After a three-judge panel ruled that cities do not have the authority to ban the installation of natural gas equipment in newly constructed buildings, Berkeley is now asking for a do-over. Berkeley City Attorney Farimah Faiz Brown has filed a petition requesting an “en banc” rehearing with 11 new judges, arguing that the appeals court’s April 17 opinion was fundamentally flawed, erroneously broad, and “in every way extraordinary.” If it’s allowed to stand, she said, the previous ruling could invalidate a host of other state and local efforts to craft safety regulations on essential matters such as food, fire safety, and water quality.
La Jolla preservationists turned out at the San Diego Planning Commission meeting June 1 to plead for the protection of historically designated properties in the face of development. The Planning Commission, which did not make a decision at the meeting, is tasked with reviewing the city’s Housing Action Package 2.0, which includes regulations to implement Senate Bill 10, which would enable cities to zone areas close to job centers, public transit, and existing urbanized areas to allow up to 10 units on a property without having to go through the California Environmental Quality Act review process.
Adopted in 1999, the adaptive reuse ordinance is credited with the ushering in the explosive growth of Downtown Los Angeles’ residential community by enabling the conversion of vacant office buildings into housing. Now, as the city faces a state mandate to enact new zoning rules to permit at least 255,000 additional homes, it could be going citywide. Planning staff held three webinars from June 6 through June 8, offering background information on the draft ordinance and opportunities to provide feedback.
A California Department of Fish and Wildlife plan to introduce tidal flows into the Ballona Creek wetlands has come to a halt after a judge ruled recently that the agency’s environmental impact report on the project failed to adequately account for flood risks. In a May 17 decision, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ordered the agency to set aside its certification of the final EIR for the project because it “failed to disclose and analyze flood control design parameters” associated with proposed levees and other infrastructure.
Californians looking to buy a house face some of the country’s most expensive real estate prices and wildfires that threaten scores of housing tracts. Now there’s another obstacle: finding an insurer willing to cover their dream home. State Farm General Insurance Co. said it’s no longer accepting new applications for property and casualty coverage in California last week, a year after Allstate Corp. also paused new policies, worsening what FAIR Plan, a state-mandated insurance pool, called a “looming insurance unavailability crisis.”
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