CP&DR

State Budget May Spare Redevelopment

Jun 1, 2003

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

With negotiations over the 2003-04 state budget ongoing, it appears that redevelopment agencies will avoid the major financial hit proposed in January by the Davis administration. Adjustments to the current 2002-03 budget did move $75 million from redevelopment agencies to school districts. However, a Davis administration proposal for the state to take all unencumbered housing funds from redevelopment agencies went nowhere in the Legislature.

L.A. County Approves Revised Newhall Ranch Project

Jun 1, 2003

CP&DR Staff, In Brief, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a revised environmental impact report for the proposed Newhall Ranch development in the hills just west of Santa Clarita. The revised EIR was required because a Kern County judge in 2000 found the original study lacking.

Monterey County Land Use Disputes Culminate At Rancho San Juan

Jun 1, 2003

Local Watch, Monterey County, Paul Shigley, Specific plans, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

A specific plan for a slice of northern Monterey County that has long been seen as a potential growth area could be released this summer. However, the second version of a Rancho San Juan specific plan is unlikely to settle long-running disputes over how the area between the City of Salinas and the unincorporated community of Prunedale should develop.

Millbrae Zoning Initiative Cleared For Ballot

Jun 1, 2003

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

A city clerk did not have authority to throw out a zoning initiative petition based on evidence she received that the petition had been improperly circulated, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The city clerk's role was ministerial, and she did not have the authority to consider extrinsic evidence about how the initiative's backers circulated the measure, the court held.

Redevelopment Agency Demand For Supplemental EIR Upheld

Jun 1, 2003

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency was correct to require a supplemental environmental impact report (SEIR) for a billboard proposed within a redevelopment project area, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

Court Limits Coastal Commission Jurisdiction To Coastal Zone

Jun 1, 2003

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

The California Coastal Commission does not have authority to consider environmental impacts to areas inside the coastal zone caused by development outside the coast zone, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision is the most definitive to date on the Commission's authority when a project straddles the coastal zone boundary.

An Imported LULU Tests Cities' Sensitivity

Jun 1, 2003

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

Whoever said that art imitates life has not visited one of Southern California's neighborhood cybercafes, where, according to some planners and police, the reverse is true. It is in these mainly blue collar, immigrant enclaves where video games and youth culture have combined into a lively and sometimes violent activity, thereby creating the state's latest LULU (locally undesirable land use). In predictable fashion, cities are responding with ordinances, and businesses are fighting back through the court

Property Rights Proponents Taking Their Case Right To Voters

Jun 1, 2003

Insight, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003, William Fulton

At last, a property rights ballot initiative is making the rounds in California. But the initiative begs the question: Is there still a property rights movement in this state?

New Reclamation Requirements Threaten To Halt Open-Pit Mining

Jun 1, 2003

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

What began as an effort to prevent desecration of Native American sacred sites morphed this spring into a profound change in California's mining regulations, a change potentially so costly to mine operators that industry representatives predicted it would bring an end to one of the state's signature commercial activities: Gold mining.

Madera County EIR's Approach To Species Upheld

Jun 1, 2003

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 18 No. 06 Jun 2003

An environmental impact report for a dairy in Madera County has survived a challenge from an organization that fights dairy expansion in the Central Valley. The Fifth District Court of Appeal rejected arguments that the EIR's handling of endangered species issues, project alternatives and cumulative groundwater impacts was inadequate.