CP&DR

No Flood of Housing Accompanies UC's Student Tidal Wave

Aug 1, 2001

Larry Sokoloff, Public Development, Vol. 16 No. 08 Aug 2001

The University of California is preparing for a tidal wave of new student enrollment in the next decade, and the question of where students will be housed is one that the university continues to grapple with.

Folsom Looks for School, Classroom, Land for Growth

Apr 1, 2001

Larry Sokoloff, Local Watch, Vol. 16 No. 04 Apr 2001

With its well-paying high-tech jobs, close commuting proximity to Sacramento, a scenic location on the American River, ample supplies of new housing and a quaint downtown, Folsom has many assets. Because of those advantages, the city on the eastern edge of Sacramento County has attracted hordes of newcomers in recent years. As a result, schools are overcrowded and the city is rapidly running out of land.

Stanislaus County Considers Growth Initiatives, Salida Development Plan

May 1, 2000

Larry Sokoloff, Local Watch, Vol. 15 No. 05 May 2000

Two events will shape Stanislaus County planning and development issues this year: a proposed ballot initiative to rein in urban sprawl, and a plan to encourage business development in an unincorporated community north of Modesto. Proponents of the farmland-protection initiative have until May 11 to gather signatures to place it on the November ballot after the county Board of Supervisors refused to do so. Sponsored by the group GOAL (Growth: Orderly, Affordable, and Livable), the measur...

Diverse Entity Starts Work on Sacramento River Habitat Program

Apr 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 15 No. 04 Apr 2000

One of the most difficult parts of making environmental changes is bringing all the parties to the table. Sometimes it takes lawsuits, sometimes it takes political pressure. In the case of the Sacramento River in California's Central Valley, it has taken 13 years of meetings among environmentalists, government officials and farmers to gain consensus and cement ties for a group to coordinate a river restoration project along a huge portion of the 373-mile river. The best-known and most conte...

Stormwater Runoff Limits Tightened by Water Boards

Mar 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

Recent actions by two water boards signal a movement in the state towards greater regulation of non-point water pollution. The new regulations could start a trend in California of tightened development standards, which have already taken hold elsewhere in the country. The biggest step was taken in Los Angeles, where the local Regional Water Quality Control Board voted in January to set measurable numerical standards for treating stormwater runoff in new development throughout Los Angeles Co...

Costly Options Presented to Remedy the Salton Sea

Feb 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Salton Sea, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

The Salton Sea is sometimes referred to as Southern California's Lake Tahoe, and while efforts to save the northern lake took shape 20 years ago, officials only now are making big decisions about the future environmental health of the southern water body. The Salton Sea (which is also sometimes called a lake) has been in a downward environmental spiral in recent years. Rising salinity, warnings about eating its fish, oxygen depleting algal blooms, and the deaths of thousands of birds and fish ...

Army Corps of Engineers Changes Course in Flood Control

Jan 1, 2000

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

Five California waterways are in the running for federal funding in a new program to help restore and protect their environmental features while building protection against floods. A federal water bill signed by President Clinton last August listed the waterways. The program is another sign of a dramatic shift in how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approaches flood control. Instead of trying to control water flows and protect every structure from harm's way, under the new Challenge 21 (also.

Classroom Construction: The Good Ol' Days Are Gone

Dec 1, 1999

Larry Sokoloff, Public Development, Vol. 14 No. 12 Dec 1999

When California's first "space-saver" school opens next fall in Santa Ana, it will be an immediate orphan. The program that gave birth to the school no longer exists. Instead, the state and school officials are pursuing different strategies to provide classroom space in growing urban districts, as evidenced by innovative new schools in Pomona and Long Beach. The state space-saver program, launched with great fanfare during the early 1990s, sought to solve the problems of growing urban district...

Court Makes DFG Adfd CEQA to Stream Permit Reviews

Nov 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 14 No. 11 Nov 1999

Forced by a lawsuit to incorporate the California Environmental Quality Act process into the way it issues streambed and lake alteration permits, the California Department of Fish & Game has issued new procedures that will require more property owners to do greater environmental review before they undertake such projects. Every permit (often called a "1600" for a section of the Fish and Game Code) will be examined to see how CEQA applies, according to Jim Steele, a DFG program manage...

Public Transit Advances in Congested Bay Area

Oct 1, 1999

BART, Larry Sokoloff, Public Development, Public Transit, Vol. 14 No. 10 Oct 1999

Silicon Valley's job boom has underscored gaps in the transit systems in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has renewed calls to extend BART, the costly regional transit system that was once supposed to ring San Francisco Bay. But while construction continues on a $1.5 billion extension of BART from northern San Mateo County to San Francisco International Airport, other plans to extend BART have received mixed receptions. A ballot initiative to extend BART south of the airport through S...

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