CP&DR

Constitutionality of ERAF Tax Shift Upheld By Court

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The shift of $200 million per year away from redevelopment agencies to school districts as part of the state's property tax reallocation beginning in 1992 did not constitute a "reimbursable state mandate," the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling clarifies a question that first emerged when redevelopment agencies reluctantly agreed to the shift of funds in 1992. The City of El Monte had filed a test claim on the issue with the Commission on State Mandates. However, the city l...

Zoning: Hotels Win Two rounds Against San Francisco Over Tourist Use

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The City of San Francisco has been dealt setbacks in two cases in which the city attempted to argue that two hotels were not "grandfathered" as tourist hotels and therefore are subject to the city's hotel conversion ordinance because of alleged conversion from residential to tourist use. The two cases appear to have interconnected issues that may need to be resolved later. In the first case, one First District appellate panel concluded that the hotel needed to prove "actual tourist use...

Coastal Commission: Pristine or Degraded, Wetlands in Coastal Zone Receive Protection

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

Building on an earlier case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has expanded protection of low-quality coastal wetlands. Overturning a trial judge, the court ruled that all wetlands in California's coastal zone — even those not located in "environmentally sensitive habitat areas," (ESHAs) — should receive the same level of legal protection whether they are pristine or degraded. Last year, the same court ruled that coastal wetlands' quality could not be taken into account in determining wh...

Lack of Groundwater Analysis Dooms Dump EIR: Ruling Is Only Part of Huge controversy Over Rail Cycle

Oct 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 10 Oct 2000

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has thrown out an environmental impact report for a proposed San Bernardino County landfill because the EIR did not estimate the volume of groundwater underlying the site. Because the landfill could threaten the groundwater resource, decision-makers needed to know how large the resource is before determining whether the landfill was an acceptable risk, the unanimous three-judge panel held. Although the court threw out the EIR for lacking groundwater information, t...

Cornfield project approved, but litigation is likely

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Economic Development, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

A major industrial project in the City of Los Angeles has received approval from the city's new Central Area Planning Commission. However, opponents of the "Cornfield" development next to Chinatown have vowed to continue fighting with a variety of legal and political tools. (See CP&DR Economic Development, January 2000) The commission voted 4-2 in late July to approve Majestic Reality's plans for a 950,000-square-foot industrial and warehouse development on 32 acres of the 47-acre Cornfield. The commi...

NEPA: Divided Panel Offers Different Takes on EIS for Hawaii Airport Project

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

A sharply divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an environmental impact statement prepared for expansion of the Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii. The court majority ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration had taken the "hard look" at the project's impact on native habitat required by the National Environmental Policy Act, while a dissenting judge called the FAA's study inadequate and deceptive. The FAA and the Hawaii Department of Transportation proposed repa...

San Francisco Hotel Owners Advance Takings Case: Appellate Court Allows Lawsuit, Establishes High Standard for City

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

Property rights advocates won a potentially far-reaching victory with a First District Court of Appeals ruling regarding San Francisco's hotel conversion ordinance. In a takings lawsuit filed by a hotel owner, the court held that the "heightened scrutiny" test applies to the San Francisco law, meaning there must be a close relationship between the exaction and the project's impact. The court ruled that the lawsuit filed by owners of the San Remo Hotel should proceed in trial court. The hotel owners ar...

Lack of Approved Project Makes Suit Moot, Appellate Court Rules

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

An appellate court has ruled against environmentalists in a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit because the project in question was not approved and because environmentalists did not exhaust their administrative remedies. In a peculiar case from Rancho Cucamonga, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, ruled that the lawsuit brought by opponents of a 40-home subdivision was moot because the city denied the developer's design review application for a previously approved su...

NEPA: Army Corps Need Not Analyze All of Playa Vista, Ninth Circuit Rules

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

In a major victory for developers of Playa Vista, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has reinstated an Army Corps of Engineers permit to fill 16 acres of wetlands. The unanimous three-judge appellate panel overturned a district court ruling that the Corps did not adequately consider environmental impacts of the overall project. The Ninth Circuit held that the Corps did not need to complete an environmental impact statement and that the Corps was correct to review only the wetlands portion o...

California Supreme Court: First Dibs On Water Rights Carries The Day; Thirsty Cities Remain Dry

Sep 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, San Bernardino County, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000, Water

In an important water rights ruling, the state Supreme Court has held that farmers' long-standing water rights superceded water claims by downstream cities. The unanimous court ruled in favor of seven alfalfa and dairy farmers in the Mojave Valley that had refused to join a pact that allocated water to more than 200 farmers, cities and other entities without regard to historical water rights. "This preserves the farmers' position at basically the top of the water chain," Robert Dougherty, t...

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