Yes, the rooftop deck near the University of Southern California doesn't create a significant impact under CEQA, as per the People's Park case. But the City of Los Angeles still must find that the project conforms with an old redevelopment plan.

Neighbors have challenged in the project, located along a high-rise corridor, in two different lawsuits -- one challenging the city's application of an eldercare zoning deviation and the other challenging the city's use of a Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment. So far the church is winning.

Even though part of the medical center's Parnassus Heights expansion was for business purposes, the university is still covered because it is pursuing its educational mission.

Limited-growth group's lawsuit against Expo Line Plan tossed out for being filed too early. But appellate court also said Expo Line Plan doesn't violate the Los Angeles General Plan's policy encouraging adequate infrastructure.

The staff recommended upzoning half the the city, excluding the fire-prone Berkeley Hills. But the planning commission has recommended rezoning all of Berkeley including the hills.

Grant program would focus on commercial-to-residential conversions, community land trusts social housing, and more. Whether the idea will get through Congress is another story -- but it's part of a big Biden effort on housing supply and affordability.

In ruling from Los Angeles, appellate court says that "local control has not been abrogated by the HAA.”

A dispute from the Livermore area suggests that general plan designations and zoning ordinances have not kept pace with renewable energy advances -- leading to interpretation disputes. In Livermore, the courts have sided with public agency interpretations and against environmentalists opposed to a solar project. 

Appellate court says overlay zone doesn't meet state's minimum density requirements because underlying zoning allows less -- and as a result discrimination laws were violated as well. 

In a very strongly worded opinion, a Los Angeles appellate court shot down all the neighbors' arguments about an eldercare facility in Pacific Palisades -- and, in the process, reiterated that the role of the courts is to defer to the city’s judgment when substantial evidence exists and not "re-weigh the evidence".