Lake Berryessa, a 30-square-mile federal reservoir in the hills northeast of the more famous Napa Valley, may be California's most secret lake. But a new land use and management plan could change that by promoting a more high-end tourist activity than the lake has seen in the past. >>read more

- AB 1387 (Jones). Expands a CEQA exemption for urban infill to projects of up to 100 units with a minimum density of 20 units per acre. The projects also must be within half a mile of a transit stop and comply with the local circulation element. Signed by governor. >>read more

I confess I have not read the book A Choice over Our Heads, but the resonant title of Lawrence Butler's book chimed in my brain the other day, when I first hearing about Sequoia Village. The project is an attempt to combine affordable housing and the philosophy of co-housing, a semi-communal way of living in which people agree to contribute labor, such as cooking one day for a week in exchange for communal meals the rest of the time. >>read more

Two rivers that have been dry for decades because of 20th Century water diversions may flow again thanks to some reverse engineering. However, while restoration of the Owens River does appear to be proceeding, returning the San Joaquin River to a year-round waterway is anything but guaranteed. >>read more

The Bush administration brought its efforts to change environmental regulations to California in September, when high-ranking appointees conducted "listening sessions" in Redding and Colton - two of 24 informal hearings across the country intended to carry out a 2004 executive order calling for "cooperative conservation." >>read more

A Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that recall petitions need not be circulated in multiple languages, while a referendum in SF is declared invalid because it did not contain the entire redevelopment plan. An eminent domain action has been dropped by Yolo County to acquire farmland and open space while in Del mar, after fifteen years of planning, restoration of San Dieguito Lagoon has commenced. >>read more

Should Californians vote to "protect our homes," or should they vote against a "taxpayer trap?" This, in a nutshell, is the campaign about Proposition 90, the property rights initiative on the ballot in November. >>read more

Preservationists have won at least a temporary victory regarding a big-box home improvement store that is proposed for the site of an historic IBM building in San Jose. >>read more

A local agency formation commission may impose as a condition on its approval of the incorporation of a new city the requirement that voters support a general tax funding the new city, the attorney general's office has concluded. >>read more

The California Supreme Court has recently accepted two land use cases and ordered an appellate court decision regarding fees to be depublished. >>read more

The habitat conservation plan for the rapidly growing Natomas Basin in Sacramento and southern Sutter counties has been upheld by a state appellate court. >>read more

The life of a tentative map for a subdivision may be extended for up to five years if the map is subject to a local development moratorium, but the map does not live on if the moratorium continues for more than five years, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. >>read more

In a ruling from the Sonoma County wine country, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has apparently signaled its intent to continue with a broad reading of the Clean Water Act. >>read more

A decade ago, a team of federal scientists and researchers unveiled the most comprehensive report card ever compiled on the ecological health of the sprawling Sierra Nevada region. At about the same time, the Sierra Business Council released a landmark survey of its own, the first Sierra Nevada Wealth Index, which painted a comprehensive portrait of the communities scattered up and down the mountain range. The prognosis they delivered was not a hopeful one. >>read more