While the presidential Primary Election will be a non-event in California,this upcoming Election Day, June 5, will be a relatively quiet one for land use measures in California as well. Only a handful of measures appear on city and county ballots. Perhaps not surprisingly, Orange County features two of the most contentious measures: one to promote affordable housing in Yorba Linda and to create a new commercial center in Cypress.
The trials of Sisyphus are apt metaphors for that moment in the California Environmental Quality Act review process wherein parties believe they have reached the summit but in fact discover themselves at the bottom of the hill, only to repeat their past efforts.
Muting one of the more burdensome requirements of the Subdivision Map Act, the First Appellate has ruled in favor of "multiple sequential adjustments" in Sierra Club v. Napa County Board of Supervisors.
As planners have increasingly embraced the principles of smart growth over the past few years, suburban areas have increasingly borne criticism as examples of how not to plan. This criticism often ignores a crucial point: even if suburbs are imperfect-largely because they promote automobile dependency-they are not necessarily hopeless. A recently completed study led by Prof.
Observers of the California Environmental Quality Act may find it refreshing when a court lays it on the line. And that is exactly what Division Eight of the Second Appellate District did in addressing CEQA's requirements for baseline selection for projects with future implementation dates. Neighbors for Smart Rail v.
Against all odds, redevelopment isn't quite history yet in California. Some projects continue. Most cities are engaged in a long wind-down process that is consuming considerable time and attention. And the state legislature is considering a variety of options to revive redevelopment, or at least get it back on life support.
Over the past month, California cities have been learning the fate of countless redevelopment projects—touching everything from graffiti-removal programs to nine-figure transit-oriented developments to billion-dollar stadiums. For many, the news is not good – especially now that the California Department of Finance has gotten into the act.
When Axl Rose first stepped off the bus from Indiana, took the stage at the Whisky, and screeched out the opening lines of "Welcome to the Jungle," he probably wasn't thinking about parking. But he might as well have been.
