An appellate court has ordered the City of Concord's Rent Review Board to reconsider a request for rent increases filed by the owner of two mobile home parks.
The case deals with the base year rental rates. The owner of the Diablo Mobile Lodge and the Adobe Mobile Lodge argued that its base year rates were so low that the parks lost money. The city's Rent Review Board disagreed.
Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga ruled for the city, but the First District Court of Appeal overturned the lower court. The court remanded the case to the Rent Review Board for further consideration. The appellate panel ruled that "unique and extraordinary circumstances," including artificially low rents charged by the previous owner and a temporary rent increase moratorium imposed by the city, force the city to reconsider base rates.
The case is Concord Communities, L.P. v. City of Concord, Nos. A091354, A091361, 01 C.D.O.S. 7748. It was filed on August 31, 2001.
An environmental impact report for a proposed Oakland International Airport expansion has been found flawed on numerous grounds by the First District Court of Appeal. The court held that the Port of Oakland, which operates the airport, relied on outdated air pollution information, did not support its decision not to study health risks related to that air pollution, and failed to analyze adequately nighttime noise impacts.
In a 2-1 ruling, a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled that federal agencies have the authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate "deep ripping" of wetlands by farmers.
A general plan requirement that placed a one-mile buffer on private land around a landfill in Placer County was supported by evidence in the record even though there appeared to be no scientific basis for it, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.
A city resolution restricting parking on certain residential streets to residents with parking permits was categorically exempt from environmental review, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.
An exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act for construction of a sea wall below two houses has been upheld by the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the potential collapse of a bluff could threaten public safety and qualified for an emergency exemption under CEQA.
In a case that touched on redevelopment law, the California Environmental Quality Act and general plan compatibility, an appellate court has upheld San Francisco's handling of a project on the site of the historic Emporium department store.
The City of Los Angeles was correct to treat as one project a builder's various proposals for 21 new houses on existing parcels on two streets, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court rejected the builder's contention that the city could not demand an environmental impact report on the 21 houses, five of which have already been built.
Opponents of a proposed recycling center were too late in filing a lawsuit regarding a city's failure to prepare an environmental study on the city's sale of land to the recycling company, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
The owner of appropriative water rights to a creek cannot exercise those rights in violation of state regulations intended to protect fish and wildlife, the Third District Court of Appeal has decided.
When a public agency acquires a property via eminent domain, only a trial court judge -- and not a jury -- can decide whether a business should receive compensation for loss of goodwill, a state appellate court has ruled.
The California Coastal Commission's decision to allow Malibu property owners who are building new houses to exchange existing public view corridors on their property for dedication of an off-site public access to the beach has been upheld by the Second District Court of Appeal.