"Buildout" is a funny term. It is the word that most planners use to describe what their town would look like once everything that is called for in the general plan has been built. In today's world, buildout is easily quantified. Most cities and counties can point to their general plan and identify precisely how many houses and how many square feet of commercial and industrial space buildout involves. In California, where the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is always bird-dogging loc

In their effort to address the disproportionate health risk faced by working-class blacks and Hispanics, air-quality regulators in Southern California may soon find themselves playing a greater role in local land-use decisions — a prospect embraced by environmental justice advocates but alarming to many in the business community.

Stanislaus County, the City of Patterson, and a North Carolina-based developer have teamed together on a business park that all parties hope will bring employment to an area that has seen rapid housing development but minimal job growth.

An administrative hearing that the City of Beverly Hills conducted for an adult business permit renewal violated the business's right to due process, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The problem was that a city attorney — who earlier had contended that the business failed to submit a complete permit renewal application — also advised the hearing officer who considered the business's appeal of the decision to deny the renewal application.

A Southern California housing developer that has aggressively fought a wide variety of government fees in recent years has lost a building permit and plan review fee case at the Fourth District Court of Appeal. In a terse opinion, the unanimous three-judge appellate panel ruled that Barratt American's claims were either time-barred or attempted to rely on the wrong statutes.

The California Supreme Court has ordered the publication of another round in the litigation involving a doughnut shop owner and the City of Hawaiian Gardens.

Cities and counties are charged with the responsibility of developing not only communities in which people live and work, but also with protecting the health of the surrounding natural environment and agricultural lands. To achieve balance between these core values, advocacy groups and government agencies alike have taken interest in understanding the available supply of land and the capacity for planned growth in their regions.

In the course of only a few years, Indian casinos have grown into a major land use concern for counties across California. But now a matter that has been a land use issue mostly in rural areas is coming to urban areas, as tribes look for casino sites near population centers and as some public officials start to view the casinos as economic opportunities.

Riverside County supervisors have approved two-thirds of the closely watched Riverside County Integrated Program (RCIP). In June, supervisors approved a new general plan and a multi-species conservation plan for the western third of the county.

A proposal from residents of northern Santa Barbara County to divide the county in two is making progress. An election on the creation of Mission County could occur as early as fall of 2004, although voting in 2006 appears more likely. Different approaches to land use — the north is seen as much more amenable to development than the south — lie at or very near the heart of the movement.