CP&DR

Coastal Builders Have Rough Time at Commission: Appointments, Decesions, Budget Point Toward Resource Protection

Mar 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

With more funding headed its way and a stated emphasis on protection of natural resources, the California Coastal Commission appears to be tightening its control over development. Gov. Davis's proposed budget contains more money for enforcement and assisting with Local Coastal Plan implementation. Davis also replaced Coastal Commissioner Nancy Fleming, the pro-development mayor of Eureka, with Humboldt County Supervisor John Woolley, an appointment that pleased environmentalists. Commissioners ...

Lancaster, Palmdale Approve Truce in Retail Dispute

Mar 1, 2000

Economic Development, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 03 Mar 2000

The cities of Lancaster and Palmdale have agreed to bury the hatchet — and, for once, not in the other jurisdiction's back. Early this year, both city councils adopted "anti-piracy" resolutions in which they pledged not to offer incentives to businesses located inside the other's borders. For years, the two cities have engaged in classic battles over retail businesses. But some recent changes on the Palmdale City Council and the business community's leadership appear responsible for the removal ...

Swap of Sales Tax for Property Tax Will Get Hearing: Assembly Speaker's Commission, Others Support Finance Reform

Feb 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

A commission appointed by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has recommended local governments swap sales tax revenue for a bigger cut of property taxes. The proposal is one of several intended to reduce city and county dependence on sales tax. However, it remains unclear whether lawmakers and Gov. Davis will take meaningful steps toward altering the complex fiscal system this year. It is a two-handed situation. On the one hand, recommendations of the Speaker's Commission on State and Local G...

Failed Sale of Highway 91 Toll Lanes Refuels Debate

Feb 1, 2000

Paul Shigley, Public Development, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

A proposed public bailout of the owner of Highway 91 toll lanes in Orange County has died amid allegations of financial improprieties. The experience with the 91 Express Lanes, which even privatization supporters call a "fiasco," appears to put a damper on what little interest remains in constructing private highways. "This is not something that anyone should expect to become the dominant mode of highway building," said Marlon Boarnet, a University of California, Irvine, planning professor who ...

Stanford Losing Land-Use Autonomy to County

Feb 1, 2000

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 02 Feb 2000

Stanford University has proposed construction of about 3,000 housing units and 2 million square feet of academic and cultural facilities, offices and athletic structures. At the same time, Santa Clara County is exerting greater control over Stanford land use then ever before. Stanford — which owns 8,180 acres, two-thirds of which is open space — has submitted a draft Community Plan to the county. The document is more detailed than previous plans, something local government leaders and community ac...

Growth Borders Start Taking Hold In Central Valley: Stanislaus County Voters Could Decide UBG Initiatives This Year

Jan 1, 2000

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

California's Central Valley, the most important part of the state's giant agriculture industry, will have three times as many residents in 2040 as it does now, according to demographers. The conflict between population growth and farming is driving many planning efforts, some of which are including urban growth boundaries as a means of protecting agriculture. The growth-boundary concept is not new in the Central Valley. Tulare County and its largest cities have had urban growth boundaries for 20 year...

Sonoma County Grapevine Wars Continue to Rage

Jan 1, 2000

Local Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

With complaints rising in Sonoma County regarding the expansion of vineyards, county officials have adopted regulations for grape planting. However, at least some environmentalists and homeowners believe the restrictions are inadequate, and the protests show no sign of abating. Within the last year or so, the amount of Sonoma County property planted as vineyards has surpassed the acreage in the county's nine incorporated cities. Environmentalists and homeowners complain that these new viney...

Brownfields Reuse Is Not Always Black and White

Jan 1, 2000

Economic Development, Paul Shigley, Vol. 15 No. 01 Jan 2000

About 1,000 industrial and warehouse jobs would return to downtown Los Angeles if a project proposed next to Chinatown moves forward. However, environmentalists and some neighborhood advocates are fighting the project because they say the area already has enough warehouses. Developer Ed Roski Jr., who recently helped bring the Staples Center to downtown, proposes building a $60 million, 950,000-square-foot warehouse and industrial center called River Station. Roski's firm, Majestic Realty,...

Logging Rules Overhaul Angers Industry and Its Environmentalists

Dec 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 12 Dec 1999

From the viewpoint of the timber industry, the state Board of Forestry is working on a package of rules that would significantly reduce timber harvests on private property. From environmentalists' standpoint, the board is laboring over rules that do not go nearly far enough toward protecting water courses and endangered salmon from the effects of logging. The two sides agree on one thing — state forestry regulators do not have adequate data and analysis to make new rules. "Our concern is t...

Growth-Control Initiatives Receive Mixed Reception In Off-Year Election: Voters Defeat East Bay CAPP, But Development Fight Cont

Dec 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 12 Dec 1999

In an off-year election that surprised many observers, slow-growth advocates lost battles in some surprising places, but they also claimed victories in some pro-growth cities. Most importantly, voters in the East Bay cities of San Ramon, Pleasanton and Livermore rejected the Citizens Alliance for Public Planning initiatives that would have put on future ballots all but the tiniest of developments. And, in the first test of a Ventura County SOAR growth restriction, the electorate approved rezoni...