A state appellate court has reinstated a lawsuit over a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter in the City of Lodi. >>read more

In one of the first published opinions upholding an environmental impact report's water analysis, the Third District Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court's ruling favoring opponents of a gravel mine proposed in Placer County. >>read more

Several pieces of land use legislation have been vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, including two bills aimed at affordable housing and a bill that would have decreased local discretion over the siting of emergency shelters and group homes. Meanwhile, state lawmakers and lobbyists are already starting to prepare housing bills for the 2007 legislative session. >>read more

Changes to redevelopment law that are short of sweeping but still significant enough to stir the industry won legislative approval this year. The measures tighten blight requirements, ease challenges to redevelopment decisions and potentially limit use of eminent domain, but the bills do not go as far as originally proposed. >>read more

- AB 1387 (Jones). Expands a CEQA exemption for urban infill to projects of up to 100 units with a minimum density of 20 units per acre. The projects also must be within half a mile of a transit stop and comply with the local circulation element. Signed by governor. >>read more

With the August 31 deadline for legislative action looming, state lawmakers face the usual mountain of bills during the session's final weeks. Among the land use bills in that mountain are two major flood control measures, the biggest overhaul of redevelopment law since the early 1990s and a complicated housing bill that cities strongly oppose. >>read more

With the debate over infrastructure crashing to a halt, state lawmakers have turned their attention to housing legislation. >>read more

State lawmakers are likely to consider numerous bills that could restrict redevelopment authority, require greater state oversight, limit use of eminent domain, ease redevelopment opponents' access to court and impose other requirements on redevelopment agencies. >>read more

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended the 2005 legislative year by vetoing one-quarter of the approximately 900 bills that lawmakers sent him. >>read more

The following bills are the major land use measures that state lawmakers introduced during 2005. Bills that did not pass this year may be revived when the Legislature reconvenes in January. >>read more