It's a little hard to make out the houses in aerial photographs of the 1997 flood in south Yuba County. Only after a minute or two do we realize that we are not looking at floating detritus, but at the rooftops of homes nearly submerged in the brown water. >>read more

Voters who decided local land use ballot measures in November showed slow-growth tendencies. They also displayed more than a little unpredictability, suggesting that nothing in local land use politics is certain, or at least certain forever. >>read more

If you asked the average person to name a city that has professional sports, big-name entertainment, acres of waterfront park and dozens of historic buildings, not many people would say Stockton. But, in spite of its reputation as a crime-ridden, working-class place, downtown Stockton has all of the above — and more is on the way.

Two ballot measures approved by Santa Cruz voters in November appear to have further strained the already difficult relationship between the city and the University of California. >>read more

Of all the Election Day upsets in congressional races across the country, none was more surprising than the defeat of veteran Central Valley lawmaker Richard Pombo, who has represented California's 11th District in the House of Representatives since 1992. The seven-term congressman, chair of the House Committee on Resources, was unseated by a candidate with virtually no political experience and little name recognition outside his immediate family. >>read more

Orange County has approved the "preliminary master plan" for Great Park and Gov. Schwarzenegger has renewed all 23 expiring Enterprise Zones. In El Dorado County, the revised EIR for a new Highway 50 freeway interchange has been upheld while the EIR for the Salton Sea offers 10 alternatives for the lake's future. >>read more

Proposition 90 may have lost, but it hasn't gone away for good. It is likely to be back in 2008. >>read more

A dispute between owners of property in northern San Diego County and a public utility district is headed for a new trial after the Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned a $2.3 million award of damages and compensation to the property owners. >>read more

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's determination that listing the Sierra Nevada Mountain yellow-legged frog as an endangered species was "warranted but precluded" has been rejected by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. >>read more

A state appellate court panel has chastised the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) for ignoring the California Environmental Quality Act during reviews of timber harvest plans. >>read more

A taxpayer lawsuit challenging the City of Seaside's discounted sale of 105 acres of the closed Fort Ord military base to housing developers appears headed for trial. >>read more

In November 1986, California Planning & Development Report was born as a four-page "sample." We haven't missed a month since. >>read more

Looking back at the environmental issues that grabbed headlines 20 years ago, it's tempting to conclude that nothing at all has changed. >>read more

Back in the early 1990s, regionalism was the hot planning topic. Championed by then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, regionalism sought to organize a range of planning functions traditionally managed at the state and local levels into newly defined "regions" that would better reflect actual human activity and social function. >>read more