Vol. 22 No. 01 Jan 2007

Developing real estate in the City of South Pasadena is a little bit like the lovemaking of porcupines: Both are activities to be approached very, very carefully.

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Only two months after voters rejected Proposition 90, new proposals to alter eminent domain law are already arising. Anti-tax activists, environmentalists, local government organizations and state lawmakers are all working on eminent domain proposals, and it is likely that voters will see at least one ballot measure on the subject during the 2008 primary. It is also possible that voters will decide on another regulatory takings initiative.

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Flood control affects development in both the City of Sacramento and San Bernardino County, the City of Lynwood gets an F on their audit by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, and water once again flows through the Lower Owens River.

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A state appellate court has reinstated a lawsuit over a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter in the City of Lodi.

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Yuba County should not have permitted a sand and gravel company to expand its mine without conducting a public hearing, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

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The only way to squeeze a generation’s worth of growth into existing urban areas plus 2% more land is with a heavy reliance on infill development. With the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) beginning to finesse its density-driven, “2% Strategy” growth vision from policy into action, Solimar Research Group is producing information of use to those planning and executing infill development.

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The Navy is poised to relinquish about 5,200 acres within the Concord city limits. The prospect of so much land becoming available in an area where real estate is at a premium excites city officials, developers, environmentalists and city residents, all of whom have at least slightly different visions for the property.

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In the beginning there was the general plan.

This is an overstatement of Dan Curtin’s world view, but not by much. The dean of California land use lawyers, who died a few weeks ago at age 73, was an almost priestly man of faith who believed in God, the rule of law, and the process of land use planning.

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Finally heeding a message of alarm that experts have been sounding for a decade, California voters in November authorized an unprecedented investment in the fragile network of levees that protects homes, farms and critical infrastructure in the Central Valley from catastrophic flooding. Between Proposition 1E, which authorized $4.1 billion for levee improvement, and Proposition 84, a water bond that included $800 million for flood-control projects, the levee system stands to get a $5 billion upgrade.

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The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked development of a geothermal power plant on federal land in Siskiyou County because federal agencies did not complete an environmental review of leases for the land underlying the proposed power plant.

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