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  • What Will AB 744 Do To Parking?

    The High Cost of Free Parking, by UCLA professor emeritus Don Shoup's landmark call for parking reform, was published in 2005. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, some of his strongest devotees can, at long last, celebrate a victory in the state where the "Shoupista" movement began.

  • High Court Faces Tough Deferred Issues on CEQA Docket

    The California Supreme Court is finally catching up on its backlog of cases interpreting the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Recently the justices moved along two cases related to the law's climate change implications. The bottom line, however, is that the list is getting longer. The court now has eight CEQA cases pending on issues ranging from how CEQA must account for climate change to whether the law is pre-empted by federal railroad regulation.

  • San Jose Plan Would Update Suburban Industrial District

    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.

  • Using Tuolumne Tactic, Moreno Valley Approves Development of 40 Million Square Feet

    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.

  • JPA Can Be Used To End-Run Vote Requirement, Fourth District Rules

    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.

  • What Next For The Subway To The Sea?

    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.

  • No Triable Issue of Fact in AirBNB-Related Eviction Case

    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.

  • Hyperloop and Hyperbole

    On December 21, the Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, deployed a suite of communications satellites, and, in impressive fashion, came back down to Earth. Using its engines to dull the force of gravity, it survived re-entry and hit its football-field sized landing pad like a Tesla backing into a garage. The Falcon 9's return from the heavens was an early Christmas miracle, courtesy of Elon Musk, one of the world's few celebrity engineers. It is a product of SpaceX, Musk's pioneering private space-travel company based in Hawthorne. He can now add space to the list of fields - from electric cars, to battery power, to credit card payments - that his ventures have conquered. (A similar launch Jan. 17 didn't go quite so well.) Next, Musk hopes to revolutionize long-distance transit. That one may make rocket science look like child's play. For the uninitiated: Hyperloop is - depending on whom you ask - either the name brand or the generic concept behind the next generation of magnetic levitation technology. It's envisioned as either a train or as a set of individual pods that, unlike conventional maglev (which never really caught on, except on a 21-mile line in Shanghai), would run through depressurized tubes. Yes, tubes. As in under the ground. The technology makes intuitive sense. It uses the estimable power of magnetic propulsion while avoiding the mortal enemy of all moving things: air resistance. With potential speeds north of 600 miles per hour, the "hyper" is obvious; whether "loop" refers to the circular tube or to the idea that these things will be encircling us sooner than you can say " California High Speed Rail " is but one of its delightful mysteries.

  • Can Bertoni Help Garcetti Run L.A. City Hall's Planning Gauntlet?

    Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday that he has selected Vince Bertoni as the city's new planning director, replacing Michael Lo Grande. Bertoni is currently planning director of Pasadena and a former deputy director in Los Angeles. Bertoni must be confirmed by the L.A. City Council.

  • Insight: How Will California's Cities Use Two New Redevelopment Options?

    Ever since Gov. Jerry Brown killed redevelopment in 2011, the conventional wisdom has been that eventually he would give it a second life - but only after he was sure the old system was completely dead, in a way that protects the state general fund, and probably after he himself won re-election to a final term.

  • CDFA Erred in EIR Alternatives Analysis on Pest Control Action, Court Rules

    The California Department of Food & Agriculture erred in preparing an environmental impact report for a program intended to eradicate with an invasive pest without examining the long-term consequences of an alternative program to control the pest rather than eradicate it, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

  • The Tech Housing Crunch's Fracking Dilemma

    A couple of weeks ago I heard a spiel by one of the founders of a new startup called Feastly , which is trying to pair up chefs with diners. Chefs wake up in the morning, go into their kitchen, prepare whatever they want, put out a call on the Internet - and if it's something you want to eat, you go to their house and dine. Feastly, in other words, turns every dining room into a restaurant.

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