Legal Digest

A state appellate court has upheld an environmental impact report for a 96-unit condominium project in downtown Oceanside. The court rejected arguments that the environmental impact report failed to analyze a reasonable range of alternatives, did not address the project's impact on neighboring residents and did not require adequate mitigation of biological impacts. >>read more

The City of Los Angeles may not revoke a building permit issued to a religious congregation that relied on the permit to commence a demolition and construction project, a divided panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court ruled that under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, the congregation had a vested right with which the city could not interfere. >>read more

A governor's executive order intended to speed development of power plants superceded the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and local measures for implementing CEQA, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The appellate court held that an executive order signed by then-Governor Gray Davis "effectively repealed" portions of CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines that were inconsistent with the order while the directive was in effect, from February 8 until December 31, 2001. >>read more

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of a city's ordinance regulating the location of adult businesses and requiring nonconforming businesses to close or relocate. The ruling came in a case from Spokane, Washington. However, a number of jurisdictions in California have enacted similar ordinances. >>read more

The California Supreme Court has accepted for review two land use cases involving local and regional restrictions on logging. The state high court also dismissed a case involving attorneys' fees in a California Environmental Quality Act case. >>read more

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.