CP&DR - Articles

Coastal Commission: Pristine or Degraded, Wetlands in Coastal Zone Receive Protection

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

Building on an earlier case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has expanded protection of low-quality coastal wetlands. Overturning a trial judge, the court ruled that all wetlands in California's coastal zone — even those not located in "environmentally sensitive habitat areas," (ESHAs) — should receive the same level of legal protection whether they are pristine or degraded. Last year, the same court ruled that coastal wetlands' quality could not be taken into account in determining wh...

Giant SoCal Landowner Has Development Plans Brewing

Oct 1, 2000

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

Tejon Ranch Company has received approval from the Kern County Board of Supervisors for the Tejon Industrial Complex, a 320-acre business park along I-5 at the northern base of the Grapevine. Although it is a 45-mile drive from the outskirts of Los Angeles, the project appears to tie Kern County closer to metropolitan Southern California, a concept that Tejon Ranch encourages. Tejon Ranch owns 270,000 contiguous acres (422 square miles) in southern Kern and northern Los Angeles counties, ma...

Lack of Groundwater Analysis Dooms Dump EIR: Ruling Is Only Part of Huge controversy Over Rail Cycle

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has thrown out an environmental impact report for a proposed San Bernardino County landfill because the EIR did not estimate the volume of groundwater underlying the site. Because the landfill could threaten the groundwater resource, decision-makers needed to know how large the resource is before determining whether the landfill was an acceptable risk, the unanimous three-judge panel held. Although the court threw out the EIR for lacking groundwater information, t...

Ben Hulse

Sep 1, 2000

Paul Shigley, Q&A, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

Ben Hulse is director of the San Joaquin County Community Development Department. Long a major agricultural center, San Joaquin County has seen subdivisions rapidly replace farms. The population has grown 63% in 20 years to about 583,000. Earlier this year, the county Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted all 13 of Hulse's recommendations regarding implementation of the eight-year-old general plan. Hulse recommended basing general plan implementation on four values: preserving farmland an...

Los Angeles Industrial Development Moves East

Sep 1, 2000

Economic Development, Los Angeles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

Demand for industrial space in Los Angeles County remains high, but development is not keeping pace. Instead, large-scale industrial projects are going to the Inland Empire, where empty land is plentiful and most local governments have open arms. The trend is distressing to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and some other business boosters, who note that Los Angeles County manufacturing employment has declined in recent years. The manufacturing segment now accounts for only about 13% of...

Cornfield project approved, but litigation is likely

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Economic Development, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

A major industrial project in the City of Los Angeles has received approval from the city's new Central Area Planning Commission. However, opponents of the "Cornfield" development next to Chinatown have vowed to continue fighting with a variety of legal and political tools. (See CP&DR Economic Development, January 2000) The commission voted 4-2 in late July to approve Majestic Reality's plans for a 950,000-square-foot industrial and warehouse development on 32 acres of the 47-acre Cornfield. The commi...

The Long saga of Owens Valley Gets Another Chapter

Sep 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

If you had traveled north through the Owens Valley before 1924, just past the hamlet of Olancha, you would have come upon an amazing site: a large blue lake in the middle of a high desert landscape. Wedged between the snowcapped escarpment of the Sierra Nevada on the west and the equally imposing mass of the Inyo Mountains to the east, Owens Lake was 15 miles long, 10 miles wide and 30 feet deep. Its saline waters contrasted strikingly with the rugged peaks and arid hills, and supp...

Shrinking Contra Costa Growth Boundary Sets Off cities and Builders

Sep 1, 2000

Insight, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000, William Fulton

It goes without saying that in land-use planning, as in most other aspects of governance, where you stand depends on where you sit. One person's sprawl is another person's prosperity; one jurisdiction's responsible stewardship of resources is another jurisdiction's lost opportunity for economic development. When you get this kind of conflict in California land-use planning, usually you wind up in court — simply because there is no other forum for appeal. And so it is not surprising that the City of Br...

NEPA: Divided Panel Offers Different Takes on EIS for Hawaii Airport Project

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

A sharply divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an environmental impact statement prepared for expansion of the Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii. The court majority ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration had taken the "hard look" at the project's impact on native habitat required by the National Environmental Policy Act, while a dissenting judge called the FAA's study inadequate and deceptive. The FAA and the Hawaii Department of Transportation proposed repa...

San Francisco Hotel Owners Advance Takings Case: Appellate Court Allows Lawsuit, Establishes High Standard for City

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

Property rights advocates won a potentially far-reaching victory with a First District Court of Appeals ruling regarding San Francisco's hotel conversion ordinance. In a takings lawsuit filed by a hotel owner, the court held that the "heightened scrutiny" test applies to the San Francisco law, meaning there must be a close relationship between the exaction and the project's impact. The court ruled that the lawsuit filed by owners of the San Remo Hotel should proceed in trial court. The hotel owners ar...

Lack of Approved Project Makes Suit Moot, Appellate Court Rules

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

An appellate court has ruled against environmentalists in a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit because the project in question was not approved and because environmentalists did not exhaust their administrative remedies. In a peculiar case from Rancho Cucamonga, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, ruled that the lawsuit brought by opponents of a 40-home subdivision was moot because the city denied the developer's design review application for a previously approved su...

New Urbanism Comes To Fresno, But Regional Issues Remain

Sep 1, 2000

Fresno County, General plans, Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

The City of Fresno is close to adopting a general plan that would allow the city's population to increase by two-thirds within the existing sphere of influence. The proposed general plan, which contains many New Urbanist concepts, presents a marked departure from past Fresno planning practices that encouraged low-density development on the fringes. "For the first time, we're not proposing to extend our sphere of influence line outward," Fresno Development Department Director Nick Yovino said. "For ...

High-Tech Metts Pickleweed in Redwood City

Sep 1, 2000

Morris Newman, Places, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

"Your money or your life," says the hold-up man in an old Jack Benny joke. "Didn't you hear me, buddy?" the irate gunman says after Jack fails to answer. "I said, your money or your life!" At last, Jack responds: "I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Jack Benny's difficulty in making up his mind mirrors my struggle with Pacific Shores Center, a 106-acre office park currently under construction in Redwood City. It is true that the project — a group of 10 office buildings containing a...

NEPA: Army Corps Need Not Analyze All of Playa Vista, Ninth Circuit Rules

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

In a major victory for developers of Playa Vista, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has reinstated an Army Corps of Engineers permit to fill 16 acres of wetlands. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel overturned a district court ruling that the Corps did not adequately consider environmental impacts of the overall project. The Ninth Circuit held that the Corps did not need to complete an environmental impact statement and that the Corps was correct to review only the wetlands portion o...