CP&DR - Articles

Property Rights: Miners' Rights on Public Land Gain Support in Ninth Circuit

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has sided with a miner in a feud between the miner and the U.S. Forest Service. In interpreting the Mining Law of 1872 and the 1955 Multiple Use Act, the court ruled that the Forest Service could not kick a miner off his claim in the Tonto National Forest, and that the Forest Service may not have had justification for increasing a reclamation bond requirement. In an opinion that recounted the history of mining laws in the United States, Circuit Judge Andrew K...

Landowners Need the Final Answer Before Making Claim

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

Property owners who never filed a development application have no basis for a takings claim, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court also said a landowner whose one application for a specific plan amendment that was rejected also has no takings argument. The case arose from the City of San Diego's lengthy planning process for the East Elliott community, a former Navy base that the federal government sold during the 1960s. As early as 1981, the city conceded that a 1971 East Ellio...

EIR Can Postpone Detailed Study of Related Road Project

Feb 1, 2000

California Environmental Quality Act, CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, San Diego County, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

An appellate court has ruled that an environmental impact report for a proposed San Diego County rock quarry was closer to acceptable than a trial judge had ruled, but the EIR still lacked a proper analysis of air quality impacts. The Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell's ruling that the rock quarry EIR improperly deferred study of highway widening, and that the EIR failed to account for prior illegal mining on the property. Still, the unanimou...

City Must Pay for Temporary Takings: L.A.'s Delay in Issuing Permit Earns Landowner $1.2 Million

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

Delays by the City of Los Angeles in issuing a permit to demolish a burned-out hotel amounted to a temporary taking, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel upheld a trial court's ruling that awarded the landowner $1.2 million, plus interest, for the inverse condemnation. The court upheld the trial court's monetary award after concluding that the city's delay in issuing the demolition permit was not part of the normal development review process, and...

Stanford Losing Land-Use Autonomy to County

Feb 1, 2000

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

Stanford University has proposed construction of about 3,000 housing units and 2 million square feet of academic and cultural facilities, offices and athletic structures. At the same time, Santa Clara County is exerting greater control over Stanford land use then ever before. Stanford — which owns 8,180 acres, two-thirds of which is open space — has submitted a draft Community Plan to the county. The document is more detailed than previous plans, something local government leaders and community ac...

Indian Wells donates housing money.

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Local Watch, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The wealthy City of Indian Wells will give $1.5 million in housing funds to the City of Coachella, a neighboring town where residents' median income is less than one-third that of Indian Wells' citizens. The money is a portion of the mandatory 20% housing set-aside from an Indian Wells redevelopment project, which transformed desert land into an upscale golf resort. Indian Wells has spent $13.6 million in housing funds on 90 senior apartments and earmarked $14.6 million for 100 more senior units. The ...

Riverside County Integrates Three Planning Efforts: Land Use, Transportation and Habitat Planning are Combined

Feb 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000, William Fulton

Faced with the possibility of adding another 1.5 million people during the next 20 years, Riverside County has embarked on an ambitious effort to plan for that growth. The Riverside County Integrated Plan seeks to combine land use, transportation, and habitat planning into one unified blueprint for growth. County officials emphasize that the planning process does not seek to restrict growth. Rather, the goal of the process is to channel and accommodate new growth while meeting federal standards f...

Monster Houses Devour Neighborhood Scale

Feb 1, 2000

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

In a currently popular coffee-table book titled The Not So Big House, Minneapolis-based architect Sarah Susanka argues for an age-old idea that seems quaint in our hyper economic boom times: quality is better than quantity. When it comes to addressing the current planning dilemma called monster houses ï¿½ the phenomenon of tearing down older houses and rebuilding with Godzilla proportions in Bambi neighborhoods ï¿½ Susanka may be to the 2000s what Andres Duany was to the 1990s: an architect that has desig...

Army Corps of Engineers Changes Course in Flood Control

Jan 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

Five California waterways are in the running for federal funding in a new program to help restore and protect their environmental features while building protection against floods. A federal water bill signed by President Clinton last August listed the waterways. The program is another sign of a dramatic shift in how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approaches flood control. Instead of trying to control water flows and protect every structure from harm's way, under the new Challenge 21 (also.

Growth Borders Start Taking Hold In Central Valley: Stanislaus County Voters Could Decide UBG Initiatives This Year

Jan 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

California's Central Valley, the most important part of the state's giant agriculture industry, will have three times as many residents in 2040 as it does now, according to demographers. The conflict between population growth and farming is driving many planning efforts, some of which are including urban growth boundaries as a means of protecting agriculture. The growth-boundary concept is not new in the Central Valley. Tulare County and its largest cities have had urban growth boundaries for 20 year...

Housing Rises On Sacramento's List Of Priorities : Gov. Davis Wins Praise For Choice Of New HCD Director

Jan 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000, William Fulton

As a booming economy continues to drive up housing prices, California's top officials are placing a higher priority on housing issues in the year 2000. But with Democrats firmly in charge in Sacramento, the state's efforts appear likely to focus on providing more public assistance for housing, rather than pushing for a dramatic reform on policy issues such as the housing element law. Gov. Gray Davis appears ready to give higher priority to housing issues in his second year in office than he did in his...

Sonoma County Grapevine Wars Continue to Rage

Jan 1, 2000

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

With complaints rising in Sonoma County regarding the expansion of vineyards, county officials have adopted regulations for grape planting. However, at least some environmentalists and homeowners believe the restrictions are inadequate, and the protests show no sign of abating. Within the last year or so, the amount of Sonoma County property planted as vineyards has surpassed the acreage in the county's nine incorporated cities. Environmentalists and homeowners complain that these new viney...

Brownfields Reuse Is Not Always Black and White

Jan 1, 2000

Economic Development, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

About 1,000 industrial and warehouse jobs would return to downtown Los Angeles if a project proposed next to Chinatown moves forward. However, environmentalists and some neighborhood advocates are fighting the project because they say the area already has enough warehouses. Developer Ed Roski Jr., who recently helped bring the Staples Center to downtown, proposes building a $60 million, 950,000-square-foot warehouse and industrial center called River Station. Roski's firm, Majestic Realty,...

Disney goes to Glendale

Jan 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Economic Development, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

Less than 10 miles north of the Cornfield, Walt Disney Co. has proposed a large "creative campus" on the grounds of the former Grand Central Air Terminal, a Glendale airport that closed in 1959. Disney's plans are sketchy, but the entertainment giant has revealed plans for four district projects on the site: a 52-acre campus to house the theme park research and development operations; a 24-acre soundstage and production facility; a 27-acre media and technology campus that would have space available for ...