Land Use
Is California’s Anti-Sprawl Law Worth the Investment?
This past Friday, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) approved the very first Sustainable Communities Strategy in the state as part of its regional transportation plan. The strategy document is the critical planning piece mandated by California’s anti-sprawl law, SB 375. As I discussed over the summer, SANDAG’s plan meets its greenhouse gas reduction …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Plaintiffs Can Win More Takings Cases: A Proposal for California
I’ve never been particularly sympathetic to regulatory takings claims; like many on the left of center, I’m wary of expanding a constitutional doctrine with the potential to severely injure good land-use planning and reconstitute Lochnerism. That said, it’s hard to look at the reports of many takings cases without getting a strong sense that a lot …
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CONTINUE READINGTime to Put Nino Out to Pasture
Intellectual history often presents its students with shocks, most prominently: how is it that people seemed to reject an idea that in retrospect was brilliant or useful? Conversely, how is it that people believed that intellectual mediocrities were learned savants? Justice Scalia’s latest statement on Supreme Court doctrine suggests that he will be a …
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CONTINUE READINGDeploying Large-Scale Solar on Marginal Agricultural Land: A New Berkeley / UCLA White Paper
With California committed to achieving 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, some solar and wind developers are rushing to propose large-scale installations on California farmland. These sites can be attractive because they are close to existing transmission lines and substations and have good sun exposure. However, proposed projects on farmland tend …
CONTINUE READINGA dangerous bill (ctd.)
Recently the California state legislature passed a series of measures that provided for accelerated judicial review for challenges to the CEQA review process for certain projects. (CEQA is the California Environmental Quality Act. It requires review of the environmental impacts of many kinds of development projects in California.) The projects to be exempted were those …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Golden Anniversary of Death and Life
I’m happily addicted to audiobooks. Anyone from Los Angeles really should be, because getting the best ones means that a traffic jam isn’t a waste of time: it’s just an opportunity to read a few more chapters! And even those with short commutes could profitable make their way through lots of good books if they …
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CONTINUE READINGCan YouTube improve traffic congestion?
My old friend Zabe Bent, planner with the SF County Transportation Authority, hopes so. Check out the video she and SFCTA created to inspire public participation in the SF Transportation Plan process, which is setting goals and priorities for transportation funding in SF over the next 25 years. It’s a funny send-up of planning lingo …
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CONTINUE READINGCEQA “Reform” in California: 3-For-3
As expected, California Governor Jerry Brown this week signed into law SB 226, the third and final piece of a three-bill package of statutory amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that state legislators enacted last month. Brown last week approved the other two, more controversial CEQA bills, SB 292 and SB 900, as …
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CONTINUE READINGCan a Taco Stand Be a Historic Monument?
The owner of Henry’s Tacos, at the corner of Tujunga and Moorpark in the glorious San Fernando Valley, thinks it can: The third-generation owner of Henry’s Tacos has filed an application with the City’s Office of Historic Resources to have the taco stand declared a Historic-Cultural Monument. Janis Hood, granddaughter of founder Henry Comstock, hopes …
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CONTINUE READINGIs There Really No More Room For Forests?
If you have even a passing interest in things environmental, and you keep yourself relatively well-informed, then no doubt you saw Justin Gillis’ superb page one NYT story on Saturday, about the decline (and at times possible increase) of forests; how forests provide critical carbon sinks to mitigate climate change; and how that climate change …
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