CP&DR

SFO Offers 15:1 Wetlands Swap for New Runway

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Economic Development, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

San Francisco Airport officials have proposed an airport runway expansion that has a novel tradeoff for environmentalists. In exchange for filling up to 1,400 acres of San Francisco Bay for new runways, the airport proposes to restore 29,000 acres of bay wetlands that are located east and south of the airport. The proposal, which is to be formally presented at the end of January, is already proving controversial in the environmental community, and is strongly opposed by Cargill Salt, whose land could...

Anaheim Still Moving Forward with Sportstown

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Economic Development, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

Despite a developers' decision to drop out of a 40-acre sports-themed project in Anaheim, city officials are keeping the project on track. Known as Sportstown, the entertainment project is taking shape in the parking lot of the Big A, home of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and close to the Arrowhead Pond, home to the major league hockey team, the Mighty Ducks. In November, Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. dropped plans to develop Sportstown, which is to include sports-theme...

Landowner Loses Again: No Taking in Coastal Dispute, Apppellate Court Rules

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The Second District Court of Appeal has reaffirmed its decision to overturn a $2 million takings judgment against the Coastal Commission - even after reconsidering the case in light of a California Supreme Court ruling in another coastal case. However, the property owners' lawyers appear determined to fight on to the California Supreme Court on the very issue that caused the remand in the first place. Lawyer Thomas Banks said his client, Peggy Ann Buckley, plans to appeal the case to the Calif...

Catellus, Conservancy Make Big Deal Over Desert Land

Jan 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

A major land deal to preserve thousands of acres of Southern California desert land is in the works between a land conservation organization and the Catellus Corporation. Acquisition of the land is considered as significant for Southern California as the Headwaters Forest acquisition has been in Northern California. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein threw her support behind the proposal in mid-December. Feinstein, a longtime supporter of efforts to create two national parks and a national prese...

Santa Cruz Pushes Lumber Rules

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Environment Watch, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

Santa Cruz Lumber Rules Santa Cruz County supervisors are clamping down hard on the logging industry, and have approved "in concept" new ordinances that limit logging near residences, helicopter harvesting, and logging near riparian corridors. The ordinances are expected to be presented to the state Board of Forestry next year as proposed rules that would impact only Santa Cruz County. The county is one of a handful of California coastal counties that have special authority to propose rules to the ni...

No EIR Needed on Plan for Landfill, Court Rules

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

San Diego County's integrated waste management plan did not require preparation of an environmental impact report even though the plan called for the creation of new landfills and identified 10 possible sites for those landfills, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. "There is no substantial evidence in the administrative record to support a fair argument that the county's adoption of the summary plan and siting element may have a significant environmental impact, and thus the county did not ...

Supreme Court Takes Landslide Case

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The California Supreme Court has agreed to review an appellate court decision that ruled the City of Los Angeles should not be held liable for landslide-related damage to a property in the Pacific Palisades even though it violated municipal code requirements. In Haggis v. City of Los Angeles, Supreme Court Docket No. S074364, property owner Paul Haggis argued that his house was damaged by a landslide triggered in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and later condemned and demolished by the city. After t...

AG: No Conflict in Infrastructure Deal

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

Requiring a landowner to provide an excess amount of infrastructure capacity - and reimbursing that landowner later with other county funds - does not fall under the state's conflict of interest laws if a county supervisor is one of the landowners, according to a new opinion from the state attorney general's office. According to the attorney general, such a requirement - permitted under the state's Subdivision Map Act - is not a contract between the developer and the landowners and therefore does not ...

City Not Required to Condemn Lease

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

The City of South San Francisco isn't required to compensate a property owner for the city's own leasehold interest in the property - as well as the value of the property itself - in an eminent domain action, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The case involves South San Francisco's decision to take the property of the Mayer family by eminent domain - property that the city had already leased from the Mayers for use as a city conference center. The Mayers leased the property to the city ...

Santa Clara Moves Forward with Controversial Sun Project

Jan 1, 1999

Kathleen Sharp, Local Watch, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

A state hospital once used as an insane asylum has triggered one of the most contentious development battles in Silicon Valley, with officials on both sides of the deal calling each other crazy - and more. "It was a sweetheart deal and there was a lot of yelling over it," said Eddie Souza, former Santa Clara mayor. Sun Microsystems is building new corporate headquarters on 82.5 acres it bought from the state for $52 million. The high-tech company's digs will rise on a portion of the former Agnew Dev...

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