Legal Digest

A county has the authority to regulate the development of a private water storage reservoir, and that authority is not pre-empted by state water law, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.

Two recent appellate court rulings appear to have clarified aspects of the California Environmental Quality Act and may have even broken new legal ground. One case involved the project description in an environmental impact report and in public notices. The court held that the identity of the proposed project's end user did not have to be disclosed. The other case contained a lengthy discussion about how to address a proposed project's impact on a community's jobs-housing ratio. >>read more

In the latest round of a battle that began during the late 1980s, the City of St. Helena has won an appellate court ruling stating the Napa Valley Wine Train is not a public utility to be regulated by the Public Utilities Commission. The decision appears to mean that the city has sole jurisdiction over the design and operation of the Wine Train’s long-proposed station in downtown St. Helena. >>read more

A state appellate court has rejected a claim that a Coastal Commission permit condition requiring the dedication of a public access to the beach was a taking. The court ruled that the lawsuit should have been filed 20 years earlier, and that an agency's more recent acceptance of the "offer to dedicate" did not give the landowner a new chance to sue. >>read more

The court of appeal has cleared the way for the Modesto Redevelopment Agency to sue manufacturers and suppliers of dry cleaning solvents and equipment. >>read more

The California Supreme Court has accepted for review a case in which lower courts ruled that a state agency may not provide tax-exempt bond financing to religious schools. >>read more

A state appellate court has upheld an environmental impact report for a 96-unit condominium project in downtown Oceanside. The court rejected arguments that the environmental impact report failed to analyze a reasonable range of alternatives, did not address the project's impact on neighboring residents and did not require adequate mitigation of biological impacts. >>read more

The City of Los Angeles may not revoke a building permit issued to a religious congregation that relied on the permit to commence a demolition and construction project, a divided panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court ruled that under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, the congregation had a vested right with which the city could not interfere. >>read more

A governor's executive order intended to speed development of power plants superceded the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and local measures for implementing CEQA, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The appellate court held that an executive order signed by then-Governor Gray Davis "effectively repealed" portions of CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines that were inconsistent with the order while the directive was in effect, from February 8 until December 31, 2001. >>read more

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of a city's ordinance regulating the location of adult businesses and requiring nonconforming businesses to close or relocate. The ruling came in a case from Spokane, Washington. However, a number of jurisdictions in California have enacted similar ordinances. >>read more

The California Supreme Court has accepted for review two land use cases involving local and regional restrictions on logging. The state high court also dismissed a case involving attorneys' fees in a California Environmental Quality Act case. >>read more

A state appellate court has gutted a City of Lodi ordinance governing cleanup of hazardous materials. The court ruled that the city ordinance exceeded the authority provided to local governments by the state's Hazardous Substance Account Act (HSAA). >>read more

In its ongoing legal battle over local government fees and assessments, homebuilder Barratt American has lost one round and won one round - and has seen the state Supreme Court accept for review a case where the homebuilder was victorious at the appellate court level.

A joint powers agency in Marin County that wanted to build a radio antenna in the Town of Tiburon did not have to comply with Tiburon's land use laws, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel overturned a lower court, which had ruled that not only did the joint powers agency have to comply with Tiburon's ordinances, but that the agency had violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by not preparing a supplemental environmental impact report. >>read more