A court upheld an ordinance that restricted development standards in designated overlay zones to protect wildlife corridors, finding that it did not establish a “use” that would be subject to certain requirements of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA). The court also upheld the County’s reliance on CEQA exemptions for the protection of a
California Land Use & Development Law Report
Legal Commentary on Planning and Development
Latest from California Land Use & Development Law Report - Page 2
County’s Claimed Failure to Comply with CEQA Was Not a Defense to Enforcement of Encroachment Laws
By Marie Cooper
Property owners who acted illegally by blocking parking on a public street fronting their houses were not entitled to use the County’s alleged noncompliance with CEQA as a defense to actions enforcing encroachment laws. Anderson v. County of Santa Barbara, 94 Cal.App.5th 554 (2023).
Property owners in the Montecito area of Santa Barbara County…
Compensatory Mitigation Infeasible for Loss of Historic Building
The Court of Appeal upheld the City’s determination that compensatory mitigation for the loss of a historic building in the form of funding of other historic preservation was not feasible because there were no other buildings in the downtown areas with the same architectural style, period of significance, and purpose. Preservation Action Council of San…
Bond Properly Required for Challenge to Affordable Housing
By Kaela Shiigi
A local organization appealed the denial of its challenge to the approval of an affordable housing project and disputed the trial court’s order requiring it to post a bond. The Court of Appeal rejected plaintiff’s contentions on the merits and held that the plaintiff was properly required to post a bond because it was delaying…
Single Home Not Subject to the Housing Accountability Act
The court of appeal held that the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) does not apply to a one-unit single-family home project. Reznitskiy v. County of Marin, 79 Cal.App.5th 1016 (2022).
Plaintiff applied to the Marin County Planning Commission to build a 4,000-square-foot single-family home on a plot of land in San Anselmo. The Commission denied the…
Court Upholds Equitable Easement Between Neighbors in Property Line Dispute
The court reversed a decision to grant an implied easement between two homeowners but upheld granting an equitable easement. Romero v. Shih, 78 Cal. App. 5th 326 (2022).
The two parcels in question were owned originally by the Cutlers, who initiated a boundary line adjustment in 1985 and built a fence along the new property…
CEQA Challenge to Campus Town Project in Monterey County Was Untimely
The Court of Appeal held that a writ petition asserting potential CEQA violations concerning the Campus Town project, a significant development project in Monterey County, was untimely because it was filed after the fixed end date of the COVID 19-related Emergency Rule 9(b) tolling period established by the Judicial Council. Committee for Sound Water v.…
After 27 Years, Litigation Over the Monterey Agreement Comes to an End
Over a quarter century of CEQA litigation over the validity of an agreement between the Department of Water Resources and State Water Project contractors finally came to an end with the court of appeal’s decision in Central Delta Water Agency v. Department of Water Resources, 69 Cal. App. 5th 170 (2021), and the California Supreme Court’s…
Charter Amendment Regarding Lease Revenue Bonds Did Not Require Voter Approval
The California Court of Appeal held that 2016 amendments to the San Diego City Charter did not require the City to obtain voter approval prior to entering into a lease revenue bond transaction with the Public Facilities Financing Authority of the City of San Diego. San Diegans for Open Government v. Public Facilities Financing Authority…
Another San Francisco Ordinance Falls To The Ellis Act
By Perkins Coie
Once again, the City and County of San Francisco has been found to have exceeded the limits of its authority under the Ellis Act in its efforts to deter conversion of residential rental units. Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute v. City and County of San Francisco, 22 Cal. App. 5th 77 (2018).
The…