California's Central Valley is a distinctive place. It is a place of flat ground and extreme weather. It is a place of fruits, nuts, grains and dairy products, yet it's also a place of extensive suburban sprawl. It's a place with some of the worst air pollution in the country, but, when the sky is clear, a place with stunning mountain views. It's a place of recent immigrants and extreme poverty, and of fourth and fifth generation landowners.
A city council or board of supervisors must wait until receiving a planning commission's recommendation before the legislative body gives 10-day notice of a public hearing on the matter, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court also determined that the planning commission's recommendation must be part of the notice.
California state officials aren't even dancing around the issue any more. They're openly admitting that the state can't possibly meet the greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals contained in AB 32 without a statewide strategy to reduce driving.
How do you implement smart growth successfully? Take one bite of the apple at a time.
That was the advice from local smart growth leaders in Nashville and Baton Rouge at a panel on implementing smart growth at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Washington, D.C., Friday.
Stanislaus County voters may have rocked the Central Valley on Tuesday by approving a growth-control initiative that prohibits the rezoning of agricultural land without voter approval.
Stanislaus County voters on Tuesday approved a growth control initiative that prohibits the rezoning of agricultural land in unincorporated areas without voter approval. Elsewhere in California on Super Tuesday, voters in Santa Clara and Rocklin upheld housing project approvals, while voters in San Clemente overturned conversion of a golf course into condominiums.
The California Supreme Court has dismissed a case involving San Diego County's antenna ordinance because the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ordinance last year.
News from around California: The battle continues over Santee's Fanita Ranch; a Congressional commission recommends tripling the gas tax; Bay Area builders go green; Caltrans demands a refund from Placentia; global warming suit dropped in San Bernardino County; Diablo Grande goes on the market; the historic Cocoanut Grove falls; proposed Barstow casinos die; Madera County water controversy roils; San Bernardino corruption figures must pay up; San Francisco Supervisor forced to resign; local taxing authority explained.
In a case that the court called "unnecessarily complicated," the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled against residents challenging the environmental review of a 219-house subdivision in the foothills of Porterville.
Like boxers vying for a title, two very different ideas of planning are competing for the future of Alameda Point, a 770-acre community carved out of the former military base next to Alameda, the city.
The California Supreme Court has dismissed a case involving San Diego County's antenna ordinance because the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ordinance last year.
This could become a year of creative financing, and not merely for the state government. Lawmakers are considering at least three bills that could change the rules for financing local infrastructure.
When you've got a $14 billion deficit, everybody's ox is going to get gored. So the question for the planning and development community in California is not really whether something bad is going to happen. The question is whether it matters very much.
