Maybe there is reason to hope we can get development right in the future.

That's the conclusion I draw after looking over the list of projects that the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently named "catalyst projects." It's largely rhetoric, the state has put its seal of approval on -- and given valuable publicity to -- some promising, progressive projects. In general, projects are mixed-use, mixed-income infill projects that attempt – to varying degrees – to de-emphasize the automobile and improve the public realm. It's nice to see the state recognize the planning behind such projects, even if the state isn't willing to attach much money to that recognition.

A Butte county landowner who claimed that flood control measures undertaken and approved by Butte County amounted to inverse condemnation had all of his arguments rejected by the Third District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the strict liability standard that applies in most inverse condemnation cases does not apply in the flood control context. Instead, the court determined a rule of reasonableness applied to the claims, and the landowner did not prove that the county acted unreasonably.

The apportionment of lots in a subdivision is not an "exaction" under the Mitigation Fee Act, a state appellate court has ruled.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not have to consider impacts of previously licensed Butte County dams on threatened Chinook salmon, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. >>read more