This year's CEQA reform will put more pressure on cities and counties to bulletproof their housing element EIRs. But it also creates a much "cleaner" exemption for infill housing than was previously available. 

Deletion of fast-food restaurant with drive-through was enough to persuade an appellate court to issue an unpublished ruling in the city's favor.

Stakeholders who seek more affordable housing deal a setback to Sacramento Railyards mega-development 

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed major infill housing reform with the budget, meaning the changes take place immediately. But on the non-residential side, it's still "Swiss-cheese CEQA," and there's no relief for greenfield proejcts. 

Appellate court rules that SB 743 requires more evidence than just putting forth the assumption that VMT will be low in infill situations.

State law has lots of definitions of infill and transit-oriented locations. As local governments increasingly use the infill exemption to get around environmental review, this is becoming a problem.

If it includes a disposition and development agreement with a specific development program, the answer is yes, according to a San Diego judge.

A nearby office-building owner challenged the infill exemption on a condo project, claiming rare species were in the vicinity. In a case of dueling biologists, the Court of Appeal ruled that the species weren't rare enough to qualify.

Insurance in wildfire areas is becoming harder to get -- which should be a good thing for the state's growth management policies. But it's getting in the way of meeting the state's housing targets.

In an published ruling, an appellate court says the city's general plan encourages -- but does not require -- infill development.