A City of West Hollywood moratorium on new multi-family housing development has been declared invalid by the Second District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the city had not made required findings for the moratorium.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has set back a plan to develop the country's largest solid waste landfill near Joshua Tree National Park. The court ruled that the environmental analysis for the project was inadequate and that the Bureau of Land Management undervalued land it would provide to the landfill developer.

The City of Berkeley’s approval of density bonuses for a mixed-use project has been upheld by the First District Court of Appeal, which rejected a project opponent’s contention that the city had wrongly applied the state density bonus law. >>read more

Standing only a few feet above sea level on San Francisco Bay’s Treasure Island, Gov. Schwarzenegger released the California Climate Adaptation Strategy in early December. The final version of the 200-page strategy is not significantly different from the draft version that drew criticism from environmentalists for not going far enough, and from business and development interests for going way too far. >>read more

The City of Irvine has agreed to pay the neighboring City of Newport Beach $3.65 million to settle a lawsuit over Irvine’s approval of a mixed-use plan for 2,760 acres. The Irvine Business Complex plan seeks to bring as many as 15,000 housing units in mixed-use developments to an area near John Wayne Airport that is currently dominated by office buildings and industrial parks. >>read more

With concern rising that a private entity may attempt to purchase the Orange County Fairgrounds for development purposes, public officials are hurrying to put together bids of their own for the 150-acre site just west of the Costa Mesa Freeway. >>read more

At the heart of things, according to county prosecutors, are Councilman Jim Ayers and developers Stephen Holgate and Robert Osborne. Prosecutors say the developers funneled a combined $200,000 in campaign contributions through a variety of intermediaries into Ayers’ unsuccessful 2006 campaign for Assembly and his successful 2008 council re-election bid. >>read more

California is often considered to be two different states – north and south. But when it comes to planning and urban development patterns, the state is more properly divided east and west, or possibly inland and coastal. The real estate boom of earlier this decade only exacerbated the differences between coastal cities and inland suburbs. >>read more

The Town of Apple Valley wants to build a minor league baseball stadium. That’s not unusual in California, where stadium building seems only a slice less popular than tailgate parties with free-flowing beer. What is unusual, however, is the way that the town plans to pay– or rather, not pay – for this $20 million to $25 million project. >>read more