A county may extend the life of a tentative subdivision map that has expired if the subdivider filed for an extension before the map expired, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.
The fight over a gigantic addition to a house in Los Angeles's Pacific Palisades area has resulted in an appellate court decision revoking three building permits and the certificate of occupancy for the structure. The order to revoke permits, originally issued by the trial court, came because the city let the property owner build 14 feet closer to the street than permitted by the Municipal Code.
An airport land use compatibility plan that discourages housing development on hundreds of thousands of acres is a "project" that requires a review of potential environmental impacts, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.
An appellate court has thrown out a decision by a City of Los Angeles planning commission because of the activities of a planning commissioner prior to a public hearing.
A lawsuit challenging approval of the 6,000-acre, 22,500-unit Sunrise Douglas community plan and a related specific plan in Rancho Cordova has been tossed out by the Third District Court of Appeal.
Half a century ago, farmers cultivating the fertile plains and valleys of Ventura County sprayed their crops with the miracle pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a potent post-war product of American chemical ingenuity.
If there was ever a city that needed to roll the dice and get lucky, it's Richmond. Facing problems of poverty, crime and budget deficits, the city really could use a new pair of shoes. The city's plight might explain why the City Council recently made a controversial deal with an Indian tribe to allow the development of a casino on prime real estate on San Francisco Bay.
It is rare for a suburban city of 50,000 people take the lead in a $440 million transportation project. The City of Placentia in northern Orange County has, though, and the effort has stirred political controversy and placed the city under financial strain.
For planners, developers and local government officials, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal for 2005-06 might be as important for what it does not contain as for what it does contain.
An animal shelter project in the City of Long Beach that was partially funded by the city was not subject to the prevailing wage law for public works projects that was in effect at the time, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
Legend records that the dying Julius Caesar looks up to find his friend Brutus among his assassins. "Et tu, Brute?" (And you too, Brutus?) is his pathetic and much-quoted response. This tragic scene from the stage has nothing to do with land use politics in Santa Monica, of course - except for the smell of opportunism and something approaching betrayal of Santa Monica residents by their own city government. >>read more
This month's selection of In Brief items includes: a land use corruption case in Stockton; a recommendation from the Legislative Analyst's Office for state lawmakers to beef up mitigation of coastal development; an ordinance created by the City of Turlock aimed at opposing plans for a Wal-Mart supercenter is upheld in court; farmers sue the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency over water rate increases; and more...
Throughout California, transit-oriented development (TOD) is the rage. Along the Gold Line in Los Angeles, a New Urbanist project appears to be rising out of the ground at every stop. High-rise condominium buildings are emerging adjacent to light-rail stops in downtown San Diego and radiating out of downtown San Jose. BART stations in the East Bay - such as the Pleasant Hill BART stop - have become magnets of high-density development in formerly low-density suburbs.
A state appellate court has ruled that financial incentives the City of La Mirada provided to Corporate Express violated a state law intended to prevent cities from poaching sales tax-generating businesses from neighboring jurisdictions.
