For the handful of cities that have declined to serve as their own successor agencies, Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed governing boards that will oversee the dismantling of those cities' redevelopment agencies. The governor appointed one governing board per county, so in counties with multiple cities without successor agencies, one board will oversee all of those cities. 

The Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District affirmed a judgment following a jury verdict that found that a homeowners association complied with the California Solar Rights Act (Civ. Code, § 714) when it denied the application of property owners to install solar panels on a slope adjacent to their residence.

Linn Warren, 59, of Davis, has been appointed director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Warren has been a program director at the California Housing Finance Agency since 2010, where he served in multiple positions from 2009 to 2010 and from 1995 to 2006. He was a program advisor at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency from 2008 to 2009 and a special advisor at the San Jose Department of Housing in 2007. He was vice president at First Nationwide Bank from 1990 to 1995. Warren is a Democrat.

As redevelopment agencies shut down last week, criticism shifted from the decision to dissolve them in the first place to the method by which they were dissolved. Assembly Bill X1 26 has been roundly decried as sloppy legislation that was, according to some potential scenarios, never intended to be implemented. Critics say that its provisions may hinder successor agencies' ability to make bond payments and that it includes ambiguous language that could leave projects in limbo. 

For now, redevelopment in California is dead. But that hasn't eliminated the need for public policy to support urban revitalization. Indeed, Gov. Jerry Brown still supports aggressive policies in this vein – for example, implementing the SB 375 regional planning law passed in 2008 as part of the climate change effort, and streamlining environmental review for infill projects.

Towards the waning moments of yesterday's UCLA Extension Land Use Law and Planning Conference in downtown Los Angeles, I was on the verge of deploying the following tweet via @Cal_Plan: 

"Ucla Land Use Law Conf: am in a roomful of lawyers and all seem in accord: no one has voiced support for death of #redevelopment"

This week, as redevelopment agencies were shutting down in observance of yesterday's dissolution deadline, the State Senate approved a bill that would preserve former redevelopment funds that had been dedicated to the provision of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents. Senate Bill 654, sponsored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), passed on a vote of 34-1. It now advances to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and then to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

The California Supreme Court's decision to strike down AB X1 27 and uphold AB X1 26 set off a frantic timeline by which redevelopment agencies essentially must preside over their own funerals while "successor agencies" take control of their assets and contracts. Since the Dec. 29 court decision, at least one legislative effort -- Senate Bill 659 -- and two lawsuits have tried to delay dissolution, but to no avail.

Among the roughly 400 redevelopment agencies that will shut down tomorrow, the vast majority have effectively elected to dig their own graves. That was one of the stipulations of AB X1 26, that cities may serve as their own successor agencies, which will oversee the wind-down of operations, liquidation of assets, and payment of outstanding obligations. 

UPDATE: Friday afternoon Superior Court Judge Lloyd G. Connelly refused to grant a stay against the dissolution of redevelopment, rejecting arguments advanced in two separate suits, led by the cities of Cerritos and Carlsbad. The ruling means that the dissolution of redevelopment will proceed Feb. 1 as ordered by the state Supreme Court.