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In Cedar Fair, L.P. v. City of Santa Clara (2011) ___ Cal.App.4th ___, 2011 Cal.App.LEXIS 506, the court found that a city and its redevelopment agency’s entering into a “term sheet” for the development of a professional football stadium development project was not an “approval” that required environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act, even though the term sheet was very detailed and substantial sums had been spent on consultants leading up to that agreement.
Continue Reading A Very Detailed Agreement In The Process Of Negotiating A Development Project May Not Constitute An Approval For CEQA Environmental Review Purposes

In order to avoid having your takings claim dismissed, your timing has to be just right. Unfortunately for Colony Cove Properties, LLC (“Colony Cove”), the timing was off, and its takings claim was dismissed by the court for being both too late (facial challenge) and too early (as-applied challenge).
Continue Reading Timing is Everything: Ninth Circuit Dismisses Takings Claims for Being Both Too Late and Too Early

A city ordinance that regulated the storage of recreational vehicles on residential property for aesthetic reasons was within the city’s constitutional police powers.
Continue Reading Regulation Of Recreational Vehicle Storage On Residential Property For Aesthetic Reasons Is Within A City’s Constitutional Police Powers

A prescriptive easement claimant does not have to show that claimant paid the taxes on a separately assessed railway easement that ran along the same land as the prescriptive easement because the two easements were not coextensive in use.
Continue Reading “Payment of Taxes May Be Required For A Prescriptive Easement, But Only If Defendant Can Prove The Easement Has Been Separately Assessed”

In the case of Coronado Cays Homeowners Association v. City of Coronado (2011) ___ Cal. App.4th ___, City of Coronado (“City”) appealed a trial court’s grant of declaratory relief to the Coronado Cays Homeowners Association (“Association”) regarding the question of whether the City or the association was required to maintain a berm.
Continue Reading Map Didn’t Constitute Admissible Parol Evidence; Berm Maintenance Requirement Falls on the City

By Cori Badgley

After a challenge based on the density bonus law and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a mixed-use affordable housing or senior affordable housing project (depending on what the developer chooses) in the City of Berkeley can move forward. In Wollmer v. City of Berkeley (March 30, 2011, Case No. A128121), the court held that the city properly applied density bonuses to the project and the categorical infill exemption under CEQA.Continue Reading The Normal Rules Don’t Apply When it Comes to Affordable Housing Projects