Legal Digest

A state appellate court has gutted a City of Lodi ordinance governing cleanup of hazardous materials. The court ruled that the city ordinance exceeded the authority provided to local governments by the state's Hazardous Substance Account Act (HSAA). >>read more

In its ongoing legal battle over local government fees and assessments, homebuilder Barratt American has lost one round and won one round - and has seen the state Supreme Court accept for review a case where the homebuilder was victorious at the appellate court level.

A joint powers agency in Marin County that wanted to build a radio antenna in the Town of Tiburon did not have to comply with Tiburon's land use laws, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel overturned a lower court, which had ruled that not only did the joint powers agency have to comply with Tiburon's ordinances, but that the agency had violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by not preparing a supplemental environmental impact report. >>read more

The City of San Diego could legally determine that a road was no longer necessary and close the road, even though thousands of motorists would drive on the road if it were open, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. >>read more

An environmental impact report for a water pipeline project near Jackson has been rejected because the water agency in charge did not explain the reason why it concluded that a potential impact was not significant.

A state appellate court has refused to block the City of San Francisco's plan to lease former state highway property to a nonprofit agency for development of an affordable housing project. A First District Court of Appeals, Division Four, panel voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court's ruling against project opponents, who contended the city plan violated state law that limited the use of the property.

Owners of the San Remo Hotel in San Francisco have lost the latest round in their 11-year litigation over the city's ordinance restricting the conversion of residential hotels to tourist use. In the latest decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rule on the hotel owners' takings claims because the state Supreme Court had already decided the claims.

A San Diego County resident has lost a lawsuit that sought to force a developer to improve a private road that serves a new subdivision. The resident argued that under the Subdivision Map Act, San Diego County had to enforce its own laws that carry out the Map Act, including a code section addressing off-site road standards. But the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the county had the authority to approve an exemption from those standards and had expressly exempted the subdivision.

Mitigation measures taken after the issuance of a mitigated negative declaration do not satisfy the California Environmental Quality Act, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. In a case involving a water district's proposal to cover a small reservoir in the unincorporated Santa Barbara County community of Summerland, the court also ruled that the district should have considered the project's potentially substantial impact to aesthetics.

A framework intended to guide all local general plans in San Diego County could be adopted as soon as June by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). Advocates of the framework say it has the potential to be one of the most effective regional plans ever devised in California.

The City of Morgan Hill's decision not to rezone the site of a closed hospital to allow for development of a private, Christian college has been upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the city did not run afoul of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), as San Jose Christian College had alleged.

A homebuilder's lawsuit over the City of Encinitas's fee scheme, which allowed the city building official to implement automatic fee changes, has been allowed to proceed. The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that even though the fees took effect years before the homebuilder paid them, the normal statute of limitations did not apply because the city made no provision for public review. >>read more

In a ruling directly at odds with a landmark 1995 decision, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled that local government may not regulate the location of timber harvests.

A community college board's decision to close and demolish a shooting range, clean up lead contamination at the site and transfer shooting range operations to a new location amounts to a "project" that requires review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled.