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This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to  California Planning & Development Report . You can subscribe to  CP&DR  by clicking  here . You can sign up for  CP&DR ’s free weekly newsletter  here . Los Angeles Consolidates Development-Related Services Los Angeles City Planning has launched  the Development Services Bureau, designed to streamline planning and zoning reviews and improve customer experience. This bureau consolidates zoning review functions previously split between the Department of City Planning and the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety under one umbrella to accelerate project reviews. The new department will consolidate the Development Service Centers (DSC) Division, the Office of Zoning Administration (OZA), and tailored consultation services. By centralizing responsibilities, the city hopes applicants will have clearer pathways and faster responses, with fewer department hand-offs and less redundant review. San Diego Advances Scaled-Down Regional Transit Plan The San Diego Association of Governments has walked back  major future transit network aspirations in their latest $125 billion blueprint for a new regional infrastructure plan. The agency’s 2020 plan included a high-speed commuter rail system that has been replaced in favor of what SANDAG believes is a more realistic approach, including more rapid bus routes, express lanes on freeways, micro-transit shuttles and light trolley service. Even in the wake of this massive scaling back, the agency is still faced with the issue of who will foot the bill. The agency’s current proposal would rely on a proposed 2036 ballot measure which increases sales tax by three-quarters of a cent, and eventually revenue from MTS itself. San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava expressed his support for the updated plan as well as frustration at a perceived lack of delivery on over-scale promises. L.A. Metro Approves Subway Connecting Westside to San Fernando Valley After years of debate, the Los Angeles Metro’s board of directors unanimously approved  one of the most significant transit projects in the country, the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project, selecting an underground heavy-rail option that would connect the San Fernando Valley to the Westside in under 20 minutes. The plan has gone through several iterations due to concerns about environmental risks, interference with existing infrastructure, and overall inconvenience. The latest draft was received with overwhelming support from the public after changes were made, including eliminating a monorail proposal and controversial Getty center stop. Questions still remain about funding for the project, which has secured roughly $3.5 billion through Measure M and Measure R, just a fraction of the $24.2 billion estimated for a previous version of the plan. The agency has cited a need to rely on state, local, federal and possibly private funding to complete the project, but has not provided a specific fundraising plan. National City Adopts Bayfront Plan with Coastal Commission Blessing After more than a decade of planning, National City in southwestern San Diego County, won  unanimous approval from the California Coastal Commission for its National City Balanced Plan, clearing the way for long-sought public access to the city’s bayfront. National City is the only West Coast city with waterfront land but no direct public access, as all three miles of bayfront are controlled by the Navy or the Port of San Diego. The plan expands Pepper Park by nearly 50% and adds new public amenities, including a promenade, viewing areas, and pedestrian and bike connections. There are also commercial developments in this plan, including a recreational vehicle park with approximately 150 RV sites, 29 tent sites, 25 structured tents and 12 cabins, with future plans to replace up to 65 RV spaces with two hotels containing around 365 rooms. The commission approved the plan unanimously, with only two objections during public comment, one requesting air pollution monitors before proceeding and another seeking additional changes to the plan. Both were rejected by commissioners after noting extensive review and stakeholder collaboration. CP&DR Coverage: National APA Recognizes California Wildfire Education Program Despite increasing urgency to plan  around fire hazards and prevent urban wildfires, it is widely understood that planners are not necessarily trained to address wildfires, and firefighters are not necessarily trained to understand urban planning. Enter, the Land Use Planning for Wildfires in California Training Program -- this year’s recipient of one of the American Planning Association’s National four National Planning Awards. The program is a series of one-day workshops conducted around the state jointly by the nonprofit Community Wildfire Planning Center (CWPC) and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). CWPC Executive Director, Molly Mowery, and Cal Fire Deputy Chief for Land Use Planning, Shane Vargas, share insight into the national importance of their budding program. Among the timeliness of this initiative, the pair discuss key successes, the commitment of attendees, implementation beyond the training, and what the future may hold for this program. Quick Hits & Updates The City of Hollister  has released  a new revised version of its draft General Plan 2040, replacing an earlier plan that was rescinded by the City Council in 2025 after local activist groups argued it would allow too much growth. The updated plan  lays out the city’s vision and policies for land use, housing, transportation, environment, open space, and conservation for the next two decades. (See related CP&DR coverage .) The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has purchased  2,284 acres of the historic Sargent Ranch in southern Santa Clara County for $23 million, effectively halting plans for a controversial sand and gravel quarry. With this acquisition, POST now owns 6,114 of the ranch’s 6,500 acres and is under contract to acquire the remaining land, making it the largest conservation deal in the organization’s nearly 50-year history. The trust plans to preserve the land’s biodiversity, maintain wildlife corridors, safeguard cultural sites, and potentially allow public outdoor activities like hiking. A Solano County coalition that includes California Forever and regional economic leaders is urging  the federal government to designate the California Delta as a “maritime prosperity zone” to help revive large-scale shipbuilding in Solano County and the surrounding region. The push is backed by Solano Economic Development Corporation, Cal Poly's Maritime Academy, the owners of Mare Island, the Nimitz Group, the Bay Area Council, and California Forever, who is now the county’s largest landowner. (See related CP&DR coverage .) The Trump administration approved  a Newsom-backed plan to build Sites Reservoir , a 13-mile long off-stream lake north of Sacramento. The reservoir would cost between $6.2 and $6.8 billion and provide water to residents of Santa Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles, and irrigation to 500,000 acres in the Central Valley.  After years of delays, a Metrolink commuter train between Ventura and Santa Barbara could start running  on pre-existing Amtrak train tracks. Transportation planners hope the new train service will help reduce congestion on Highway 101. Service could start as early as April 2026. A federal appeals court upheld  an order requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 housing units for veterans on its West Los Angeles campus, finding that the VA discriminated against unhoused veterans by failing to use the land for its intended purpose. The ruling invalidated several commercial leases on the property, including the Brentwood School’s athletic facilities, but allowed UCLA’s lease for Jackie Robinson Stadium to remain in place for now. The  Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launched  Public Land for All Communities and the Environment (PLACE), a national campaign to empower local government and civic partners to overcome common procedural and legal barriers to the effective transfer and transformation of public land, including for affordable housing, nature-based solutions, conservation, and other public benefits.

