Vol. 20 No. 11 Nov 2005

A legal battle between wealthy property owners on the shores of Lake Tahoe appears to have been won by a group wanting to build a new boat dock. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected all arguments against the proposed dock presented by the Glenbrook Homeowners Association and allied parties, and the court upheld the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s approval of the project.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended the 2005 legislative year by vetoing one-quarter of the approximately 900 bills that lawmakers sent him.

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With all the talk these days about New Urbanism in California these days, it is sometimes easy to overlook the old urbanists. These were planners of the 1950s and 1960s who worked in the context of urban renewal and Modernist architecture, trying to fight a rear-guard action against the rapid suburbanization of the time.

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Riverside is slowly inching into implementation of a redevelopment project at the city’s western gateway. The city recently resolved litigation with Riverside County over the boundaries of the project area, and some small infrastructure projects are moving forward.

However, a lawsuit filed by a group of project area residents is pending. Until it is resolved, full implementation of the redevelopment plan must wait.

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Rep. Richard Pombo has been trying to revise the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) for nearly a decade, having been handed that seemingly Sisyphean task by the GOP leadership shortly after the party took control of Congress in 1994. The Tracy Republican has never made much headway in what he calls an effort to “improve”— critics typically substitute “cripple” or “gut” — one of the nation’s key environmental laws.

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A developer that has fought a variety of government fees levied by numerous jurisdictions had its day in front of the state Supreme Court in October. But during an hour of oral argument, California’s high court justices offered few hints of how they might rule.

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A property owner’s lawsuit against a San Francisco housing activist has been swatted down by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found, essentially, that the First Amendment protected the activist’s complaint about the property owners’ plans.

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A settlement agreement between the City of Malibu and a developer has been thrown out by the Second District Court of Appeal because the agreement limited the city’s police powers and was improperly adopted in closed session.

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Construction of a sewage plant in the unincorporated San Luis Obispo County community of Los Osos has been halted following the successful recall of three elected officials who supported the plant.

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One of the most interesting phenomena of the urban-infill craze of recent years has been the conversion of industrial corridors, such as riverfronts and railroad tracks, into middle-class housing, “creative” office space and touristy retail.

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