Articles

A complex deal that would prevent large-scale development of the Hearst Ranch on California's central coast is nearly complete. But the deal that will preserve the 82,000-acre ranch does not satisfy many members of an environmental community that has fought Hearst Ranch development plans for decades. While environmental groups dislike the deal, there is wide support for it among ranchers, farmland advocates, area residents, and San Luis Obispo County officials and business leaders.

Fifteen years after the Loma Prieta earthquake caused a portion of the Bay Bridge to collapse, no one knows for sure when a seismically safe replacement will be built or how to pay for the job.

In an imagined conversion, two security spies consider the design of Dos Lagos, a new project in the City of Corona.

The 2003-04 legislative session has closed with the passage of dozens of mostly minor land use bills, and the failure of dozens of others. Still, lawmakers did pass a bipartisan measure creating a new Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and they continued to hammer on local governments about affordable housing development.

Fighting over water is a popular sport in the West, where generations of lawyers have refined the practice until it approaches an art. Often, the quantities at stake are prodigious, the output of entire watersheds. In other instances, however, the volume is so minuscule as to leave outsiders puzzled by all the fuss. A dispute of the latter sort is threatening to break out in Ventura County, where a broad coalition has united behind one of the largest dam-removal projects in American history.

California Planning & Development Report offers this list of land use bills that passed or failed in Sacramento during 2004. The governor has until the end of September to act on the legislation that received lawmakers' approval.

Is a proposed high-density project in Redwood City an example of smart growth, or a gridlock-inducing suburban nightmare? That is the question voters will answer in November, when they vote on whether to allow 17 high-rise towers to be built along the city's San Francisco Bay waterfront.

Every month when the news media reports the latest "record trade deficit," what often goes unsaid is that this deficit means cargo handlers in Southern California are busier than ever. With the country's ever-increasing reliance on imported materials and goods, the logistics industry appears to be thriving. But developing the warehouses and distribution centers has become an issue in many Southern California communities.

What should a historic district look like? The question is a philosophical sand trap -- one which the City of Benicia is trying to avoid. >>read more

With Sacramento bogged down in the annual battle over the state budget, it appears that the Schwarzenegger administration may not push forward a housing agenda before the legislative session concludes on August 31. But whether or not the administration gets behind legislation this year, it is apparent that administration officials led by Business Transportation and Housing (BTH) Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak are devising broad housing policies. >>read more

Nearly every project falls a little short of its initial promise, and nearly every project loses some of its visionary luster in the translation from idea to fact. Even with limited expectations, however, Playa Vista comes as an unpleasant jolt. The 1,085-acre housing development immediately south of Santa Monica is the most striking example I know of the discrepancy between a plan and on-the-ground reality. >>read more

Habitat conservation plans have become popular tools for balancing development with protection of imperiled plant and animal species. However, recent court rulings have resulted in the suspension of the federal government's HCP program and have cast doubt on its long-term future. >>read more

Yolo County officials have voted to use eminent domain to purchase the 17,300-acre Conaway Ranch. The ranch, which lies between Woodland and West Sacramento, contains 15,900 acres of productive farmland, endangered species habitat, open space, rights to 50,000 acre-feet per year of water, natural gas sources, and flood control value. >>read more