Vol. 21 No. 08 Aug 2006

Auburn Dam is the public works equivalent of a Hollywood zombie, rivaling any Tinseltown creation in its ability to withstand repeated attempts to kill it. First proposed nearly a half-century ago for a site in the American River canyon near the Gold Rush town of Auburn, the dam has withstood attacks by U.S. presidents, member of Congress, state and federal agencies, environmentalists, tax watchdogs, scientists, engineers and even nature itself — the political equivalent of being shot, stabbed, drowned, poi

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Big bear Lake crushes proposed housing development while Madera County continues to wait for long-delayed development of new town, San Diego salvages its inclusionary housing ordinance, State Controllers Office reports majore violations, EPA presents 20 smart growth case studies, and Butte County bans new private roads.

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In a case closely watched by cities and counties, a sharply divided California Supreme Court has ruled that counties have the authority to prohibit logging on private land.

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An environmental impact report for one of the first Wal-Mart supercenters approved in California has been upheld by the Sixth District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the City of Gilroy did not have to prepare a new economic analysis in the supercenter’s environmental impact report because previous studies were adequate.

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A Superior Court’s award of damages to a billboard company that sued over the City of Arcata’s building and sign ordinances has been thrown out.

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The California Supreme Court in July accepted four cases with direct and indirect land use implications.

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The housing deficit continues to grow in the Bay Area, which produced only 83% of needed housing units from 1999 through 2005, according to a report by the Bay Area Council. The production of affordable units was even worse, as the nine-county region produced only 42% of the very low-, low- and moderate-income units prescribed in the Association of Bay Area Governments’ regional housing needs determination (RHND).

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A plan to build housing for faculty and staff members at Sonoma State University appears to have widespread community support except for one detail: The university’s chosen location is a greenbelt outside of the City of Rohnert Park’s politically popular urban growth boundary.

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I don’t agree with the saying that laws are made to be broken. That is the attitude of criminals. I believe, rather, that laws are elastic. Like the fan belts in cars, they are made be stretched until they snap.

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The regional housing wars have begun again in Southern California. And how they come out will go a long way toward determining how much influence the state’s four major “blueprint” regional planning efforts will have over local development patterns – especially infill housing – during the next few years.

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