Downtown San Jose sure has changed since the last time CCAPA was at the Fairmont. That was in 1989, when the Fairmont had just opened up. The idea of a fancy hotel in downtown San Jose – or a fancy anything, for that matter -- was kind of a new idea. Today, the Fairmont's practically a venerable institution compared to the newer cool things, like light-rail and high-density housing and the Adobe "vertical" campus and the excellent "urban interface" between downtown and San Jose State …

Fittingly enough, the memorial service for Warren Jones – the founder of Solano Press Books, who died back in May – took place yesterday, on the eve of the annual conference of the California Chapter, American Planning Association, in San Jose. Like most conferences, CCAPA is all about exchanging information – practice tips, job leads, business cards. And Warren devoted most of his career to making sure that planners in California had access to the information they needed.

The requirement that two Antioch property owners dedicate land for a new highway bypass when they develop their property is constitutional, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

What a difference a year can make.

During the final days of the 2006 legislative session, a package of bills intended to force better coordination between flood control and land use planning in the Central Valley and Bay Delta region died amid a deluge of acrimony. This year, however, state lawmakers approved six bills similar to measures that failed last year.