Owners of the San Remo Hotel in San Francisco have lost the latest round in their 11-year litigation over the city's ordinance restricting the conversion of residential hotels to tourist use. In the latest decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rule on the hotel owners' takings claims because the state Supreme Court had already decided the claims.

A San Diego County resident has lost a lawsuit that sought to force a developer to improve a private road that serves a new subdivision. The resident argued that under the Subdivision Map Act, San Diego County had to enforce its own laws that carry out the Map Act, including a code section addressing off-site road standards. But the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the county had the authority to approve an exemption from those standards and had expressly exempted the subdivision.

The bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric Company has resulted in a stunning windfall for the state. As part of a bankruptcy settlement approved in April, PG&E agreed to offer conservation easements or title to 140,000 acres of land, most of which lies around the utility company's hydroelectric system.

Mitigation measures taken after the issuance of a mitigated negative declaration do not satisfy the California Environmental Quality Act, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. In a case involving a water district's proposal to cover a small reservoir in the unincorporated Santa Barbara County community of Summerland, the court also ruled that the district should have considered the project's potentially substantial impact to aesthetics.