A city's ban on short-term vacation rentals in the coastal zone constitutes "development" under the California Coastal Act. Therefore, the Coastal Commission must first approve a coastal development permit, an amendment to the city's certified local coastal program, or an amendment waiver before such a ban can be imposed. Kracke v. City of Santa Barbara, 63 Cal. App. 5th 1089 (2021).

An initiative measure that required new development to mitigate not only its individual traffic impacts but also cumulative impacts of other projects on traffic levels of service violated the rough-proportionality standard of Nollan and Dolan and was therefore unconstitutional.

Multiple applications for a development project are not required where the first permit denial makes clear that no development of the property would be allowed under any circumstance. Felkay v. City of Santa Barbara, No.

Three months ago, the Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a Coastal Commission fine of $1 million on homeowners who performed major reconstruction on their Malibu home without obtaining coastal permits and refused to halt construction after notification of the violation by Commission staff.

Complete physical dispossession of a property is not a prerequisite to an award of damages after a condemnation proceeding is abandoned—moving from the property in reliance on the order granting the agency possession is sufficient. San Joaquin Regional Transit District v. Superior Court, No. C084755 (3rd Dist., Dec.

A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Involving the California Environmental Quality Act

Despite relatively few published opinions this year, there were significant appellate court rulings on a range of topics, including whether projects are properly classified as discretionary or ministerial, the adequacy of mitigation, agencies' document retention obligations, the remedy for an in

The City of Los Angeles was required to offer to sell condemned property back to its original owner because the property had not been used and the City Council did not adopt a resolution reauthorizing the public use until 19 days past the 10-year statutory deadline. Rutgard v. City of Los Angeles, No. B297655 (2nd Dist., July 30, 2020).

The court of appeal held that plaintiffs' inverse condemnation and damages claims based on dredging in the bay adjacent to their properties was barred under the doctrine of res judicata based on a 1931 judgment conclusively establishing that the property alleged to have been taken or damaged was not owned by plaintiffs.

The State of Hawaii Land Use Commission's reversion of 1,060 acres from a conditional urban land use classification to the prior agricultural use classification was not an unconstitutional taking because the landowner could still reap economic benefits from the property, the reclassification did not substantially affect the overall valuation or any potential sales, and the landowner should have

A SUMMARY OF PUBLISHED APPELLATE OPINIONS UNDER THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT

A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act The California Supreme Court issued its only CEQA opinion of 2018 at the end of the year.

A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act In 2017, the California Supreme Court issued two decisions involving highly controversial questions of first impression.  In the closely-watched Cleveland National Forest Foundation case, the court reversed the court of appeal's ruling that the EIR for SANDAG's region

A Summary Of Published Appellate Opinions Under The California Environmental Quality Act

A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act

A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under CEQA

 By Stephen Kostka, Julie Jones, Barbara Schussman, Alan Murphy,  Ned Washburn, Laura Zagar, Kathryn Bilder, Christopher Chou and Marie Cooper