Vol. 18 No. 03 Mar 2003

In a landmark ruling, the state Supreme Court has made clear that maps recorded prior to 1893 do not create legal, developable lots for today’s purposes. And the court at least hinted that maps recorded between 1893 and 1929 might not be valid unless a city or county somehow exercised discretion in approving the map.

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An economic downturn that has forced up Bay Area unemployment and office vacancy rates shows little sign of abating. Business leaders, economic development experts and analysts say that righting the greater Bay Area’s economic ship will be neither easy nor quick.

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An 11,000-unit housing development and 325-acre "employment center" has won approval from the City of Lathrop, in the San Joaquin Valley east of the Bay Area. If built, the project would be the first major urbanization of one of the many flood-prone islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

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The value of property being taken by eminent domain cannot be based on the property’s zoning if the same entity that is taking the property also imposed the zoning, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

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Opponents of a proposed power plant in San Jose have lost an attempt to get their arguments heard in court.

The Third District Court of Appeal ruled that project opponents could not bring a case in Superior Court because the California Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction to review power plant certification decisions by the state Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. The fact that the Supreme Court rejected the opponents’ lawsuit without reviewing the record did not matter, the Th

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Elisa Barbour, of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) in San Francisco, recently published a comprehensive study on regional planning, "Metropolitan Growth Planning in California, 1900-2000."

In her study, Barbour says that California has tried to create stronger metropolitan planning institutions for 100 years. She calls the most recent surge of regionalism the "third wave," after the establishment of home rule, and the rise of single-purpose agencies.

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More than a decade ago, a state appellate court ruled that developers could hire their own consultants to prepare environmental impact reports required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Now, prompted by events surrounding the controversial Newhall Ranch development in Los Angeles County, a Southern California legislator has launched an effort to outlaw the practice.

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The regional housing allocation process should be suspended until it can be reformed, the Legislative Analysts’ Office (LAO) has recommended.

"The regional housing planning process is not very effective at ensuring the construction of affordable housing or obtaining compliance with state law," the LAO reported.

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The owner of a business that spreads sludge from wastewater treatment plants on fields in Kings County has taken a beating in court over a lawsuit that claimed the county could not exempt an ordinance regulating sewage sludge disposal from environmental review.

In upholding a decision by Kings County Superior Court Judge Peter Schultz, the Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled that Shaen Magan failed to present any evidence to support his claim that the ordinance was not categorically exempt from the Ca

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In its first ruling directly addressing the validity of "antiquated subdivisions," the California Supreme Court has held that maps recorded prior to adoption of the first precursor to the Subdivision Map Act in 1893 do not create legal parcels for today’s purposes.

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