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California Land Use & Development Law Report

California Land Use & Development Law Report offers insights into legal issues relating to development and use of land and federal, state and local permitting and approval processes.

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December 20, 2012

Fish & Game Commission’s Decision To Deny Petition To Remove Coho Salmon From The State Endangered Species List Upheld

The California Endangered Species Act allows interested parties to file a petition with the California Fish & Game Commission to list or delist a species as threatened or endangered. If the Commission accepts the petition, it then decides whether to take the action requested in the petition, based on a scientific report on the species prepared by the Department of Fish &

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December 19, 2012

CEQA Doesn't Apply to Declaration of Water Emergency Authorized by Judgment Governing Groundwater Basin

A water replenishment district's declaration of a water emergency was not subject to CEQA because the declaration itself had no environmental impact, it was authorized under the terms of a judgment imposing a physical solution on the groundwater basin, and the district had no discretion to alter the terms of the judgment which specify the consequences of a water emergency.

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December 17, 2012

EIR’s Project Description For Municipal Park Properly Excluded Proposed Development On Adjacent Property Claimed to Be a Related Project

In rejecting the claim that the City of Newport Beach improperly "piecemealed" its environmental review of a municipal park project, the court upheld the city's decision to exclude from the EIR's project description a pending proposal to build residential and commercial uses on an adjacent property. The court based its ruling on the principle that two projects may properly undergo separate e

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December 14, 2012

An Attorney Petitioner in a CEQA Suit Can Be Awarded Attorneys' Fees

In a case of first impression, a court of appeal has held that an attorney can be a named petitioner in a CEQA case, litigate the case on behalf of all of the petitioners, and then, if the litigation succeeds, obtain an award of attorneys' fees from the defendants for her work. Healdsburg Citizens for Sustainable

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December 5, 2012

Supreme Court Rules Temporary Flooding May Give Rise To Takings Claim

In an important constitutional decision, the Supreme Court made clear there is no "blanket" rule prohibiting a takings cause of action for government-induced flooding that is only temporary. The Court therefore reversed the Federal Circuit, which had decided such flooding must be "permanent or inevitably recurring" to give rise to a viable takings claim.

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November 30, 2012

U.C. Santa Cruz Expansion Plan EIR Overturned

In Habitat and Watershed Caretakers v. City of Santa Cruz, the court of appeal set aside the EIR for long-term development of the U.C.

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November 25, 2012

Water Discharge Permit for Dairies Invalidated Under State's Antidegradation Policy

In 2007, after decades of allowing most dairies in the Central Valley Region to operate without a water quality discharge permit, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a general, region-wide permit regulating wastewater discharges from existing diaries.

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November 15, 2012

90-Day Limitations Period Under Government Code § 65009 Applies to Zoning Administrator Decisions.

Round two of a citizen group's challenge to approval of a WalMart ended with a decisive knock-out by the City of Stockton. The appellate court ruled that the petitioners' planning and zoning law claims were barred by the 90-day statute of limitations in Government Code § 65009, rejecting petitioners' argument that the statute did not apply to decisions of a zoning administrator. The

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November 13, 2012

City Has Time to Make General Plan Consistent with Housing Element Revisions

A court of appeal has confirmed that after a city updates its general plan housing element, the city has additional time to amend other general plan elements to restore the general plan's internal consistency—as long as the city adopts a timeline for making the necessary amendments. Every five years, a city must update its general plan housing element. This, often arduous process requires t

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November 5, 2012

Water Supply Uncertainty Sinks Another EIR

After wading through a detailed discussion relating to biological impacts (see Perkins Coie Update), the court in Preserve Wild Santee v.

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November 2, 2012

Court Rules City Council Can't Skip CEQA By Adopting Voter-Proposed Legislation

Project proponents often ask whether there is a way to shortcut the CEQA timeline or head off litigation. In Tuolumne Jobs & Small Business Alliance v.

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November 1, 2012

California Court Sidesteps Jurisdictional Question Under The Clean Water Act

Since the U.S.

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October 30, 2012

Battle on the Beach—Sunset Beach Has No Right to Vote on Huntington Beach Taxes Before Being Annexed

Faced with the prospect of having to pay special property taxes after annexation by Huntington Beach, residents of unincorporated Sunset Beach sued to block annexation, or to require a vote by the Sunset Beach electorate on whether they should have to pay the taxes after annexation. In Citizens Association of Sunset Beach v.

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October 27, 2012

Water Supply Agreement for Casino Fails CEQA and LAFCO Tests

In a case packed with hot-button issues -- CEQA exemptions, water supply impacts, climate change, LAFCO regulation of land uses, and preemption of state law on tribal lands -- a court of appeal has ruled that the El Dorado Irrigation District erred in approving an agreement to supply water to a tribal casino. Background. In 1987, the irrigation district agreed to supp

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October 25, 2012

Court Overturns Biological Opinion That Relied On Unenforceable Conservation Measures

The Ninth Circuit has overturned a Biological Opinion issued by the U.S.