need to stick two pieces of paper together?  That question is especially pressing since most of them will have to put together far more than just two pieces of paper.  As for all of those audience members looking for answers and, possibly, for business: they may have to keep waiting. Though all the panelists, including Renta Simril, of Jones Lang Lasalle, and Tony Salazar, of McCormack Barron Salazar, were optimistic about the prospects for a replacement to redevelopment, it may not happen soon. As Fulton noted, it's going to be a lot harder for state to give up money that it now controls rather than to take funds away, as it did with the ERAF payments of the past decade.  "I think the governor is waiting for the body to get colder," said Fulton.

This week Senate Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) introduced two bills that seek to solve what many consider to be serious problems caused by the demise of redevelopment. The first would give cities and successor agencies greater powers to maximize the value of redevelopment agency assets rather than subject them to a "fire sale." The second represnts a holy grail for many housing advocates: a consistent, dedicated source of funding for affordable housing, to the tune of up to $700 million per year.  SB 1151 would require the successor agency (usually cities in the area formerly covered by the RDA) to prepare a long-range asset management plan that outlines a strategy for maximizing the long-term value of the real property and assets of the former redevelopment agency for ongoing economic development and housing functions. The bill would require the successor agency to submit the plan to the Department of Finance and the oversight board by December 1, 2012, and would require the approval of the plan by the department and oversight board by December 31, 2012. SB 1156 would allow and authorize the use of new joint powers authorities and a new financing option for cities and counties throughout the state to develop sustainable economic development and affordable housing. The bill would require the new authority to assume from a successor agency the responsibility for managing the assets and property of the former redevelopment agency . Funds would be raised from a $75 recording fee assessed to real estate transactions throughout the state. These funds would help replace the 20% set-aside lost when redevelopment agencies went out of business Feb. 1.

LOS ANGELES -- Yesterday's "California's UrbanScape" conference on redevelopment, presented by UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and UCLA Lewis Center, was kicked off by perhaps the member of the California Legislature most sympathetic to redevelopment--and therefore most remorseful about the current state of affairs.  State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles) was one of the only Democrats in the Senate to break ranks with Gov. Jerry Brown and vote against the dissolution of redevelopment. Yesterday he offered some optimistic words for the future of redevelopment, assuring the audience that "both houses support some sort of re-creation of economic development at the local level."  Padilla has co-sponsored Senate Bill 659, which would restore some of the affordable housing funding that disappeared with the demise of redevelopment.  The current situation arose in part because the Legislature that voted for Brown's plan failed to understand what redevelopment meant for low-income neighborhoods, according to Padilla. Having represented a low-income area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley Padilla said, "even without tools like redevelopment…there's going to be an interest in the Westside. But without redevelopment, would communities like the Eastside, like South Los Angeles even be on the radar for developers, for retailers, for housing investors?"  "That is a point of view and factor that, I think, fell on deaf ears last year in the State Capitol," said Padilla.  Even if the Legsilature did not appreciate what it was doing, Padilla reinforced one of the chief arguments advanced by its supporters doing last year's legislative and legal battles: "the Legislature intended for an alternative mechanism to continue local economic development activity at the local level." In other words, redevelopment's death was accidental, due to legislation -- AB X1 26 and AB X1 27 -- that was crafted hastily and poorly last summer. That haste is in stark contrast with how Sacramento usually works.  "It's not like the state of California was born yesterday," said Padilla. "The public policy challenges that we've had before us are either the new things or the very complicated things." Killing redevelopment was in the latter category, according to Padilla.  As cities and successor agencies try to implement the provisions of AB X1 26, Padilla said that people in the Capitol are already thinking about the equally complicated task of replacing redevelopment. He insisted that a new program might also be based on tax increment financing but with "significantly less dollar amounts than what we were accustomed to, and more structured and, in some ways constrained, by new policies that have been adopted." Padilla said that state policies such as those to reduce greenhouse gas emissions might guide the next incarnation of redevelopment.  While Padilla said that the Legislature would support such a move, he said that the biggest obstacle may be the governor.  "He got what he wanted," said Padilla. "I don't see the policy pushes and pulls for him to really engage here." Nevertheless, Padilla exhorted supporters of redevelopment to embrace the complicated discussions that are likely to ensue.  "There's a lot of excitement about what that could and should look like and very few people interested in dealing with the muck that has been created," said Padilla.

The Planning Center | DC&E is looking for an urban planner to join our team in the newly established Downtown Los Angeles office. We are seeking someone who is passionate and deeply committed to produce planning and urban design documents that are transformative in shaping and improving our communities. We are looking for someone who is on track for increasing responsibility for project management and marketing. Key qualifications for this position: ? Degree in urban planning, architecture, urban design, or related professional program ? Minimum of three years working for a municipal planning agency or private consulting firm ? Experience in writing policy sections for comprehensive general plans, specific plans, and comparable planning products ? Understands integration of urban form with policy planning and capable of conceptualizing physical development concepts ? Capable of addressing prevailing planning issues and best practices such as climate change, sustainability, and healthy cities ? Understands the tools and methods of public outreach and engagement and able to effectively participate in public meetings ? Has worked collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary environment ? Maintains a healthy and balanced life