An initiative that would prevent the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes and ban local rent control laws has qualified for the June ballot. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Farm Bureau Federation are the primary proponents. In addition, a competing, more limited measure that would prohibit the taking of owner-occupied, single-family houses for economic development has also qualified for the same June ballot.

A county cannot employ a development agreement to permit a use not otherwise allowed by zoning, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court said Tuolumne County could not use a development agreement allowing one agricultural property owner to conduct weddings and other events that are not allowed by the applicable zoning district and county zoning ordinance.

A roundup of green news: San Francisco may soon have the most stringent environmental building standards in the country; the state's "million solar roofs initiative" gets a slow start; new Oakland office tower would be among the tallest and greenest.

A federal judge has told Half Moon Bay to pay a property owner for making his property unbuildable; Placer County has sued a former planning commissioner for alleged Subdivision Map Act improprieties; government agencies are suing over a San Diego State expansion plan; Humboldt County has dropped proposed timber zoning resrictions; and more news about flood issues in Sacramento.

Proponents of placing land use ballot measures before voters in San Mateo and Riverside have lost separate appellate court rulings.

News from around the state includes a ruling against opponents of a new community planned next to the University of California, Merced, campus; a jury's award of $89 million to Southern California developer Rick Caruso; final approval of a multiple-species habitat conservation plan for the Coachella Valley; and redevelopment accounting discrepancies found by the state controller's office.