CP&DR -

AG: No Conflict in Infrastructure Deal

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

Requiring a landowner to provide an excess amount of infrastructure capacity - and reimbursing that landowner later with other county funds - does not fall under the state's conflict of interest laws if a county supervisor is one of the landowners, according to a new opinion from the state attorney general's office. According to the attorney general, such a requirement - permitted under the state's Subdivision Map Act - is not a contract between the developer and the landowners and therefore does not ...

City Not Required to Condemn Lease

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The City of South San Francisco isn't required to compensate a property owner for the city's own leasehold interest in the property - as well as the value of the property itself - in an eminent domain action, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The case involves South San Francisco's decision to take the property of the Mayer family by eminent domain - property that the city had already leased from the Mayers for use as a city conference center. The Mayers leased the property to the city ...

Santa Clara Moves Forward with Controversial Sun Project

Jan 1, 1999

Kathleen Sharp, Local Watch, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

A state hospital once used as an insane asylum has triggered one of the most contentious development battles in Silicon Valley, with officials on both sides of the deal calling each other crazy - and more. "It was a sweetheart deal and there was a lot of yelling over it," said Eddie Souza, former Santa Clara mayor. Sun Microsystems is building new corporate headquarters on 82.5 acres it bought from the state for $52 million. The high-tech company's digs will rise on a portion of the former Agnew Dev...

L.A. County OKs Newhall Ranch Development Project; But Approval Raises Familiar Water Supply Issues

Jan 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

By importing water from at least three sources, the largest housing subdivision ever processed by Los Angeles County could actually enhance the health of the wild river that splits the project site, according to proponents. Opponents of Newhall Ranch, however, see the proposed 12,000-acre development as a threat to the Santa Clara River, the region's last undammed river, and to Ventura County farmers and urban water customers. No matter who is right, Newhall Ranch is being closely watched statewide by...

The Suburban Novelty Made Urbane

Jan 1, 1999

Morris Newman, Places, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The proposed expansion of Farmers Market in Los Angeles raises an important question: Can "theme-park" architecture co-exist with "real" urbanism? By now, everyone is familiar with the coming urban apocalypse known as "Disney-fication" or "the theming of America." Outside of Las Vegas and Hollywood Boulevard, this phenomenon has largely been limited to suburban "entertainment centers," which are usually anchored by multiplex theaters and sell fast food and other "impulse" items amid an atmosphere of...

NEPA: EIS Required for Logging on U.S. Land After Fire

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The U.S. Forest Service should have prepared an environmental impact statement before awarding a series of contracts for timber salvage sales in the Umatilla National Forest in eastern Oregon, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The Ninth Circuit's ruling - the latest in a long series of decisions on Forest Service operations in the Northwest - reversed the ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken, who had granted summary judgment to the Forest Service against the claims brought by...

Zoning Ordinances Come Under Renewed Scrutiny; Cities, Counties Ponder Radical Shift or Simple ‘Tweak'

Jan 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999, William Fulton

As California's post-recession economy picks up steam, many city and county planning departments are revisiting an important policy document that serves as one of the pillars of the community's planning. Contrary to expectation, however, this policy document is not the general plan. It's the zoning ordinance — a document that serves as the workhorse of day-to-day land-use planning but can easily be rendered obsolete or irrelevant by a rapidly changing economy or a highly political planning environmen...

Oakland Port Expansion Moves Forward with Mitigations

Dec 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Public Development, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The Port of Oakland is moving ahead with plans for a second dredging project to make it more attractive to larger ships. As part of the dredging some novel environmental restoration projects are planned, with a plan to fill a part of San Francisco Bay proving controversial to environmentalists. This past summer, the Port finished a $110 million dredging project to increase its depth from 38 feet to 42 feet. With an eye on remaining competitive in the future, the Port now wants to remove another eight ...

Morphing Houses in Downtown Upland

Dec 1, 1998

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In the Animorph series of children's novels, teenagers receive a forbidden power from space aliens: the ability to "morph" or change their natural form into those of various animals. This morphing ability enables the children to do many things otherwise impossible for human beings, such as performing reconnaissance missions in the form of hawks, or fighting underwater in the form of sharks, and literally becoming flies on the wall. (This last-named ability is a source of envy among journalists.) If ad...

Forest Service Sued Over Management of SoCal Forests

Dec 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The U.S. Forest Service could be forced to make changes in its land-use planning for four forests it manages in Southern California as a result of a lawsuit that charges the service hasn't properly considered preserving the 40 federally endangered and threatened species of plants and animals that live there. Until the Forest Service takes those species into account, the suit is asking a federal court to stop such activities as livestock grazing, mining, off-road vehicle use, road building, land ...

Riverside County Exempts Builders

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Environment Watch, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In Riverside County, the county supervisors have never been big fans of federal endangered species regulations. So it should be no surprise that the board recently granted individual home builders a exemption basically excusing them from complying with those regulations. But the supervisors were forced to rescind those regulations once a judge ruled against them.. The issue arose in the southwestern part of the county, home to the Quino checkerspot butterfly, which last year was listed as an endangere...

Growth Results Mixed in November Balloting; Ventura Slow-Growthers Succeed, But Others Fail

Dec 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998, William Fulton

In one of the most active election days of the decade for planning and development issues, pro-growth and slow-growth forces battled almost to a tie on local ballots around the state in November. Slow-growthers won some high-profile victories, most notably a near-sweep in passing a highly publicized series of urban growth boundaries in Ventura County. However, they lost other key races in San Diego and El Dorado counties. And - perhaps most surprising - most measures to allow or promote growth passed ea...

County-by-County Results from November Election

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Elections, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In one of the most active election days of the decade for planning and development issues, pro-growth and slow-growth forces battled almost to a tie on local ballots around the state in November. Slow-growthers won some high-profile victories, most notably a near-sweep in passing a highly publicized series of urban growth boundaries in Ventura County. However, they lost other key races in San Diego and El Dorado counties. And - perhaps most surprising - most measures to allow or promote growth passed ea...

Fair Housing Act: Hotel Owner Has Standing to Sue for Mentally Ill

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The owner of a San Pedro hotel who intends to sell out to a nonprofit group has standing to file a Fair Housing Act lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for allegedly interfering with the sale, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. In addition, the Ninth Circuit ruled that City Councilman Rudy Svornich - while immune from liability for his legislative actions - is not immune from a lawsuit alleging he retaliated against the hotel owners by allegedly initiating code enforcement inspec...