Featured Articles

There is a new gold rush in California. Rather than extracting minerals from the ground, the new prospectors are hoping to exploit California’s abundant sunshine and wind.

From the southern Cascade Mountains of far northern California to the desert along the Mexico border, utilities, start-up companies and entrepreneurs are proposing scores of large-scale solar thermal, photovoltaic and wind projects to generate electricity. » read more | add to cart

Proposals to extend the life of redevelopment project areas for as long as 40 years continue to float around the state Capitol as part of a budget-balancing package. Meanwhile, the City of Industry, a likely proponent of the redevelopment extension, is moving ahead with a $500 million infrastructure bond to assist a football stadium.

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A Bush administration proposal to streamline the Endangered Species Act has met with stiff opposition from California environmentalists and state Attorney General Jerry Brown. A November letter signed by Senior Assistant Attorney General Ken Alex and Deputy Attorney General Tara Mueller to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service accuses the agency of “flouting the public review process” as it rushes toward “a decision apparently already reached.” » read more | add to cart

Balloting on local land use measures during the general election provided the usual mixed-bag of results, but also a number of surprises. Overall, slow-growth forces won 22 of 39 classifiable elections.

Despite the poor economy, the electorate demonstrated a willingness to spend money and even raise taxes for transit, roads and schools. » read more | add to cart

Complete results of 67 ballot measures in 23 counties. » read more | add to cart

A proposed 400,000-square-foot convention center and 2,000-room resort hotel that was supposed to anchor the redevelopment of Chula Vista’s waterfront is dead, but the demise of the convention center and hotel could open up the site to potential development of a San Diego Chargers football stadium. The Chargers have been seeking a location for a stadium and related commercial development and have considered two other sites in Chula Vista. » read more | add to cart

A quarry in San Diego and a closed garbage dump in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson provide the locations of huge urban infill projects. The San Diego project recently won City Council approval, while work has begun on the Carson development. » read more | add to cart

State lawmakers need to decide what to do with the Bay Delta, “and soon,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office urges in a new report. The lengthy document released in late-October is mostly an overview of the state’s water system, but the report concludes with several potentially controversial recommendations. » read more | add to cart

Construction activity may have declined dramatically, but the number of ballot measures seeking to slow or guide growth remains high. Voters across California will face close to 50 growth-related local ballot measures in November.

It’s not unusual for the number of slow-growth measures to increase at the end of a real estate boom. Construction often continues and the real estate market dies, and slow-growth measures are often a reaction to construction rather than the market. In other words, slow-growth ballot measures are a lagging economic indicator of the real estate market. This November’s total is down from the 78 measures on the November 2006 ballot, partly because California had two primaries this year.

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The state budget signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in late September shifts $350 million from redevelopment agencies to schools, and it provides no funding at all for transit projects contained in the State Transportation Improvement Program. Still, the sentiment among many local government officials was that the budget could have been far worse. » read more | add to cart