CP&DR

State Tries to Halt Local Bond Sale

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

Treasurer Phil Angelides and Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed papers in San Bernardino County Superior Court to halt a planned $15 million bond sale by two Central Valley cities. The bonds would finance a housing development 300 miles away in San Bernardino County. Angelides and Lockyer filed an answer to a validation action submitted by the Rancho Lucerne Valley Public Financing Authority. The Superior Court will now conduct a trail to determine if the bond sale can go forward. Waterford, a 6,60...

Second EIR for Landfill Satisfies Appeals Court

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has overturned a trial judge's ruling that environmental review of the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill in Riverside County was inadequate. The additional review was conducted under a court order that found fault with the previous environmental work on the project. The Eagle Mountain project would convert a former Kaiser Steel iron-ore mine into a landfill of 2,200 acres with the capacity of accepting up to 20,000 tons of waste per day for more than a century. Howe...

Transportation: Agency May Not Alter Voter-Approved Route

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

Alameda County transportation officials cannot change the route of a new highway to be funded by a county sales tax without returning to the county's voters for approval, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling overturned a decision by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Henry E. Needham Jr. which granted summary judgment to the Alameda County Transportation Authority in the case. The First District remanded the case to Superior Court for a new decision on a citizen group's re...

Water:

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

A federal district court judge — not a Nevada state court — has jurisdiction in a water rights dispute even though the dispute involves decisions of the Nevada State Engineer, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The decision is the second Ninth Circuit ruling in the last six months stemming from disputes over water allocation between federal and local governments in Churchill County, Nevada, east of Reno. The ruling emerged after a series of "dueling injunctions" in federal and state co...

Jury Trial OK for Takings Case: Supreme Court Upholds Jury's $1.45 Million Award to Builder

Jun 1, 1999

Kenneth Jost, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court gave property owners the right to jury trials in federal court in regulatory takings cases brought against state or local governments under the federal civil rights law. The 5-4 ruling handed down in late May upheld a $1.45 million jury award won by a developer against the city of Monterey for blocking a planned oceanfront residential development during the 1980s. The division in the case was mostly along normal conservative-liberal ideological lines...

Proposition 218: Business Improvement District Levies Not Subject to Vote

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

Business Improvement Districts created by cities under the Parking and Business Improvement Area Law of 1989 are not subject to the voting requirements of Proposition 218, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The unanimous three-judge panel said that Proposition 218 has no effect on cities' ability to levy assessments under the 1989 law (Streets & Highways Code §§ 36500-36551). The court concluded that San Diego's Pacific Beach Business Improvement District did not impose an "assessment" with...

Local Government: City May Halt Water Hookups For Unicorporated Area

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

A city has no obligation to provide new water service to development in unincorporated areas, and a city may use its utilities as growth-management tools, the First District Court of Appeals has ruled. The unanimous three-judge panel said that Crescent City did not act unreasonably when the City Council decided to prohibit new water utility connections outside the city limits. The appellate panel overturned the ruling of Del Norte County Superior Court Judge George L. Nelson. He had charact...

Constitutional Law: Federal Courts Upholds State Limits on Referenda

May 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

Citizens have no right under the federal constitution to seek a voter referendum of a city's land sale, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. In a case from Arizona, the federal appellate court dismissed arguments that the Tenth Amendment establishes the right to a referendum. The state constitution sets the rules for referenda, the court determined. "It is the power of the federal government which is constrained by the Tenth Amendment, not the power of the states," the court...

Property Taxes: Super Williamson Act Constitutional, AG Says

May 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

A 1998 law that takes Williamson Act property taxes breaks for agricultural land one step further is constitutional, according to a state attorney general's opinion. The opinion, written by Deputy Attorney General Gregory L. Gonot, (Attorney General's opinion No. 98-1106, filed March 10, 1999) concludes the "Super Williamson Act" approved by the Legislature does not violate state constitutional requirements that all property be taxable at the same percentage of fair market value. Farm interests said t...

Public Agency Must Pay for Value of Aggregate

May 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 05 May 1999

When taking real estate by eminent domain, a public agency must pay the landowner for the value of unmined aggregate on the property, the Second District Court of Appeals has ruled. The unanimous three-judge panel ordered the Ventura County Flood Control District to pay owners of 67 acres $2.6 million to compensate for the owners' loss of the aggregate resource. The value of mineral deposits, including sand, clay and gravel, is an element in determining fair market value, which the public agency is re...

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