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The City of San Jose has adopted a plan that seeks to transform the north end of town from a suburban-style industrial park into a transit-oriented district featuring mid-rise office buildings, tens of thousands of high-density residential units and retail outlets to serve employees and residents.

For years, National Football League teams have been trying to find places to play in the Los Angeles area. Soon enough, 700 of them could move to Moreno Valley, with room to spare. In what may be the largest single commercial development in the history of California - or possibly the universe - the World Logistics Center will, as currently envisioned, cover 40 million square feet, most of which will be dedicated to storage, transshipment, and other functions related to the logistics industry. It will be more than twice as large as New York City's much-heralded Hudson Yards project. WLC was approved last summer on a 3-2 vote of the Moreno Valley City Council. Following the filing of as many as nine California Environmental Quality lawsuits against the project, that vote was reaffirmed in November as the council voted to adopt a ballot initiative to approve the project - using the so-called "Tuolumne Tactic" after developer Highland Fairview qualified a measure for the ballot. It is believed to be the first time the tactic has been used after a project had been approved by local elected officials and CEQA lawsuits had been filed. "I think it's as important a choice as any that a council has made in my some 50 years of being a professor at UCR-.and 33 years in elected office," said Ron Loveridge, director of UC-Riverside's Center for Sustainable Suburban Development and former Mayor of Riverside, referring to the council's initial approval of the project. Tethered to the ports of Los Angeles and Long beach by rail lines and freeways, the Inland Empire has long provided the real estate where overseas shipments get stored and redirected en route to consumers across the country. Unlike many of its neighbor, though, the relatively new city of Moreno Valley (incorporated in 1984), has had only a small share of the logistics industry, which employs over 100,000 workers in the region.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has rejected arguments from San Diegans for Open Government that the City of San Diego improperly created a joint powers authority in order to avoid a two-thirds vote requirement for issuing sale-leaseback Marks-Roos bonds.

The Second District Court of Appeal has upheld the environmental impact report for the extension of Los Angeles's Purple Line, removing another hurdle for construction of the "Subway to the Sea" through Beverly Hills. Now we'll see whether the Beverly Hills city and school district will appeal to the California Supreme Court.

A Venice tenant who was renting her attic or loft out through AirBNB does not have a "triable issue of fact" on an eviction case brought against her by her landlord, the appellate division of the Los Angeles County Superior Court has ruled.

The federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday issued a nationwide stay blocking enforcement of the new federal rule defining "Waters of the United States". For now the stay applies in all states, including California. While it lasts, the "Waters Of..." definition returns to the jumbled but familiar state it was in before the new rule took effect on August 28. Although the stay is only a temporary measure, it strengthens legitimacy and buys time for opponents of the Obama Administration's approach to clean water regulation.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that, in determining the relevant parcel of land for purposes of analyzing a regulatory takings claim based on the denial of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of a Clean Water Act § 404 fill permit, the Court of Federal Claims should only consider the economic value relating to the single parcel of land containing the wetlands to be filled, and not the adjacent developed property and other wetlands in the vicinity owned by the same developer.  Here, the single parcel was never considered part of the same larger development.

Conflict over a proposed housing project in the Sonoma County city of Sebastopol offers proof of just how politically difficult infill development can be.

Recent polls suggest that Proposition 13 remains as popular today as when it was enacted. Yet, at the same time, residents demand a high level of services which exceed the ability of local officials to fund absent innovation in developing new funding strategies. This innovation in turn has generated a series of voter-enacted limitations designed to further restrict new revenue measures, absent voter approval. Part of this voter legacy is Proposition 218, enacted in 1996 (California Constitution Art XIIID).

Tuesday's California Supreme Court ruling in a CEQA case involving San Diego State lays down an important marker: State agencies can't claim that a mitigation measure is infeasible just because they didn't get a legislative appropriation to pay for it. It's the second time the Supreme Court has rejected an argument by Cal State that fiscal considerations under state law should trump CEQA.

After doling out $120 million in essentially free money in 2015, the program staff behind the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grants discovered almost as many opinions as there were dollars in the program. Public and private stakeholders alike expressed concerns about both the fairness and efficacy of the selection process. Large urban areas lobbied for population-based preferences, rural areas lamented their lack of qualifying transit, and fierce discussions took place over jurisdictional caps and underserved communities.

The big camp on Coyote Creek north of Story Road in San Jose is familiar to Sandy Perry and Pastor Scott Wagers, leaders of an activist ministry known as CHAM. But during the past couple of years they have been amazed to see people pour into the place from elsewhere in the city -- some of them evicted from an embarrassingly visible camp near the airport. What was a mere few tents now fills a broad open space on the creekside below Story Road and continues along the west bank of the creek. Tents are pitched every few yards, many in tiny courtyards fenced with sheets, tarps and pallets.