CP&DR

LAFCO: Cal Supremes Hand Setback to Central Valley Annexation

Oct 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 10 Oct 1999

A lawsuit challenging the San Joaquin County Local Agency Formation Commission's approval of a large annexation has been reinstated by the California Supreme Court. The state's high court overturned a decision by the Third District Court of Appeals against the Sierra Club and the San Joaquin Valley Farm Bureau. The appellate court ruled that the environmentalists and farmers did not exhaust their administrative remedies because they had not requested a LAFCO rehearing. Thus, under the "Alexander rule...

Local Assessments: 1 Survives, Another Fails Legal Challenges

Oct 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 10 Oct 1999

Local government won one round and lost one round in separate, recent decisions over taxes levied without voter approval. The City of La Habra defended its utility users' tax from a lawsuit that claimed the tax violated a Proposition 62 requirement of voter approval. However, the City of Los Angeles lost a case in which an annual assessment on apartment owners was ruled a violation of Proposition 218, which also mandates voter-approval. Both cases — which appear to set important precedents regarding l...

Cal Supremes Won't Review Dump EIR, Hotel Conversion

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

In state Supreme Court action, the court declined to review a landfill EIR, and, in an unrelated case, the court said it will not decide a San Francisco hotel conversion case that had already been briefed. In the landfill case, a Fourth District Court of Appeals decision to uphold an environmental impact report for the giant Eagle Mountain landfill in Riverside County will stand. Only two of the seven justices, Joyce Kennard and Ming Chin, voted to review the decision in National Parks & Cons...

Adult Business Ruling Stands

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

The Fourth District Court of Appeals has denied the City of Anaheim's petition for rehearing in a case in which the court ordered Anaheim to approve permits for an adult cabaret. The court did modify its opinion in Badi Abraham Gammoh v. City of Anaheim, 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 6685, (CP&DR Legal Digest August 1999), but the modifications did not alter the judgement against the city. The court had ruled that Anaheim's actions in denying permits for Gammoh's Funtease theater did not pass ...

Padres Stadium Election Upheld

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

In an unpublished opinion, the Fourth District Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit over the November 1998 ballot measure approving financing for San Diego's new baseball stadium. Ballpark opponents, led by former City Councilman Bruce Henderson, argued that the city should have prepared an EIR ahead of time, that the measure required a two-thirds vote, and that Proposition C should have specified that the city would incur $225 million of new debt. The unanimous three-judge panel rejected al...

Lessee Doesn't Get Eminent Domain Payment

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Eminent domain, Legal Digest, San Diego County, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

The operator of a golf course on leased property was not entitled to compensation when a public agency condemned part of the property to accommodate a trolley line, the Fourth District Court of Appeals has ruled. The unanimous three-judge panel said the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) was correct when it compensated the owner of the real estate, not the lessee.

NEPA: Ninth Circuit Rejects Novel Baseline Argument

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

In renewing federal hydropower licenses, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does not have to consider the hypothetical question of what the environmental conditions would be if the dams in question were never built, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The Ninth Circuit also ruled that while FERC must consider environmental concerns raised by the Interior and Commerce Departments, the commission has final discretion to address those concerns. But in writing the unanimous ...

AG's Opinion: Conflict of Interest Allowed for Committee

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

Members of a redevelopment agency's project area committee who own property within the project area do not have a conflict of interest that prevents their participation, according to an attorney general's opinion. The opinion, written at the request of Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn, says that statutes and case law regarding project area committees makes clear that an exception is warranted to the normal conflict of interest rules. Government Code § 1090 says government representati...

Taxes: Streetlighting District Passes Prop. 218 Test

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

A streetlighting assessment district created prior to Proposition 218 is exempt from the tax-limiting initiative, the Fourth District Court of Appeals has decided. The court held that the City of Riverside's Street Light Assessment District is exempt because it provides revenue to operate streets, which was a specific exemption in the 1996 initiative. The July ruling was a blow to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Paul Gann's Citizens Committee, two statewide organizations that ba...

Schools Soar Above Initiative: AG Says Schools Exempt From Local Land-Use Rules

Sep 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 09 Sep 1999

An elementary school proposed for agricultural land is not subject to a Ventura County initiative intended to preserve farmland and open space, according to an attorney general's opinion. A school district board of trustees, by a two-thirds vote, may exempt itself from local land use regulations, according to the opinion prepared by Deputy Attorney General Gregory Gonot. He quoted extensively from City of Santa Clara v. Santa Clara Unified School District (1971) 22 CalApp.3d 152, in which t...

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