The Inland Empire warehouse wars continue. In the latest skirmish, an appellate court – overturning a lower court ruling – has said that the City of Upland’s environmental analysis for a 200,000-square-foot warehouse near Cable Airport is sufficient. The dispute was over the significance threshold that should be used for greenhouse gas emissions – as well as the environmental baseline under the California Environmental Quality Act. The ruling is especially important because it was published, meaning it can be used as precedent in other cases.

This article is provided to you for free by the paying subscribers to;California Planning & Development Report.;To learn how you too can subscribe to;CP&DR;and support our work, just click;here. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 21 bills related to planning and development on Thursday ; the vast majority of them dealing with increasing housing production. About 15 planning and development bills remains on his desk and he has until the end of September to sign them. Taken together, the bills don’t include any extremely aggressive moves by the state to box in local governments. Indeed, in a few cases ; such as a new bill on the builders remedy ; the new legislation actually does the opposite and boxes in developers a bit. But some ; such as an ADU law ; are aggressive in their own way. There’s also definitely a trend toward transparency ; posting more information on the internet about fees especially. Here are the bills Newsom signed Thursday. ADUs SB 1211: Increases the number of allowable accessory dwelling units on a parcel from 2 to 8, depending on the situation. Builders Remedy AB 1893: Boxes in the builders remedy, among other things limiting the amount of additional density a developer can obtain. Previous CP&DR coverage is available here. CEQA AB 2117: Ensures that permits don’t expire when a project is subject to a CEQA challenge. SB 393: Puts the burden of proof on the plaintiff when seeking a bond from a CEQA defendant. A response to the $500,000 bond placed on the citizen group Save Downtown Livermore in litigation over Eden’s affordable housing project in Livermore. Previous CP&DR coverage of that case can be found here. AB 2199: Extends infill exemption from 2025 to 2032. Density Bonus Law AB 2694: Extends Density Bonus Law to residential care facilities for the elderly. A dense eldercare facility was recently an issue in a court case from Los Angeles (previous CP&DRcoverage here), though the DBL was not at issue in that case. Fees AB 2430: Prohibits imposition of monitoring fees to monitor affordable housing requirements if the project is 100% affordable. AB 2663: Requires cities and counties to post housing in-lieu fees on the internet and explain how they were spent. AB 937: Allows delay of impact fee payment on residential projects Housing Elements AB 1886 and AB 2023: Clarifies that a Housing Element is compliant with state law if a court says so and there’s a “rebuttal presumption” in court that a Housing Element is in or out of compliance of the Department of Housing and Community Development says so. The question of whether a local government can independently certify Housing Element compliance has been a huge legal issue, as evidenced by CP&DR’s coverage here.) AB 2667: Requires HCD to create standardized Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing reporting, which local governments must use in Housing Elements starting with the 7th RHNA cycle. AB 3093: Adds two new categories to Housing Element income categories to account for homelessness. (Detailed CP&DR coverage of the HCD report that recommended these changes can be found here.) Other Housing AB 1413: Expands definition of “disapproval” under the Housing Accountability Act and also expands notification requirements in those situations. AB 2243: Extends AB 2011, which permits residential development in commercially zoned areas, to high-rise districts not in commercial corridors as well as near freeways and clarifies that affordability requirements apply to base units in Density Bonus Law, not bonus units. SB 450: Tightens SB 9 so that it's harder to deny lot splits, among other provisions. (For more background on how cities are ; or are not ; implementing SB 9, check out CP&DR’s previous coverage here.) SB 7: Specifies that cities and counties can’t object to Regional Housing Needs Determination. SB 312: Further clarifies CEQA streamlining for student housing contained in SB 886, which was passed after the so-called “People’s Park” decision. (For more background on the case and SB 886, see CP&DR’s previous analysis here.) AB 2488: Allows tax-increment financing for office-to-residential conversion in Downtown San Francisco. Transit-Oriented Development AB 2553: Redefines a “major transit stop” under state law as a transit stop with 20-minute headways instead of 15-minute headways. This is important because much TOD streamlining is geared toward “major transit stops” and post-COVID transit agencies have been cutting back service. AB 2712: Specifies that TOD projects with lower parking requirements in Los Angeles. must be excluded from residential permit parking.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed all but one of the 40-odd planning and development bills the Legislature passed, including – at the last minute – the controversial bill regulating warehouses.

