CP&DR

Mamoth Lakes Redevelopment Plan, EIR Invalidated

Aug 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Mammoth, Vol. 15 No. 08 Aug 2000

An appellate court has thrown out the Town of Mammoth Lakes' redevelopment plan and the plan's EIR. The Third District Court of Appeal held that there was no substantial evidence that the 1,139-acre redevelopment project area was blighted or even predominately urbanized. The court also ruled there was no evidence that current conditions prevented economic development. As for the EIR, the court ruled that the town's program EIR was inadequate and the town should have thoroughly analyzed all 72 projects i...

Court Rules That Losing Party Doesn't Qualify for Attorney's Fees

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has overturned an award of nearly $300,000 in attorneys fees to groups that lost a case based on the California Environmental Quality Act. The Fourth District ruled that even though the groups felt obliged to pursue the lawsuit, which followed an earlier successful suit, they were not entitled to fees in the second lawsuit. The case stems from Riverside County's approval of the giant Eagle Mountain landfill at a former iron-ore mine only 1.5 miles from Joshua...

Initiatives: Homeowners Associations Cleared in Anti-El-Toro Airport Campaign

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

Homeowners associations in the retirement community of Leisure World acted legally when they spent half a million dollars of homeowners assessments on an initiative campaign to halt a proposed airport, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court cleared the political activity of the Golden Rain Foundation of Laguna Hills and three of its member homeowner associations. The groups provided $542,000 for Orange County's Measure S, a 1996 ballot initiative aimed at blocking development...

Water: Ruling for Met Water District Strikes at ‘Water Wheeling' Plans

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

The Metropolitan Water District won a round of a lawsuit over the price it charges for conveying private transfers of water. A three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Five, ruled that Metropolitan can include its capital investment and other system-wide costs when figuring the fee it charges for handling water transfers. The appellate court overturned the decision of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Laurence Kay, who had ruled Metropolitan improperly included costs unrelat...

Army Corps of Engineers' Removal of Piers at Oakland is Upheld

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had the authority to remove two dilapidated piers in Oakland Harbor to make room for port expansion, and then bill the pier owner for the removal, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The Ninth Circuit made clear that the Corps of Engineers has broad authorities under the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899, 33 U.S.C. §403, and the Commerce Clause of the constitution. The ruling was another loss for the pier's owners, Alameda Gateway Ltd. ...

Project Opponents Lose for Not Following Appeal Process

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

An appellate court has ruled against a citizens group that had protested Placer County's handling of an application for a 22-unit lodge at Lake Tahoe. The Third District Court of Appeal ruled that the citizens group had no standing to bring a lawsuit based on alleged violations of the California Environmental Quality Act because the group did not seek county Board of Supervisors' review of the negative declaration approved by the Planning Commission. The unanimous three-judge panel rejected the ...

Lake Tahoe Property Owners Lose Takings Fight: Ninth Circuit Terms Temporary Moratorium a ‘Crucial Mechanism'

Jul 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Lake Tahoe landowners who claimed that temporary building moratoriums and regional land use plans amounted to unconstitutional takings of their property. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency was not liable for a taking when it imposed a 32-month building moratorium during the early 1980s. The court also held TRPA was not liable for a taking when a court blocked implementation of a 1984 Regional Plan. Finally, ...

U.S. Supreme Court: BLM Rangeland Grazing Rules Withstand Ranchers' Challenge

Jun 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 06 Jun 2000

In a case watched closely by ranchers and environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld 1995 grazing regulations for public lands, including about 6.7 million acres in California controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. Ranchers challenged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's power to impose the new rules, which ranchers said would raise their expenses and threaten their livestock businesses. But a unanimous Supreme Court, interpreting the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act, 43 U.S.C. §315, said ...

Subdivison Map Act: City Wins Despite Regarding Postponed Off-Site Improvements

Jun 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 06 Jun 2000

A Subdivision Map Act provision that gives local government a maximum of 120 days to acquire an interest in land upon which a subdivider is obligated to build improvements applies only in cases where the improvements are a condition of final map approval, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has ruled. A developer in the City of Clovis contended that such a narrow reading of Government Code §66462.5 would place an undue burden on the subdivider because a city could wait decades before acquiring of...

Court Clamps Down on Redevelopment Abuse: DIamond Bar Project Rejected When City Fails to Prove Blight

Jun 1, 2000

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 15 No. 06 Jun 2000

Making clear that the Community Redevelopment Law "is not simply a vehicle for cash-strapped municipalities to finance community improvements," an appellate court has thrown out the City of Diamond Bar's redevelopment plan. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal ruled that Diamond Bar did not prove that its 1,300-acre redevelopment project area suffered from "blight," as defined by the Community Redevelopment Law (Health and Safety Code §§33000 et seq., 33030). The...

Articles