Land Use

The High Speed Rail Sacramento Smack-Down

California has been going about planning high speed rail all wrong, and Sacramento appears to be taking notice. Yesterday, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released a report recommending major changes in the way California implements high speed rail. In addition to a complete reorganization of the governing structure of the High Speed Rail Authority, …

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Parking, Infill, and Affordable Housing

The Infill Builders’ parking bill that I blogged about this morning just passed unanimously out of the Assembly Local Government committee this afternoon, overcoming perhaps its biggest hurdle to ultimate passage. Although one would expect local governments to oppose a state bill that limits their ability to demand excessive parking for transit-oriented development, opposition to …

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Infill Builders at the State Capitol

Part of my work with UC Berkeley and UCLA involves gathering business leaders to discuss opportunities presented by climate change policies.  In the case of real estate development, the common refrain from sustainable developers seems to be to tell government to get out of their way and let them build more walkable, mixed-use communities around …

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Will Bombay Choke the Queen’s Necklace?

Marine Drive in Bombay, better known as the Queen’s Necklace (pictured), is one of the most beautiful waterfronts in the world.  That’s why it is so depressing to learn that the Maharahstra state government seems to want to destroy it.  Per DNA India, the state’s chief minister,  Prithviraj Chavan, is meeting with Union Environment Minister Jairam …

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Video and print materials online from our conference Local Agencies on the Cutting Edge: Emerging Challenges to Local Land Use Authority

On February 11, UCLA Law hosted a symposium, Local Agencies on the Cutting Edge: Emerging Challenges to Local Land Use Authority.  This daylong conference addressed important new developments in local land-use law. We now have a webpage devoted to the symposium, including  links to video recordings of all the day’s sessions, as well as written materials …

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That’s “Chief Justice Bitch”

The ongoing Wisconsin saga of public sector union rights has, predictably, involved the state’s Supreme Court.  But in a much more personal way than one would think at first: The April 5th state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where incumbent Justice David Prosser is seeking re-election, is now being shaken up by news about the …

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The Worst Supreme Court Environmental Decision?

Recently appearing in my in-box is Pepperdine Law School’s latest law porn, a glossy brochure about its upcoming symposium, “Supreme Mistakes: Exploring the Most Maligned Decisions in Supreme Court History.”  Dan will speak, but unless he decides to talk about it, environmental law doesn’t figure to get on the agenda: none of the other speakers has particular …

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What are the Top 10 Natural Resources Stories?

Lots of folks in legal academia are familiar with Foundation Press’ popular Law Stories series; around here on Legal Planet, we are particularly familiar with Environmental Law Stories (pictured right), edited by Richard Lazarus and Oliver Houck, to which Dan and Holly contributed a chapter. It’s a very useful book, and I’m a fan.  But …

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Saving Redevelopment In California

As Rick chronicled, California Governor Jerry Brown has pushed for the elimination of redevelopment agencies to help close the state’s budget gap. While Rick alluded to the mismanagement problems that plague some redevelopment agencies, most advocates for infill development view redevelopment as critical for revitalizing neighborhoods and creating more walkable, transit-friendly communities. Without the upfront …

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California’s Delta Stewardship Council Gets Down to Business

Today California’s Delta Stewardship Council begins its deliberations on a Delta Plan that promises to be a big part of the answer to one of that state’s most pressing environmental questions: can California’s Delta be saved? Creation of the Delta Stewardship Council was a key element of landmark 2009 California legislation designed to address the …

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