CP&DR

Oakland Port Expansion Moves Forward with Mitigations

Dec 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Public Development, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The Port of Oakland is moving ahead with plans for a second dredging project to make it more attractive to larger ships. As part of the dredging some novel environmental restoration projects are planned, with a plan to fill a part of San Francisco Bay proving controversial to environmentalists. This past summer, the Port finished a $110 million dredging project to increase its depth from 38 feet to 42 feet. With an eye on remaining competitive in the future, the Port now wants to remove another eight ...

Morphing Houses in Downtown Upland

Dec 1, 1998

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In the Animorph series of children's novels, teenagers receive a forbidden power from space aliens: the ability to "morph" or change their natural form into those of various animals. This morphing ability enables the children to do many things otherwise impossible for human beings, such as performing reconnaissance missions in the form of hawks, or fighting underwater in the form of sharks, and literally becoming flies on the wall. (This last-named ability is a source of envy among journalists.) If ad...

Forest Service Sued Over Management of SoCal Forests

Dec 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The U.S. Forest Service could be forced to make changes in its land-use planning for four forests it manages in Southern California as a result of a lawsuit that charges the service hasn't properly considered preserving the 40 federally endangered and threatened species of plants and animals that live there. Until the Forest Service takes those species into account, the suit is asking a federal court to stop such activities as livestock grazing, mining, off-road vehicle use, road building, land ...

Riverside County Exempts Builders

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Environment Watch, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In Riverside County, the county supervisors have never been big fans of federal endangered species regulations. So it should be no surprise that the board recently granted individual home builders a exemption basically excusing them from complying with those regulations. But the supervisors were forced to rescind those regulations once a judge ruled against them.. The issue arose in the southwestern part of the county, home to the Quino checkerspot butterfly, which last year was listed as an endangere...

Growth Results Mixed in November Balloting; Ventura Slow-Growthers Succeed, But Others Fail

Dec 1, 1998

Featured Articles, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998, William Fulton

In one of the most active election days of the decade for planning and development issues, pro-growth and slow-growth forces battled almost to a tie on local ballots around the state in November. Slow-growthers won some high-profile victories, most notably a near-sweep in passing a highly publicized series of urban growth boundaries in Ventura County. However, they lost other key races in San Diego and El Dorado counties. And - perhaps most surprising - most measures to allow or promote growth passed ea...

County-by-County Results from November Election

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Elections, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In one of the most active election days of the decade for planning and development issues, pro-growth and slow-growth forces battled almost to a tie on local ballots around the state in November. Slow-growthers won some high-profile victories, most notably a near-sweep in passing a highly publicized series of urban growth boundaries in Ventura County. However, they lost other key races in San Diego and El Dorado counties. And - perhaps most surprising - most measures to allow or promote growth passed ea...

Fair Housing Act: Hotel Owner Has Standing to Sue for Mentally Ill

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The owner of a San Pedro hotel who intends to sell out to a nonprofit group has standing to file a Fair Housing Act lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for allegedly interfering with the sale, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. In addition, the Ninth Circuit ruled that City Councilman Rudy Svornich - while immune from liability for his legislative actions - is not immune from a lawsuit alleging he retaliated against the hotel owners by allegedly initiating code enforcement inspec...

BIDs: Private Local Government?

Dec 1, 1998

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

As California's planning practice escalates toward a regulatory function increasingly detached from life on the street, the question presents itself: Who's minding the store? In the case of central business districts and outlying commercial precincts, the answer may lie with a collection of loosely organized and highly local affinity groups called BIDs - Business Improvement Districts. On the one hand, the growing power of the BIDs around California might threaten traditional city hall-based planning...

Arizona

Dec 1, 1998

Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

An environmentalists-sponsored effort to improve Arizona's planning laws backfired on the November ballot. But Gov. Jane Hull, who handily won another term, has appointed a statewide commission to examine growth management legislation. A measure to impose urban growth boundaries and growth management plans failed to make it to the ballot, but a counter-measure to make it harder to fight development in the state was placed on the ballot and passed. The measure that passed, Proposition 303 or the...

Shasta Lake Battles Over Fibergalss Plant

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Local Watch, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In a region where unemployment is double the state average and many available jobs are in the low-paying service and retail sectors, a $100 million factory would appear to be a godsend. But in Shasta County, a proposed fiberglass insulation factory has instead become a lightning rod. The two-year-old battle has split the community, with business and government leaders on one side and a mix of slow-growth advocates, physicians, and small business owners on the other. In October 1996, representatives ...