Land Use, Environmental, and Real Estate Law in California
Stopthemillenniumhollywood.com et al., v. City of Los Angeles et al. 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 780
In Stopthemillenniumhollywood.com et al., v. City of Los Angeles et al. 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 780, the Court of Appeal delivered a setback to mixed use proposals by invalidating an EIR lacking a specific development proposal, but which evaluated different land…
Sacramentans for Fair Planning v. City of Sacramento (2019) 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 646
The City of Sacramento, a charter city, approved a fifteen-story mixed use project in its Midtown area, significantly in excess of its adopted height and FAR standards. This approval was based upon a general plan policy which stated, “The City may allow…
York v. City of Los Angeles (2019) 33 Cal.App.5th 1178
The Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District held that property owners whose request to grade almost 80,000 cubic yards on their property was denied by a city, but who submitted no other alternative grading proposal in connection with their plans to build a…
Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. County of San Diego (2019) ____ Cal.App.5th ______.
On July 25, 2019 the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District published its opinion in Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. County of San Diego (2019) ___ Cal. App. 5th ___, which interpreted the clause “residential development not incidental to…
Perez v. County of Monterey (2019) 32 Cal.App.5th 257
The Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District affirmed a trial court judgment that rejected constitutional claims, including a regulatory takings challenge, against a Monterey County ordinance that provided that no one may keep more than four roosters on a single property without a rooster…
Welcome to Abbott & Kindermann’s 2019 2nd Quarter cumulative CEQA update. This summary provides links to more in-depth case write-ups on the firm’s blog. The case names of the newest decisions start with Section 3 and are denoted by bold italic fonts.
1. 2019 CEQA UPDATE
To read the 2018 cumulative CEQA review, click…
Boatworks, LLC v. City of Alameda (2019) 35 Cal. App. 5th 290.
In 2014, the City of Alameda adopted updated Development Impact Fees pursuant to the Mitigation Fee Act (“MFA”), including fees for park acquisition and improvement. A property owner/developer (“Boatworks”) timely filed a facial challenge to the park fee and the trial court…
By William W. Abbott & Kristen Kortick
Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Conservation, etc. (2019) 36 Cal.App.5th 210.
The question “how much is enough?” for programmatic EIRs remains an ongoing challenge for CEQA practitioners. Programmatic EIRs are frequently prepared in conjunction with broad legislative acts where specific detail as to how the…
California Charter Schools Association v. City of Huntington Park 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 444.
Cities and counties frequently rely upon Government Code section 65858 to control land uses in the face of a regulatory or policy update. An interim ordinance can be adopted following minimum notice and hearing procedures. The initial ordinance is effective for…
By William W. Abbott & Kristen Kortick
In 2014, real parties Forest City California Residential Development and Hearst Communications, Inc. (collectively “real parties”) sought to redevelop the San Francisco Chronicle building and surrounding structures and parcels…
