CP&DR

NEPA: Forest Service Analysis of Fire Risk Found Adequate

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

The U.S. Forest Service's supplemental environmental impact statement for a timber sale in the State of Washington was adequate, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The case involved the Forest Service's decision to add to the sale more than 1,000 trees that were damaged by a fire. Several environmental groups sued, claiming the supplemental EIS did not adequately cover the environmental issues associated with this additional sale. But the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the Forest...

LAFCO: Gold Rush City Critics Lose Appellate Ruling

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

A California appellate court has affirmed that the Sierra Club and other environmentalists did not exhaust their administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit to challenge the San Joaquin County Local Agency Formation Commission's annexation of the Gold Rush City property to Lathrop. However, the appellate court justices said that they consider the rule on which they based their decision "outmoded" and urged the California Legislature or the California Supreme Court to overturn it. Gold ...

Developer Suit Aganist Own Consultant Not SLAPP

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

Reversing a trial judge's ruling, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled that a development company's lawsuit against its own engineering firm is not a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation - a so-called SLAPP suit - within the meaning of the state anti-SLAPP law. It is one of the few instances in which an attempt to use the state anti-SLAPP law has failed in the appellate courts. SLAPP suits are often filed by developers against citizen groups or others who speak out against their...

Zoning: Court Reverses Ruling Aganist San Diego in Sex-Club Case

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

The city of San Diego did not prosecute the owner of a sex club maliciously or selectively even though the city made a series of mistakes in granting him zoning approvals and then prosecuting him, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Reversing a district court jury's decision, the three-judge panel concluded that the city did not violate Elbert Poppell's civil rights and that Zoning Administrator Sharren Carr should not be held personally liable because she was acting in a professio...

Blight Finding Overturned: Murrieta's Plan Not Supported by Evidence, Court Rules

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

The City of Murrieta's was wrong to declare 3,500 acres of land blighted in order to create a redevelopment project area, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. In a lawsuit brought by the Riverside County government, the Fourth District found that the property is not "predominantly urban" nor is "blighted," both of which are required in order to create a redevelopment area. With the exception of 200 acres of vacant county land that was withdrawn, the area in question "has been depicte...

Coastal Commission Case Remanded

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

The California Supreme Court has remanded one takings case against the Coastal Commission to the Second District Court of Appeal, in Los Angeles, to be reconsidered in light of the high court's decision in another takings case against the Coastal Commission. In Coastal Commission v. Buckley, No. B081544, the Second District reversed a $2.1 million takings award against the California Coastal Commission, saying that the evidence on the record does not establish that the Commission's actions against a s...

Locals Get Standing in EIS Challenge

Aug 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

Local governments in Nevada do have the standing to intervene in a lawsuit against the Interior Department, challenging the environmental impact process on a proposed water rights acquisition program, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The case involves the Interior Department's attempt to implement a water rights acquisition program designed to settle complex and longstanding water rights issues associated with the Newlands Reclamation Project in western Nevada. Under Section 206 of t...

S.F. Hotel Takings Case Returned to State Court

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

In the latest in a long line of cases challenging the constitutionality of San Francisco's hotel conversion laws, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sent one hotel owner back to state court. The case involves the longstanding attempt by the owners of the San Remo Hotel to have the city officially recognize their hotel as a tourist hotel. San Francisco has had strict restrictions against the conversion of residential hotels to tourist use in place for almost twenty years. When the first "h...

Mojave Water Deal Overturned: Apellate Court Says Farmers Have ‘Overlying' Water Rights

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

An appellate court has overturned a significant ruling by a trial judge in San Bernardino County that sought to adjudicate conflicting claims on groundwater in the Mojave River Basin. The Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 2, ruled in favor of farmers who will likely be forced to change their water usage as a result of the sweeping decision issued in 1995 by Superior Court Judge E. Michael Kaiser. In the ruling, Kaiser consolidated a series of conflicting water claims and sought to make an "...

Zoning: U.S. Violated Species Law in Renewing CVP Contracts

Jul 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

The federal Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by renewing Friant Dam water contracts prior to completing required consultations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The court has also overturned District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton's decision that environmentalists' challenges to the renewal of the water contracts under the California Fish & Game Code were moot. The case involve...

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