An award of $665,000 in damages and legal expenses to a developer in Pacifica has been thrown out by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The unanimous three-judge panel determined that a questionable condition of project approval that the city eventually repealed did not constitute a violation of the developer's equal protection rights because the condition did not stop the project from moving forward.

The City of Half Moon Bay has reached a settlement agreement with a developer who won a takings lawsuit against the city. Last December, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker awarded developer Charles Keenan $36.8 million in damages, plus interest and attorney's fees, because an incomplete city drainage project had transformed an approved 24-acre housing project site into an unbuildable wetland (see CP&DR In Brief, January 2008).

A federal judge has told Half Moon Bay to pay a property owner for making his property unbuildable; Placer County has sued a former planning commissioner for alleged Subdivision Map Act improprieties; government agencies are suing over a San Diego State expansion plan; Humboldt County has dropped proposed timber zoning resrictions; and more news about flood issues in Sacramento.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued two takings decisions from outside California favorable to property owners.

The requirement that two Antioch property owners dedicate land for a new highway bypass when they develop their property is constitutional, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Coastal Commission has rejected Pebble Beach Company's Del Monte Forest plan in Monterey County, Placer County Board of Supervisors remove thier panning commissioner after published controversy, a superior court judge rejects San Francisco referendum petitions, Napa County begins processing an application for the largest project in county history, and Oregonians will vote on a takings ballot measure.

The apportionment of lots in a subdivision is not an "exaction" under the Mitigation Fee Act, a state appellate court has ruled.

One of the largest takings awards in California history has been thrown out by a state appellate court, which ruled that preliminary airport planning and traffic circulation changes by the City of San Diego did not amount to a taking of a developer's property.

Property owners who contend that the government has taken their property without just compensation must press their monetary claims in state court and might never get to argue in federal court.