CP&DR

Planners, Developers Play Takings Poker, But Judges Still Hold the Cards

Aug 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 08 Aug 2001, William Fulton

So, who's on top — the planners or the developers? You would think the U.S. Supreme Court would know. This court, after all, was able to decide who the president should be. But after almost a quarter century of hearing land-use "takings" cases, the Supreme Court has provided no clear answer as to who rules at the planning counter.

The Battle Over Blight Threatens to Become California's Hundred Years' War

Jul 1, 2001

Insight, Redevelopment, Vol. 16 No. 07 Jul 2001, William Fulton

Sometimes it seems like California has been reforming redevelopment law longer than it took the original urban blight to be created.

Not All Urban Services Get Treated Equally in Planning Process

Jun 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 06 Jun 2001, William Fulton

A few years ago, a field representative for Pacific Gas & Electric told me a startling story about how the now-bankrupt electric utility was treated by one of the county governments in his district.

Census Figures Indicate State Is Changing More Than we Knew

May 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 05 May 2001, William Fulton

The new U.S. Census figures tell us that California is growing, which we knew. But the Census also reveals that California is changing in ways we may not have recognized – and that may mean that we no longer have the luxury of planning our communities the way we used to.

Shortage of Available Land Threatens How the Golden State Will Gtow

Apr 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 04 Apr 2001, William Fulton

Is California running out of land? At first glance, this may seem to be a preposterous question. After all, California has something like 150,000 square miles of land – and the vast majority of it is not urbanized. The federal government owns half of it for parks, national forests, and the like, and most of the rest of it is used to grow food. Even with the rapid urban growth we've experienced during the past half-century, how can we be running out of land?

Housing Caps: A Growth Control Mechanism that Won't Go Away

Mar 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 03 Mar 2001, William Fulton

When voters in Tracy approved an annual "cap" on new housing construction last November, it was the first time since the late 1980s that a California municipality enacted this venerable — yet controversial — method of restricting growth. After grinding through 1,000 to 1,500 residential building permits annually for the last several years, the San Joaquin County commuter town will now have to restrict itself to 750 permits in any one year — and an annual average of 600.

Bush Team Could Have Significant Impact on Resources in the Golden State

Feb 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 02 Feb 2001, William Fulton

xz Despite a thin mandate and a deadlocked Congress, incoming President George W. Bush is likely to make significant changes in shaping the federal government's role over California's land resources. In particular, his provocative selection of former Colorado Attorney General Gail Norton as Interior secretary is likely to create a major shift in the way the federal government approaches management of federal lands in California – and may also signal a shift in the way the Endangered Species Act is...

Land-Use Regulations Aim to Solve Big Boxes' Social Issues

Jan 1, 2001

Insight, Vol. 16 No. 01 Jan 2001, William Fulton

The standard saying among retail analysts in the past month is that "this is a tough Christmas." Even though incomes are going up, retailing is off. Kmart has closed dozens of stores nationwide. HomeBase has gone out of the home improvement business (focusing on home furnishings instead) in order to duck direct competition with Lowe's and Home Depot. Two of the biggest movie theater chains have gone under, and most of the others are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Home Depot's third-quart...

Voters No Longer SOARing; Density Could Be the Next Ballot Fight

Dec 1, 2000

Insight, Vol. 15 No. 12 Dec 2000, William Fulton

Election Day 1998 sure looked like a watershed for ballot-box zoning in California. That was the day that voters in Ventura County and five cities there passed the so-called SOAR (Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources) initiatives, which created an almost "air-tight" system of urban growth boundaries around the cities and agricultural preservation in unincorporated areas. In the months after that election, California began to look like "SOAR-land". Reporters from around the country troo...

Redevelopment Project Areas Shrink in Number But Grow in Acreage

Nov 1, 2000

Insight, Vol. 15 No. 11 Nov 2000, William Fulton

Redevelopment is supposed to be out of fashion. The legislative reforms passed in 1993 made it more difficult for local governments to find "blight" — and cut down on the financial incentives for using redevelopment as well. Furthermore, California's appellate courts have made it increasingly clear that they have little patience for California's redevelopment games. In three recent rulings, appellate judges have hammed local agencies for playing fast and loose with the definition of both "blight" and "u...

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