CP&DR - Articles

L.A. General Plan Process Nearly Survives Challenge: Neighborhood Activists Win Narrow Victory on Transportation Issues

Nov 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 11 Nov 2000

The City of Los Angeles's general plan framework and accompanying environmental impact report have survived most aspects of a legal challenge. The Second District Court of Appeal found the EIR acceptable but rejected the city's findings regarding traffic impacts, remanding the case to the trial court. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel upheld the EIR's discussion of alternatives, water resources analysis and housing policies. Assistant City Attorney Susan Pfann said city officials we...

Proposition 218: San Diego Rental Tax Case Accepted, But Review Deferred

Nov 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 11 Nov 2000

The California Supreme Court has voted to review a business tax case from San Diego. However, the state's high court deferred action on Teyssier v. City of San Diego until the court decides a similar case from Los Angeles. In June, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that San Diego's tax on rental residences was not subject to Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act of 1996 (see CP&DR Legal Digest, August 2000). The city assessed a rental unit business tax on all residential pr...

Ninth Circuit Won't Rehear Tahoe Basin Case; Sharp Dissent Issued

Nov 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 11 Nov 2000

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will not reconsider a takings case involving a building moratorium in the Tahoe Basin. However, five Ninth Circuit judges did vote to hear the case of Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc., v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 216, F3d., 764. (9th Cir. 2000), and Judge Alex Kozinski issued a blistering dissent in which he accused the three-judge panel that decided the case of ignoring takings precedent. "The panel does not like the Supreme Court's Takings Claus...

Conservation Gains Federal Funding, But Larger Package Fails

Nov 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 11 Nov 2000

After years of meager funding at the hands of a congressional majority with little affection for environmental issues, land-conservation and habitat-protection programs nationwide are about to receive a huge financial boost from the federal government. California, in particular, stands to gain a great deal from what some observers characterize as a "landmark" conservation-funding measure in the $18.8 billion Interior Department appropriations bill sent to President Clinton in Octobe...

History Tells Us the Voters want to Slow Growth, Create Boundaries

Oct 1, 2000

Insight, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000, William Fulton

The process of initiative and referendum is California's most peculiar institution. Other states rely on their legislators or other elected officials to hash out controversial public issues in lengthy, complicated and subtle debates. But Californians prefer the blunt instrument of the ballot box — a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down from voters. We all know this is true at the state level, where voters are confronted on each ballot with a bewildering array of initiatives and bond issues. But it...

Disney Puts Tax Dollars to Work

Oct 1, 2000

Deals, Disneyland, Morris Newman, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

It's the oldest contract in the world: I'll scratch your back, if you'll scratch mine. The Walt Disney Co. recently worked a variant on this contract when it agreed to help the City of Anaheim obtain attractive interest rates for nearly $400 million in public improvements around Disneyland and the city's other big draws. On its face, the deal looks good. The town gets fixed up, and both the city and the theme park make money. Why would I care that The Walt Disney Co. was able to obtain at l...

Environmental Study Needed During Design Review, Court Rules

Oct 1, 2000

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

The California Environmental Quality Act does not apply to a city's design review process, the Third District Court of Appeal has held. In a case involving a Border's bookstore in the City of Davis, the court also ruled that the identity of a particular tenant in a retail project that has already undergone CEQA review does not compel further study. And the court held that the city's design review process does not extend to approval of particular tenants. The partially published appellate cour...

Telecom Hotels--Meance or Enhancement?

Oct 1, 2000

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

It seems like a grand time for urbanists. Downtowns across California are dusting off their dancing shoes and, in some locations, absolutely cutting up rugs. This is particularly the case in older downtowns that have enough amenities – the sort that neotraditionalists like to copy — to draw recreational use. In the best cases, the workaday downtowns of yore have evolved into the work/play/live spaces of today. San Francisco, Santa Monica, and San Diego may provide the best examples. In...

Indians Lose, Housing wins at Governor's Desk

Oct 1, 2000

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

Showing the willingness to veto bills for the second year in a row, Gov. Gray Davis rejected land use bills that ranged from high-profile measures to legislation that was nearly off the radar screen. Two project-specific bills that would have aided Indian casino development received vetoes in late September. Davis also rejected bills that would have, among other things, thrown a new obstacle in front of a controversial Ventura County subdivision; encouraged a 1.5 to 1 jobs-housing balance; a...

Constitutionality of ERAF Tax Shift Upheld By Court

Oct 1, 2000

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

The shift of $200 million per year away from redevelopment agencies to school districts as part of the state's property tax reallocation beginning in 1992 did not constitute a "reimbursable state mandate," the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling clarifies a question that first emerged when redevelopment agencies reluctantly agreed to the shift of funds in 1992. The City of El Monte had filed a test claim on the issue with the Commission on State Mandates. However, the city l...

Zoning: Hotels Win Two rounds Against San Francisco Over Tourist Use

Oct 1, 2000

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

The City of San Francisco has been dealt setbacks in two cases in which the city attempted to argue that two hotels were not "grandfathered" as tourist hotels and therefore are subject to the city's hotel conversion ordinance because of alleged conversion from residential to tourist use. The two cases appear to have interconnected issues that may need to be resolved later. In the first case, one First District appellate panel concluded that the hotel needed to prove "actual tourist use...

Land-Use Initiatives Fill Ballots

Oct 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The November 7 election is shaping up as a potential landmark in ballot-box planning in California. Voters are scheduled to decide an even 50 local ballot measures, the most since the November 1990 election. Although ballot measures are concentrated in the Bay Area and along the Southern California coast, the collection of cities and counties where land-use measures will appear is as diverse as California itself. Lassen County voters will consider a mountain resort and subdivision. Monterey County wil...

Santa Ana River Flood Project Advances; Species Concerns Remain

Oct 1, 2000

Paul Shigley, Public Development, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The massive project to prevent the Santa Ana River from flooding heavily urbanized portions of San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties continues to move forward. Orange County is purchasing property in preparation for raising the existing Prado Dam near Chino. Meanwhile federal officials are wrestling with the environmental affects of an already completed dam farther upstream, a dam that environmentalists say will harm three endangered species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Santa ...

Electricity Deregulation Could Have Surprising Impact

Oct 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

In retrospect, no one should have been surprised by the chaos this summer in California's electricity industry. The stage was set six years ago for a painful collision between consumer expectations and marketplace realities when the Public Utilities Commission began dismantling the tightly integrated power industry. In 1996, the Legislature expanded the PUC's efforts and practically guaranteed this summer's debacle when it hurriedly approved a complicated deregulation plan intended t...