Fallout from Supreme Court case on is still unclear, but there's no question that cities and counties will have to make "individualized determinations" more often, bulletproof their nexus studies, and allow more appeals.
Appellate court rules that bill exempting project from CEQA does not violate state constitution. Preservationists made the unsuccessful argument that the state cannot be trusted to implement the law constitutionally.
Cities are moving aggressively to adopt objective design standards, now required in reviewing housing projects. But developers can use the Density Bonus Law to end-run some of the standards.
Altogether the governor signed more than 40 planning and development bills, vetoing only one bill designed to encourage conversion of old office buildings to housing, apparently because off the labor standards contained in the bill.
In reversing trial court ruling, appellate court okays lower significance threshold -- but also says higher baseline in a supplemental analysis was fine.
The city was already allowing a controversial project to move forward and paying $2.3 millino to the developer in attorneys fees. Now it must subject itself to five years of HCD monitoring and pay $150,000 in attorneys fees to teh state.
Two bills sitting on the governor's desk would make it more difficult for cities and counties to claim that their housing element is compliant just because their elected officials approved it. Those are among the 30 so or planning and development bills approved by the Legislature this year.
Meanwhile, around the state, cities push back against builders remedy applications by saying builders remedy doesn't apply and applications are incomplete. And everybody is waiting for the outcome of the La Cañada Flintridge case.
San Diego judge rules that Santee couldn't end-run a voter referendum by repealing approval and then passing an emergency ordinance moving the project forward. SB 330 was no help.
The governor has a new infill housing initiative that includes a proposal to use housing as CEQA mitigation. But this play is only partly about housing. It's mostly about getting transportation projects adequately mitigated under SB 743.
Neighbors have challenged in the project, located along a high-rise corridor, in two different lawsuits -- one challenging the city's application of an eldercare zoning deviation and the other challenging the city's use of a Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment. So far the church is winning.
The city bought the theater to avoid sale to an evangelical church. That set up an explosion of litigation -- which the city is winning and the church is losing.
A nearby office-building owner challenged the infill exemption on a condo project, claiming rare species were in the vicinity. In a case of dueling biologists, the Court of Appeal ruled that the species weren't rare enough to qualify.
