California is on the verge of an unprecedented surge in school construction. State voters' willingness to lower the threshold of approval for local school bonds from two-thirds to 55% has drastically increased the number of bonds issued by districts. If state voters approve the two largest bonds in California history — $12.5 billion in November and $13 billion in March 2004 — school construction would take off.
Flat-rate "franchise fees" that the City of Roseville charges customers of its municipal water, sewer and refuse collections systems are in violation of Proposition 218, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.
An initiative that would require Nevada County to pay property owners if a land use regulation diminishes property value appears headed for the November ballot. Both opponents and supporters of the initiative expect that Nevada County will approve the initiative — and that it could lead to similar efforts in other parts of California, especially in conservative rural counties.
Once the largest concentration of dairy cows in the United States, the San Bernardino County Dairy Preserve is on the verge of becoming home to more than 200,000 people. The City of Chino is finishing work on a specific plan for 5,435 acres, and City of Ontario officials are refining a development fee schedule, the last document needed before the city begins processing development applications for 8,200 acres on the south end of town.
"Environmental justice" is becoming the biggest buzzword in planning since "smart growth." There is an irony here, because, at least in California, the two appear to be on something of a collision course.
Though scarcely acknowledged, urban planning is in the midst of a fundamental shift in professional focus. The public is demanding the change. It's a simple idea, as well as an old one: Planners need to understand design. This is because urban planning in America has followed the larger culture into an era where style is substance.
Del Paso Heights is a neighborhood frozen in time. With its large lots and streets without sidewalks or storm drains, the 1,500-acre neighborhood has a kind of shabby charm that recalls its former role as the suburban fringe of the long-gone City of North Sacramento. The neighborhood seems suspended at the moment just before a rural or quasi-rural area undergoes urbanization — that is, when large lots get subdivided for single-family housing, when streets get paved and the casual "house here, hous
Water bonds are as familiar as summer reruns to California voters, who have considered at least 16 of them on statewide ballots since 1960 — the year voters narrowly approved spending $1.75 billion to build the State Water Project. On November 5, however, the electorate is likely to consider a water bond measure that is different from all predecessors.
Opponents of a proposed expansion of a hazardous waste dump in rural Kern County took the proper steps to earn a hearing before a state-appointed appeals board, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled in one of its rare published opinions.
The State Supreme Court has accepted for review a Proposition 218 case from Shasta County. All seven justices voted to review the decision in Richmond v. Shasta Community Services District, No. S105078 (see CP&DR Legal Digest, April 2002).
