CP&DR

'Never to Late' for CEQA Study: Court Sends Stern Message to City of Fresno, Developer

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

In one of its rare published opinions, the Fifth District Court of Appeal rebuked the City of Fresno and a developer for violating the California Environmental Quality Act. Specifically, the unanimous three-judge appellate panel rejected the argument that the court cannot require an environmental impact report because the disputed project was built during litigation. "The corporation apparently made a calculated business decision to go forward with the project in spite of protests by residential...

Federal Land Grants: Federal Court Says Lot Line Dispute Belongs in State Court

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

A lawsuit challenging a county's decision on parcel status does not belong in federal court, even though the owners acquired the land through federal patents and acts of Congress, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. "Federal land patents and acts of Congress do not provide bases for federal question jurisdiction," the unanimous three-judge panel ruled. Edward Virgin Sr. and his family claimed to own 1,240 acres in San Luis Obispo County. The holdings included seven parcels crea...

Central Valley Project: Court Orders Feds to Build Agricultural Irrigation Drain

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The Interior Department is obliged to build an agricultural drain for land irrigated by the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled. The 40-year-old San Luis Act called for a system in which water, after being used for irrigation, would drain to the Bay Delta. But the Interior Department never completed the drain, a situation that created the environmental crisis that killed or maimed thousands of birds at Kesterson Reservoir during the 1980s....

Adult Bookstore Application Process Fails Before Ninth Circuit

Mar 1, 2000

Adult businesses, CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Nevada, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

A City of Las Vegas ordinance regarding adult bookstore permits has been declared unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The ruling in the case, known as Baby Tam II, came despite amendments to city ordinance, state law and court rules of practice that were intended to cure defects of an earlier law that the Ninth Circuit declared invalid in 1998.

Cal Supremes Return Pool Hall Hours for New Review

Mar 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The California Supreme Court has directed the Fourth District Court of Appeal to vacate a 1999 ruling in which the City of Riverside's requirement that poolrooms be closed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. was declared unconstitutional. In January 1999, a Fourth District panel ruled 2-1 that the Riverside ordinance violated poolroom owners' equal protection rights. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, March 1999.) The court said the city's law, which the owner of Mr. Cue's Family Billiards challenged, was "arbitrary an...

Proposition 218: State Supreme Court to Hear L.A. Apartment Tax Controversy

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The California Supreme Court will decide a case involving the City of Los Angeles's inspection fee on apartments. In December, five of seven justices voted to grant the petition from Los Angeles, which lost a Second District Court of Appeal ruling on a lawsuit filed by apartment owners. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, October 1999.) The Los Angeles City Council approved the $12 annual inspection fee on each of the city's approximately 750,000 apartments in July of 1998. The fee was intended to generat...

Clean Water Act: Citizens Can Sue Violators, U.S. Supreme Court Rules

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that citizens can sue alleged polluters under the Clean Water Act. The high court's January decision in a case from South Carolina was a significant victory for environmentalists, who argue that the government sometimes does not adequately enforce the Clean Water Act and other environmental protection laws. On a 7-2 vote, court ruled that Friends of the Earth (FOE) had standing to sue Laidlaw Environmental Services over the company's violation of a National Poll...

Property Rights: Miners' Rights on Public Land Gain Support in Ninth Circuit

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has sided with a miner in a feud between the miner and the U.S. Forest Service. In interpreting the Mining Law of 1872 and the 1955 Multiple Use Act, the court ruled that the Forest Service could not kick a miner off his claim in the Tonto National Forest, and that the Forest Service may not have had justification for increasing a reclamation bond requirement. In an opinion that recounted the history of mining laws in the United States, Circuit Judge Andrew K...

Landowners Need the Final Answer Before Making Claim

Feb 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

Property owners who never filed a development application have no basis for a takings claim, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court also said a landowner whose one application for a specific plan amendment that was rejected also has no takings argument. The case arose from the City of San Diego's lengthy planning process for the East Elliott community, a former Navy base that the federal government sold during the 1960s. As early as 1981, the city conceded that a 1971 East Ellio...

EIR Can Postpone Detailed Study of Related Road Project

Feb 1, 2000

California Environmental Quality Act, CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, San Diego County, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

An appellate court has ruled that an environmental impact report for a proposed San Diego County rock quarry was closer to acceptable than a trial judge had ruled, but the EIR still lacked a proper analysis of air quality impacts. The Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell's ruling that the rock quarry EIR improperly deferred study of highway widening, and that the EIR failed to account for prior illegal mining on the property. Still, the unanimou...

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