A federal law protecting religious institutions from land use regulations does not extend to a Masonic Temple operated for commercial purposes, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

A federal judge has told Half Moon Bay to pay a property owner for making his property unbuildable; Placer County has sued a former planning commissioner for alleged Subdivision Map Act improprieties; government agencies are suing over a San Diego State expansion plan; Humboldt County has dropped proposed timber zoning resrictions; and more news about flood issues in Sacramento.

The housing market flopped, and global warming became an issue of overarching concern. Without question, those were the two biggest land use stories of 2007 here in California. Those two stories alone made it a big year for California land use news.

Of course, those of us who write about land use in California like to think that every year is a big year for land-use news. After all, with 100 million acres and 37.7 million people, California has the right basic ingredients.

We have heard, with sadness, that his Honor the Mayor of Los Angeles and his special friend of some months, Ms. Mirthala Salinas, former political reporter for Telemundo, have called it quitsville. The great hook-up of power with beauty, of City Hall and Spanish-language media, of two lonely narcissists, each in search of the perfect audience, is over. And with that romance, an era passes.

Larry Livingston, who died the other day at the age of 89, was one of California planning's true pioneers. And through a courageous public declaration of his own disillusionment, he became a symbol of the practicing planner's frustration.

Proponents of placing land use ballot measures before voters in San Mateo and Riverside have lost separate appellate court rulings.

Blackwater in Iraq means a swirl of controversy over private security forces guarding American diplomats – a job that in the past was done by uniformed U.S. military personnel.

The City of Sacramento took a giant leap on Tuesday when the City Council approved Thomas Enterprises' plan to redevelop the rail yards just north of downtown. But there is no guarantee the direction that Sacramento leaped is forward.

Driving through the Napa Valley last Saturday, the feeling crept over me once again. It's an uneasy, hemmed-in feeling that I often get while traversing the floor of this long, narrow, beautiful valley. Grapevines to the right. Grapevines to the left. Grapevines behind me. Grapevines in front of me.

Okay, I admit it. I felt claustrophobic.

As we at CP&DR know, the business of rating urban things is dangerous. Our recent rankings of the best and worst big city downtowns and medium-sized city downtowns didn't exactly thrill everyone. But people, myself included, love lists.

It was inevitable.

News from around the state includes a ruling against opponents of a new community planned next to the University of California, Merced, campus; a jury's award of $89 million to Southern California developer Rick Caruso; final approval of a multiple-species habitat conservation plan for the Coachella Valley; and redevelopment accounting discrepancies found by the state controller's office. 

The development side has won one in the ongoing fight over water availability in the Santa Clarita Valley, California's hot-spot for litigation regarding water and planning.

Let me explain: In October, the Second District Court of Appeal issued a ruling for Los Angeles County in a suit filed by Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE) over Newhall Land and Farming Company's proposed 2,500-unit West Creek project. The environmental group contended the environmental impact report for the project was inadequate. The court ruled otherwise.