CP&DR - Articles

Stormwater Runoff Limits Tightened by Water Boards

Mar 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

Recent actions by two water boards signal a movement in the state towards greater regulation of non-point water pollution. The new regulations could start a trend in California of tightened development standards, which have already taken hold elsewhere in the country. The biggest step was taken in Los Angeles, where the local Regional Water Quality Control Board voted in January to set measurable numerical standards for treating stormwater runoff in new development throughout Los Angeles Co...

Coastal Builders Have Rough Time at Commission: Appointments, Decesions, Budget Point Toward Resource Protection

Mar 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

With more funding headed its way and a stated emphasis on protection of natural resources, the California Coastal Commission appears to be tightening its control over development. Gov. Davis's proposed budget contains more money for enforcement and assisting with Local Coastal Plan implementation. Davis also replaced Coastal Commissioner Nancy Fleming, the pro-development mayor of Eureka, with Humboldt County Supervisor John Woolley, an appointment that pleased environmentalists. Commissioners ...

New Partnership Tackles Bay, Valley Growth Questions: IRP Urges Better Jobs-Housing Coordination in 5-County Region

Mar 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000, William Fulton

A five-county "Inter-Regional Partnership" between the Bay Area and the Central Valley is taking more tangible form. The Partnership will ask the Legislature this year for a pilot project to designate housing and job "incentive zones" — similar to enterprise zones — that would include a re-distribution of existing property tax revenue and streamlined environmental review to encourage better jobs-housing balance. The Partnership is also seeking $625,000 in state funding to integrate computer mappin...

Lancaster, Palmdale Approve Truce in Retail Dispute

Mar 1, 2000

Economic Development, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The cities of Lancaster and Palmdale have agreed to bury the hatchet — and, for once, not in the other jurisdiction's back. Early this year, both city councils adopted "anti-piracy" resolutions in which they pledged not to offer incentives to businesses located inside the other's borders. For years, the two cities have engaged in classic battles over retail businesses. But some recent changes on the Palmdale City Council and the business community's leadership appear responsible for the removal ...

Central Valley Project: Court Orders Feds to Build Agricultural Irrigation Drain

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The Interior Department is obliged to build an agricultural drain for land irrigated by the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. The 40-year-old San Luis Act called for a system in which water, after being used for irrigation, would drain to the Bay Delta. But the Interior Department never completed the drain, a situation that created the environmental crisis that killed or maimed thousands of birds at Kesterson Reservoir during the 1980s....

Adult Bookstore Application Process Fails Before Ninth Circuit

Mar 1, 2000

Adult businesses, CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Nevada, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

A City of Las Vegas ordinance regarding adult bookstore permits has been declared unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The ruling in the case, known as Baby Tam II, came despite amendments to city ordinance, state law and court rules of practice that were intended to cure defects of an earlier law that the Ninth Circuit declared invalid in 1998.

Cal Supremes Return Pool Hall Hours for New Review

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The California Supreme Court has directed the Fourth District Court of Appeal to vacate a 1999 ruling in which the City of Riverside's requirement that poolrooms be closed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. was declared unconstitutional. In January 1999, a Fourth District panel ruled 2-1 that the Riverside ordinance violated poolroom owners' equal protection rights. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, March 1999.) The court said the city's law, which the owner of Mr. Cue's Family Billiards challenged, was "arbitrary an...

Orange County Flavors Plan for West Sacramento

Mar 1, 2000

Morris Newman, Places, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

I recently had one of those "aha!" moments that gives us special insight into the deeper nature of things. The magic moment came during a recent exercise in home buying, when I was fluttering back and forth between two different houses on two different streets. One house stood on a street with sidewalks and gutters, while the second house stood on an equally nice street, or nearly so, but without sidewalks. I assumed that the house with sidewalks would cost more because of the added amenity. M...

Costly Options Presented to Remedy the Salton Sea

Feb 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Salton Sea, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The Salton Sea is sometimes referred to as Southern California's Lake Tahoe, and while efforts to save the northern lake took shape 20 years ago, officials only now are making big decisions about the future environmental health of the southern water body. The Salton Sea (which is also sometimes called a lake) has been in a downward environmental spiral in recent years. Rising salinity, warnings about eating its fish, oxygen depleting algal blooms, and the deaths of thousands of birds and fish ...

Swap of Sales Tax for Property Tax Will Get Hearing: Assembly Speaker's Commission, Others Support Finance Reform

Feb 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

A commission appointed by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has recommended local governments swap sales tax revenue for a bigger cut of property taxes. The proposal is one of several intended to reduce city and county dependence on sales tax. However, it remains unclear whether lawmakers and Gov. Davis will take meaningful steps toward altering the complex fiscal system this year. It is a two-handed situation. On the one hand, recommendations of the Speaker's Commission on State and Local G...

San Jose's Montgomery Hotel: An Expensive Souvenir

by Morris Newman on Feb 1, 2000

Deals, Morris Newman, San Jose, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The preservation of the Montgomery Hotel in the City of San Jose could be likened to a brick rescued from a burning house by its owners. By itself, the brick would have little or no value. As a souvenir of a vanished house, however, the brick becomes a treasured relic. That analogy might help outsiders understand the rationale behind the extraordinary labor and expense that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency has devoted to saving what is, by all accounts, a handsome but rather ordinary buildin...

Failed Sale of Highway 91 Toll Lanes Refuels Debate

Feb 1, 2000

Paul Shigley, Public Development, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

A proposed public bailout of the owner of Highway 91 toll lanes in Orange County has died amid allegations of financial improprieties. The experience with the 91 Express Lanes, which even privatization supporters call a "fiasco," appears to put a damper on what little interest remains in constructing private highways. "This is not something that anyone should expect to become the dominant mode of highway building," said Marlon Boarnet, a University of California, Irvine, planning professor who ...

Proposition 218: State Supreme Court to Hear L.A. Apartment Tax Controversy

Feb 1, 2000

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

The California Supreme Court will decide a case involving the City of Los Angeles's inspection fee on apartments. In December, five of seven justices voted to grant the petition from Los Angeles, which lost a Second District Court of Appeal ruling on a lawsuit filed by apartment owners. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, October 1999.) The Los Angeles City Council approved the $12 annual inspection fee on each of the city's approximately 750,000 apartments in July of 1998. The fee was intended to generat...

Clean Water Act: Citizens Can Sue Violators, U.S. Supreme Court Rules

Feb 1, 2000

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

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that citizens can sue alleged polluters under the Clean Water Act. The high court's January decision in a case from South Carolina was a significant victory for environmentalists, who argue that the government sometimes does not adequately enforce the Clean Water Act and other environmental protection laws. On a 7-2 vote, court ruled that Friends of the Earth (FOE) had standing to sue Laidlaw Environmental Services over the company's violation of a National Poll...