Vol. 19 No. 07 Jul 2004

Two bills that give the state the ability to control local tax increment financing advanced at the state Capitol during June. If the bills become law, state officials would have more control than ever before over local projects that rely on tax increment financing.

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A State Auditor’s report questions reserve fund accumulations and spending practices at independent water districts. The auditor also selected eight districts for closer scrutiny and found that five of them "may have trouble defending to their ratepayers and taxpayers the need for some portion of their accumulative resources.”

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A governor’s executive order intended to speed development of power plants superceded the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and local measures for implementing CEQA, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The appellate court held that an executive order signed by then-Governor Gray Davis “effectively repealed” portions of CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines that were inconsistent with the order while the directive was in effect, from February 8 until December 31, 2001.

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After nearly five years of work and $5 million of expense, Monterey County’s general plan revision effort has taken a drastic turn. Monterey County supervisors have installed a new team to take charge of the revision and have put on ice a draft general plan that had been endorsed by the Planning Commission.

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The California Supreme Court has accepted for review two land use cases involving local and regional restrictions on logging. The state high court also dismissed a case involving attorneys’ fees in a California Environmental Quality Act case.

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The City of Los Angeles may not revoke a building permit issued to a religious congregation that relied on the permit to commence a demolition and construction project, a divided panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court ruled that under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, the congregation had a vested right with which the city could not interfere.

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There is little question that, in most parts of California today, the idea of “smart growth” is winning the political battle. The land-rich areas of the Inland Empire and the Central Valley remain suburban holdouts, but in most of the ret of the state, the core ideas – higher-density housing, mixed-use development, and even improved transit service – are gaining political acceptance.

Now comes the second battle – the battle for investors.

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A new agreement between the state and five Indian tribes promises to give local governments far greater oversight of casino development projects than ever before.

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Some of the most desirable office jobs are leaking overseas, and no one seems to know how to plug the hole in the employment dike. If the globalization trend continues as expected, it could dampen demand for commercial development and affect economic development strategies throughout California, especially in the Bay Area.

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If you tried, you probably could not design a better candidate for extinction than the California tiger salamander. But government protection of the salamander was slow to arrive and now While the state and federal governments dawdle, the salamander has become embroiled in the politics of growth control and Indian gaming.

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