Blogs

Google may have revolutionized our understanding of geography, but so far the world's leading internet company hasn't revolutionized the geography of commuting. So as Google contemplates its first major "campus," the City of Mountain View is looking to innovation – the coin of the realm in the Silicon Valley – to help Googlites get to work. Even if it means building a rail system that transports individual commuters around town in little capsules.

UCLA professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris was perhaps ahead of her time when she said in 1995 that "the ever-changing urban form and social ecology of neighborhoods calls for a flexible rather than rigid park design and for spatial layouts that can be easily changed in response to future needs…One can even think of mobile parks-spaces whose equipment and furniture can be transported to other parts of the city if the need arises."  

California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg has predicted that the Legislature will pass his post-redevelopment legislation – assuming the state revenues remain healthy.

Even as the redevelopment wind-down process continues, the Legislature is beginning to play around with possible ways to bring it back in a more limited form. Many of the ideas involve tinkering with tax-increment financing in ways that will hold the state financially harmless. Others would allow cities to keep some or all of their former redevelopment agencies' cash and land assets, which are likely worth several billion dollars.

As does every year, 2011 included a wide range of published appeals court cases, some setting major precedents and others tinkering with the arcana of land use law. Here are some highlights from CP&DR's Legal Digest compiled over the course of the year, organized by area of law.

This compilation draws on a presentation given by CP&DR contributor and Sacramento-based land use lawyer Bill Abbott, of Abbott & Kindermann, at the UCLA Land Use Law and Planning Conference earlier this month. 

Charles M. Haar, one of the greatest land use and urban development lawyers of the second half of the 20th Century passed away Jan. 10 at his home in Key Biscayne, Florida. He will always be known for his brilliant articles on establishing the comprehensive plan as the constitution of land use planning in the United States in the 1950s, which has become increasingly important in the U.S. and California. 

LOS ANGELES -- For the wind-down of redevelopment to be anything short of a train wreck, successor agencies and oversight boards are going to need a keen understanding of real estate, public policy, economic development, and, of course, accounting. They're also going to need a lot of coffee and patience. But, according to Timothy McOsker, a member of the three-person board serving as successor agency for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the successful completion of the wind-down process is going to require something more subtle. 

This week Senate Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) introduced two bills that seek to solve what many consider to be serious problems caused by the demise of redevelopment. The first would give cities and successor agencies greater powers to maximize the value of redevelopment agency assets rather than subject them to a "fire sale." The second represnts a holy grail for many housing advocates: a consistent, dedicated source of funding for affordable housing, to the tune of up to $700 million per year. 

LOS ANGELES -- Yesterday's "California's UrbanScape" conference on redevelopment, presented by UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and UCLA Lewis Center, was kicked off by perhaps the member of the California Legislature most sympathetic to redevelopment--and therefore most remorseful about the current state of affairs. 

The Planning Center | DC&E is looking for an urban planner to join our team in the newly established Downtown Los Angeles office. We are seeking someone who is passionate and deeply committed to produce planning and urban design documents that are transformative in shaping and improving our communities. We are looking for someone who is on track for increasing responsibility for project management and marketing.

Southern California's most ambitious freeway "cap" proposal is still going forward – though there are literally mountains to move before the cap is constructed.

Amid confusion and frustration on the part of former redevelopment agencies, the Legislative Analyst's Office released a report today analyzing the wind-down as dictated by Assembly Bill X1 26 and making recommendations for some legislative patches to that law.

Given the scarcity of land in urban neighborhoods in California and the costs involved in acquiring land and building new parks, we must consider alternative approaches to meet recreational needs. There is, of course, no substitute for the development of new parks. But we can still pursue innovative, low-impact strategies to maximize recreational opportunities.  After all, though planners and public officials are always going to be compelled to create lasting monuments, recreation can take place in locations other than parks.