Land Use
Is the Golden State Warriors’ Proposed Basketball Arena a Proper Public Trust Use?
The Bay Area’s NBA franchise, the Golden State Warriors, is collaborating with San Francisco city officials to develop a new, state-of-the-art basketball arena on a site that literally sits atop San Francisco Bay. Few would argue that the region’s basketball team–a perennial second-division NBA franchise until it surged into contention last season–needs a new arena. …
CONTINUE READINGCelebrity Lobbying as an Impediment to Increasing Center City Density
The NY Post reports that “Top Chef” Padma Lakshmi opposes NYU’s plan to “densify” The Village. I have already reported that Matthew Broderick opposes the plan. Permit me to quote the authoritative NY Post: “The famed cookbook author and onetime Indian supermodel wore a white summer dress as she slipped into one the last …
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CONTINUE READINGSierra Club Entitled to County’s GIS Database Under California Public Records Act, Says California Supreme Court
Back in the day, when I toiled in the California Attorney General’s Office, I served a stint supervising the unit of that Office that oversees litigation involving California’s “little Freedom-of-Information Act,” officially known as the California Public Records Act (PRA). My standing advice to my attorney colleagues was never to allow a case to reach the …
CONTINUE READINGKoontz and Exactions: Don’t Worry, Be Happy
As Rick pointed out the other day, with Koontz v. St. John’s River Water Mgmt. Dist., the Supremes finished their Takings trifecta for this term, with unsurprisingly the plaintiff winning in all three cases. Koontz raised two issues: 1) do Nollan and Dolan apply when the government simply denies a permit, as opposed to attaching …
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CONTINUE READINGSupreme Court Rules for Property Owner in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District
The U.S. Supreme Court today decided Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. But unlike the previous two, unanimous Takings Clause rulings issued this Term by the justices in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States and Horne v. Department of Agriculture, the decision in Koontz reflected a sharply divided Court, in a …
CONTINUE READINGNot With a Bang, But With a Whimper…
As the current U.S. Supreme Court term winds down–the justices’ final opinions are due next week–attention begins to turn to the Court’s next session, scheduled to begin in October 2013. Until this week, the justices had one environmental law case on their docket for next year: U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council, No. 12-625. …
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CONTINUE READINGA New “Study” on Forest Certification: SFI’s Latest Attempt to Fool Consumers?
I’ve posted before on the competing systems of forest certification, in particular the fight between the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), which is really the gold standard, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), an industry-driven effort that has substantially weaker standards and many have accused of greenwashing. SFI has improved its standards in recent years, but …
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CONTINUE READINGWhich City Has the Best Parks? Trust for Public Lands Releases Annual ParkScore Ranking.
The Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently released its annual ParkScore index, which ranks the park systems of the fifty largest U.S. cities. As with all scorecards, the methodology is imperfect and the metrics are somewhat crude; but seeing how U.S. cities compare across uniform parameters is a good starting point for a larger conversation …
CONTINUE READINGThe Emergence of Food Law
As with most holidays, Memorial Day is associated with a traditional food component — in this case, picnics. So this seems like a good occasion to talk about the emerging legal field of food law. According to the Food and Drug Law Institute, about sixty law schools have courses on Food and Drug Law, a …
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CONTINUE READINGNew York Nasty versus Los Angeles Nice?
Tomorrow, Los Angeles voters go to the polls to elect a new Mayor. (At least a few of them, anyway: current estimates predict only 25% turnout, about which more later). In September, New Yorkers will do the same. And depending upon the way things turn out, political and cultural reporters could have a field day. …
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