By Joel Ellinwood, AICP

The Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, continues this year’s deluge of land use and environmental law decisions by revisiting the first principles of planning and zoning law in Neighbors in Support of Appropriate Land Use v. Tuolumne County, filed and certified for publication on December 7, 2007. The court held that a development agreement between the property owner and the County to authorize a use otherwise prohibited in the same zoning district throughout the County violates the uniformity requirement of Government Code section 65852 and is invalid.
Continue Reading If the Zoning Isn’t Uniform, the Court Won’t Salute

In the recent case City of Los Angeles v. County of Kern (August 10, 2007) 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62323, the United States District Court for the Central District of California held that an initiative ordinance in Kern County approved by the voters which had the effect of banning the land application of biosolids was unconstitutional.
Continue Reading The Sludge is Here to Stay: City of Los Angeles v. County of Kern

By Cori M. Badgley and William W. Abbott

In 2004, SB 1818 amended section 65915 of the Government Code, pertaining to the density bonus law. The purpose of SB 1818 was to encourage developers to build affordable housing by requiring local governments to provide incentives to do so. There was confusion in understanding the new provisions in Government Code section 65915 and the legislature clarified the density bonus law a year later with the enactment of SB 435. This year, the First Appellate District Court of Appeal heard the first case interpreting the amendments of SB 1818.
Continue Reading Density Bonus Law Update: An Overview of the Law and A Look at the First Case to Interpret the 2004 Amendments

By Cori Badgley and Kate Hart

“When is a project consistent with a general plan?” continues to be a question faced by local governments, developers, environmental advocates, and of course, the courts. A recent case out of Solano County, Friends of Lagoon Valley v. City of Vacaville (August 28, 2007) 2007 Cal.App.LEXIS 1424, illustrates the important role the drafters of the general plan play in establishing the consistency parameters for the projects that follow.
Continue Reading Flexible General Plan Leads to Flexible Consistency

By Kate J. Hart and Brian Hoffman

On June 7, 2007, the California Supreme Court addressed head on the issue of whether or not cities may use their planning and zoning powers to directly impact economic competition. The case is Adrian Hernandez v. City of Hanford (June 7, 2007) 2007 Cal.Lexis 5586. This case affirms the ability of cities to impact economic competition in a direct and intended manner because it allows just such an impact so long as the primary purpose of the zoning action is to achieve a valid public purpose and not simply to serve an impermissible anticompetitive private purpose.
Continue Reading Zoning, Business Competition and Public Purposes

By Cori Badgley and William W. Abbott

After the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, public entities shifted funding strategies to backfill for the loss of property tax revenue. Proposition 13, codified as article XIII A of the California Constitution, provided that state and local governments are prohibited from imposing special taxes unless the tax is approved by a “two-thirds vote of the qualified electors.” Article XIII A forced the courts to wrestle with the question of how to define special tax as compared to a regulatory fee. Early cases addressed section 4 of article XIII A, which concerned local governments. It was not until 1997 that the California Supreme Court had the opportunity to address the distinction between special taxes and regulatory fees in the context of state agencies. This article summarizes the evolution of the fine line between regulatory fees and special taxes.
Continue Reading Regulatory Fees After Proposition 13: An Update