Cities and counties in California are aggressively – and sometimes in a coordinated way – adopting the “objective design standards” required by the Housing Accountability Act.

The new State Capitol Annex has survived yet another court challenge, this one arguing that SB 174 – the bill exempting the project from the California Environmental Quality Act – runs afoul of a 44-year-old constitutional amendment designed to protect the Capitol’s historic character.

A San Diego judge has ruled that a disposition and development agreement that includes a specific development program is a “project” subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. The case involves the potential development of Tailgate Park, a four-square-block, 1000-vehicle surface parking lot adjacent to Petco Park in Downtown San Diego that is owned by the City of San Diego. San Diego negotiated a DDA with a development partnership that includes the San Diego Padres, Tishman Speyer, and an investment firm called Ascendant Capital Partners. The developers agreed to purchase the 5.25-acre site for $35 million and in return committed to building 1,700 residential units in addition to 1.3 million square feet of office space and a 1,600-unit parking space among other things. The city concluded that because the EIR had already been certified CEQA did not apply. But San Diego Superior Court Judge Katharine Bacal, an experienced CEQA judge, concluded that the previous EIR did not contemplate zoning permitting so many housing units. “Adding these residential units would appear to cause a direct physical change in the environment, on a property that previously was identified for mixed commercial zoning that did not contemplate at least 1,710 residential units,” she wrote.

In the first important court ruling following up on the People’s Park case, an appellate court in Los Angeles has reversed its earlier ruling that housing project near the University of Southern California isn’t eligible for the Class 32 infill exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act.

It’s yo-yo time.

A “reverse-reverse-CEQA” ruling from Lake County has been upheld by an appellate court, meaning the county still has not complied with the California Environmental Quality Act in trying to approve a controversial resort in Guenoc Valley north of Napa Valley.

In a case brought by grocery workers involving a proposed Grocery Outlet in King City, an appellate court has rejected a narrow definition of the infill exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act. In particular, the court concluded that other provisions of the CEQA Guidelines defining “infill” do not apply to the so-called Class 32 exemption. Doing so, the court said, would thwart the intent of the CEQA Guidelines The case is an important followup to the landmark Berkeley Hillside case in 2015 and further boxes out project opponents seeking to limit the use of the infill exemption. It was initially unpublished but the Sixth District Court of Appeal recently published the case, meaning it can be used as a precedent in other cases. Best Development proposed a Grocery Outlet store on Broadway in King City, adjacent to Highway 101. The site is almost immediate adjacent to Safeway shopping center. It is surrounded by the freeway, industrial uses, and a cemetery, with residential development a block or two away, though it is also located close to agricultural land. Safeway workers are unionized by the United Food and Commercial Workers. In reviewing the project, King City applied a so-called Class 32 infill exemption, which is available under §15332 of the CEQA Guidelines. The infill exemption, which is being widely used by local governments in California now, can be applied to a site that is less than 5 acres and is “substantially surrounded by urban uses”.

In a bold move, two judge from an influential federal appellate court have ruled that the White House Council on Environmental Quality doesn’t have the legal authority to issue “regulations” implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. A third judge ared from the ruling.