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S.F. Hotel Takings Case Returned to State Court

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

In the latest in a long line of cases challenging the constitutionality of San Francisco's hotel conversion laws, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sent one hotel owner back to state court. The case involves the longstanding attempt by the owners of the San Remo Hotel to have the city officially recognize their hotel as a tourist hotel. San Francisco has had strict restrictions against the conversion of residential hotels to tourist use in place for almost twenty years. When the first "h...

Mojave Water Deal Overturned: Apellate Court Says Farmers Have ‘Overlying' Water Rights

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

An appellate court has overturned a significant ruling by a trial judge in San Bernardino County that sought to adjudicate conflicting claims on groundwater in the Mojave River Basin. The Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 2, ruled in favor of farmers who will likely be forced to change their water usage as a result of the sweeping decision issued in 1995 by Superior Court Judge E. Michael Kaiser. In the ruling, Kaiser consolidated a series of conflicting water claims and sought to make an "...

Election Activity Focuses on Bay Area; Only One Measure on Ballot in Southern California

Jul 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

The June 1998 election featured only eight land use and environmental measures throughout the state, the lowest since 1986 according to a CP&DR analysis of election returns. Seven of the eight measures were on the ballot in Northern California cities and counties. In the only Southern California ballot measure, voters in San Diego overwhelmingly approved a measure to finance a $216 million expansion of the city's convention center. That expansion had been fought by opponents of downtown redevelopment,...

El Dorado County Continues Growth Battles

Jul 1, 1998

Elections, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

Development continues to be a contentious issue in El Dorado County in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento. In the June primary, development interests were able to beat back a ballot initiative that would have reduced housing densities. However, a second candidate critical of the county's growth policies was elected to its Board of Supervisors, and a new ballot initiative to control growth may be headed for the November ballot. Voters turned down Measure A, which would have required public re...

Zoning: U.S. Violated Species Law in Renewing CVP Contracts

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

The federal Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by renewing Friant Dam water contracts prior to completing required consultations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court has also overturned District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton's decision that environmentalists' challenges to the renewal of the water contracts under the California Fish & Game Code were moot. The case involve...

Public Utilities: City Can't Impose Regs on Gas Co. Sand Removals

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

Reiterating earlier court decisions stating that "neither the public nor a public service corporation could tolerate as many standards and policies as there were towns, cities, or boroughs through which they operated," the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that the City of Carlsbad may not require San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to remove dredged sand from its beach. San Diego Gas & Electric has dredged the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad ever since the early '50s, when it first constructed the ...

Kern County Reinstates Planning Board; More Inclusive Permit Process Expected

Jul 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Local Watch, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

In a move that promises to bring a planning commission back to Kern County, the county board of supervisors voted 3-2 on June 17 on a measure directing planning staff to recommend ways to reinstitute the long-disbanded body. The decision was applauded by activists who had complained that the public had not received adequate notice of public hearings, nor provided enough input into projects in their early stages. The county's planning director also welcomed the decision, which he said would assist i...

Hooray for Hollywood

Jul 1, 1998

Morris Newman, Places, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

The notion of the "background building" is one of those profound concepts that was startling when first introduced in the 1960s (by Robert Venturi, I think) and now seems so commonsensical that we might assume the idea had always existed. The basic idea is simple: Some buildings are "stars" and should stand out, while other buildings are merely supporting players. The distinction between foreground and background buildings is not value-laden; foreground buildings are not necessarily better or mo...

Wasco Narrowly Averts Marks-Roos Bankruptcy

Jul 1, 1998

Economic Development, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

The City of Wasco in Kern County is trying to stave off municipal bankruptcy as a result of a series of problems with Marks-Roos and other bonds. The possibility of bankruptcy compounds the legal and financial problems facing the city, including a "cease-and-desist" order in May from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission which bans the agencies from issuing further bonds. Wasco was one of three California municipalities, including the City of Ione and Nevada County, to consent to the cease-and-...

The Real Impact of Proposition 13

Jul 1, 1998

Numbers, Stephen Svete, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

Ask any local government veteran in California what has most hurt their cause and the answer will very likely be Prop 13. Since 1978, the infamous taxpayer revolt and its aftermath has been blamed for every public service woe in the book: closed libraries, lack of police protection, dying street trees, indeed faith in government itself. Yet a growing body of research suggests that per-capita spending by cities in California has not changed from that of pre-Prop 13 years. And nearly all observers of...

County-by-County Roundup

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

El Dorado County Voters rejected a measure that would restrict housing density levels and force public referendums on three proposed major residential developments. Measure A: No, 54.5% Marin County City of Fairfax Voters turned down a proposal to rezone the site of the Marin Town and Country Club to allow the construction of 45 homes and the creation of a 14.5 acre park site. Measure C, No: 77.9 %. San Diego County City of San Diego Voters overwhelmingly approved a plan to finance a...

The Prop. 13 Deal

Jun 1, 1998

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 06 Jun 1998

Proposition 13's legacy to California cities has been a destructive one. One ill effect of the tax-revenue shortfall has been the construction of many unnecessary office buildings, hotels, and shopping malls - all intended by local governments as a means to recapture lost revenues. The result has been overbuilding, a weakening of the real estate market, and regional competition where there might otherwise have been cooperation. All this is well known. But if, by some imaginary power, we had the p...

No Taking in Seattle Relocation Ordinance

Jun 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 06 Jun 1998

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Seattle's tenant relocation ordinance does not constitute a taking even though it requires landlords to pay a portion of moving expenses for low-income residents. The court noted that the plaintiffs had stipulated that ordinance neither "physically invades their property, nor denies them all economically viable use of their property." The three-judge panel criticized the plaintiffs, a group of landlords, for failing to produce necessary ec...

Twenty Years of Proposition 13; Tax-Cutting Initiative Shaped Planning and development in State

Jun 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Vol. 13 No. 06 Jun 1998, William Fulton

It is not too much of an overstatement to suggest that the California planning and development landscape as we know it today was created by Proposition 13 when it was passed by the voters 20 years ago this month. Prop. 13 didn't invent most of the impulses at work in California's communities today, of course. Fiscal zoning and competition between municipalities for tax revenue is nothing new. Neither is the vigorous political jockeying within any community over who pays for new growth, nor the sl...