The saga of plan check and building inspection fees in Orange County continues, as an appellate court has ruled that the county must reduce fees by $4.5 million and pay nearly $1.4 million in attorney fees and court costs.

The owner of two parcels that the City of Berkeley wants to merge may not avoid the merger with a paper transfer of title to his wife, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. However, the court stopped short of canceling the grant deed, ruling only that the city may be entitled to an injunction prohibiting further transfer of the property title.

Two cities known for providing a large chunk of the Coachella Valley's affordable housing may soon see some more upscale and very different development.

I recently spent the better part of three days in the eastern Nevada town of Ely. For those of you not current on your Nevada geography, Ely is the largest town on a 400-mile stretch of Highway 50 through Nevada and Utah known as the "Loneliest Highway in America."

In other words, Ely is a small town smack in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town is more than 70 miles away.

The ABAG executive board approves the draft regional housing need allocation, meanwhile, San Francisco questions whether to conduct an EIR for its previous housing element update. San Diego's Mayor vetoes an ordinance that would ban big-box stores that sell groceries, while a disputed Wal-Mart supercenter in the City of American Canyon will open this fall. Placer County supervisors have approved a 14,000-unit housing development but litigation is likely, a judge throws out Rancho Cordova's approved town center plan, and the City of Bakersfield responds to a "moratorium on future development within metropolitan Bakersfield."

A bill tying all local transportation projects to a regional "preferred growth scenario" that reduces automobile travel is quickly becoming the most important land use proposal of recent years in Sacramento.

What's the economic engine of the 21st Century? It's not exploitation of natural resources – which, according to one recent report, accounts for only 5% of our nation's wealth. It's not factory-style production – that's only another 18%. It's "intangible capital" – our education, our system of laws that creates a predictable society, ingenuity, and the ability to convert ingenuity into tangible products. These represent more than three-quarters of our nation's wealth.

On July 24, the last 7-mile stretch of the 210 Freeway opened from Rialto to San Bernardino. In a way, it was the end of an era.

San Francisco's practice of using building permit fees to fund long-range planning has been upheld by the First District Court of Appeal. The court rejected arguments that the fee plan violated Proposition 13 and the city charter. Instead, the court ruled that long-range planning is sufficiently related to the regulation of building construction to justify the spending.

During a recent visit with my family, I vowed never again to drive my car to work. Well, at least as little as possible.

They looked at me as if I was crazy. When I told them how much I enjoyed walking to work and nearby shops, they were speechless.

There are few places more exciting than the pulsing downtown of a big city. There is a vitality and diversity that is palpable. Sure, it might be kind of noisy and dirty and crowded. But there is so much going on � commerce, entertainment, education, travel, socializing � that it's easy to overlook the grime and congestion.

Sixty million Californians?

Even people who think far into the future haven't given that one much thought. Demographers are pretty accustomed to thinking that there might be 50 million Californians one day. But last week the state's demographers came out with the prediction that there would be 60 million Californians in 2050 – a little over 40 years from now.

Riverside County is moving toward adopting restrictive zoning and even acquiring private property in high fire hazard areas.