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The state is going into the VMT mitigation banking business, but exactly how all this will work is pretty unclear.

After many years of litigation and controversy, environmentalists have reached a legal settlement with the owners of the Palisades Tahoe ski resort that will limit the size of the resort’s expansion. Palisades Tahoe, formerly known as Squaw Valley, is already the largest ski resort in the Tahoe region and gained fame as the home of the 1960 Winter Olympics. The settlement created a significant reduction in the size of the development known as Village at Palisades Tahoe, to be constructed at the baes of the mountain. Alterra Mountain Company, owner of Palisades Tahoe, will build about 900 bedrooms rather than 1,500 and cut commercial square footage from 280,000 square feet to 220,000. Environmentalists claimed that the settlement will reduce projected vehicle trips by 38%. The settlement ends 14 years of fighting in the courts and at the Placer County Board of Supervisors over the project. The first application was filed in 2011. Placer County originally approved the project and certified a related environmental impact report in 2016. ( CP&DR coverage of the 2016 Placer County approval can be found here .)

Does adopting a Housing Element violate the California Environmental Quality Act?

Only days after one judge ordered the City of Fresno to approve a housing project it had denied, another judge has ordered the city to redo the environmental impact report on one of the largest-ever Costco projects. Among other things, the court ruling shows that zoning ordinances are having a difficult time dealing with the increasingly blurry line between large retail stores and warehouses.

In a followup to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling, an appellate court in Sacramento has ruled that El Dorado County’s traffic impact fee system is constitutional and meets the so-called Nollan/Dolan standard. The case is almost certain to be appealed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the El Dorado County property owner who brought the suit.

Will Averaging Be Good Enough For Exactions?

A Los Angeles judge has ruled that the Beverly Hills housing element is “deficient” in a variety of ways, including the city’s calculations of potential housing development based on its current density standards. The city has announced plans to appeal the ruling, but if ity loses on appeal that could open the door for several builder’s remedy projects that have been proposed by a single developer.

Both the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County have followed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lead and suspended SB 9 in areas affected by wildfires. Meanwhile, YIMBY Law is considering filing a lawsuit challenging the suspension.

A water deal between Fairfield and Solano County – which will facilitate development outside Fairfield’s urban limit line – has been upheld by an appellate court in a published decision, meaning it can be used as precedent in other cases. Opponents framed the whole issue as a possible prelude to a similar deal for California Forever, though this seems unlikely, at least at this point.

SB 9 isn’t unconstitutional – at least as it is applied to general law cities, an appellate court has ruled.

How Will SB 79 Affect Local Planning in California?

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