CP&DR

Controversy Swirls Around Proposed Bay Bridge Re-Design

Oct 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

Disagreements both petty and profound continue to swirl around the proposed rebuilding of the Bay Bridge. The $1 billion proposal, which is intended to replace the eastern portion of the bridge damaged in the Loma Prieta quake, seems to please no one except officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is vexed that the proposed design will cast a shadow some prime development sites on Yerba Buena-Treasure Island. In the East Bay, mayors of the cities ...

State -of-the-Art Redevelopment

Oct 1, 1998

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

Something about the development agreement between Chiron Corporation and the City of Emeryville reminds me of the relationship between Paul Newman and George C. Scott in "The Hustler." In that movie, you recall, Newman was the young and talented pool shark, while Scott was the older, calculating gambler who backed up the bets of people like Newman, in hope of taking a considerable cut if he won. The movie is perhaps not the best analogy. There is nothing dark or underworldly, for example, in the r...

Revision of CEQA Guidelines Near Completion

Oct 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

After a long and contentious effort, the Wilson administration has submitted final revisions of the state's California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines to the Office of Administrative Law. OAL will now review them and decide before the end of October which revisions to approve. The final revisions include some of the most controversial guideline changes, which have been strongly opposed by some environmental groups and Democratic legislators. But the final shape of the revisions is far fr...

Most ‘98 Bills Make Minor Legal Changes; Only School Bond Would Have Widespread Impact

Oct 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998, William Fulton

Nineteen ninety-eight will not go down in history as a year when the California Legislature made sweeping changes in California planning and development law. Instead - like most legislative sessions since the passage of term limits in 1990 - it was a year in which legislators who sought minor changes were more likely to succeed. In general, the Legislature passed a series of small bills that made changes on the margins of planning and development law. The big exception, of course, was SB 50, the...

NEPA: Presidio Golf Analysis Consistent with NEPA

Oct 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

The federal government's review of potential impacts of a new public clubhouse at the Presidio Golf Course was adequate under both federal environmental and historic preservation laws, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The federal analysis had been challenged by the Presidio Golf Club, a century-old private golf club which owns an historic clubhouse adjacent to the Presidio. A predecessor to the Presidio Golf Club built the golf course on the grounds of the Presidio in 1895, as well a...

A Lake for Downtown San Bernadino?

Oct 1, 1998

Public Development, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998, William Fulton

Seeking to improve local groundwater problems and possibly expand redevelopment activities as well, the City of San Bernardino has created a joint-powers authority with a water district and an economic development agency to pursue some kind of "water feature" near downtown San Bernardino. The project would cover some 300 acres in the Base Line area north of the current downtown and might involve condemning some 900 parcels of land at a cost of more than $100 million. The San Bernardino Municipal W...

Federal Railroad Pre-Emption: Local Ordinances Don't Coveer Ancillary Construction

Oct 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

Federal law pre-empts state and local power to independently review the environmental impact and land-use consequences of construction projects dealing with railroads, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that the King County, the City of Auburn, and several other local governments in the State of Washington can't undertake their own environmental review of the federal Surface Transportation Board's decision to permit reopening of the S...

Cars and Planners

Oct 1, 1998

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

For most planners, society's reliance on - and even outright integration - of the car into our social and physical culture is a tough pill to swallow. We believe we are fundamentally concerned with environmental, social, and health issues; and so the car is the machine against which we rage. To counter its evils, we push for neo-traditional urban design that promotes pedestrians and transit and eschews automobiles. We advocate for bicycles. We craft trip reduction ordinances that penalize e...

Judge's Decision Reversed in Watsonville Annexation Dispute

Oct 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

In the latest skirmish in a longrunning battle, an appellate court has overturned a trial judge's decision to strike down the City of Watsonville's decision to "pre-zone" and annex 216 acres of land in a disputed agricultural and coastal area west of Highway 1. If it is eventually published, the court ruling could be an important step in establishing the credibility of "tiered" environmental impact reports. The unpublished ruling by the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose gives Watso...

Clean Water Act: General Permits for Local Development Wins Approval

Oct 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the federal government's decision to issue five broad-ranging "general permits" allowing the filling of wetlands as part of the Anchorage Wetlands Management Plan. The general permits had been challenged by several environmental groups in Alaska, which charged that they covered too diverse a range of activities and would not result in "minimal" disruption of the environment, as the federal government claimed. The five permits, which covered projec...