News & Analysis as of

Urban Planning & Development Environmental Impact Report (EIR)

Miller Starr Regalia

Second District Rejects CEQA Challenges To LA City Planning Commission’s EIR Certification and Categorical Exemption Determination...

Miller Starr Regalia on

In an opinion filed on July 24, and later ordered published on August 19, 2024, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) affirmed the trial court’s judgment denying a writ petition challenging actions taken by the Los...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

CEQA News You Can Use - August 2024 - Volume 9, Issue 2

Welcome to “CEQA News You Can Use,” a quarterly production of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication provides quick, useful bites of CEQA news, which we hope can be a resource to...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Timing Remains Everything: Sixth District Holds CEQA Notice of Determination Filed Before County’s Final Project Approval Decision...

Miller Starr Regalia on

The Sixth District Court of Appeal filed on July 24, and later certified for publication on August 6, 2024, its opinion in Center for Biological Diversity et al. v. County of San Benito, et al. (2024) __ Cal.App.5th __.  The...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters August 2024 – CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

Alston & Bird on

City of Los Angeles - Increase to Planning Applications and Affordable Housing Linkage Fees - On July 1, 2024, the fee for planning and land use applications increased by 3.5% based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban...more

Jones Day

UK Supreme Court Quashes Planning Permission Due to a Failure to Consider Downstream (Scope 3) Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Jones Day on

The Situation: On June 20, 2024, the UK Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in R (on the application of Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group) (Appellant) v Surrey County Council and others (Respondents) [2024]...more

Perkins Coie

California Supreme Court Upholds EIR for UC Berkeley Housing Development

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The California Supreme Court held that under newly enacted Assembly Bill 1307, the environmental impact report prepared for UC Berkeley housing and longer-term development was not inadequate for failing to consider social...more

Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass

California Supreme Court Upholds UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan and People’s Park Housing Project Approvals

The California Supreme Court recently upheld the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) for the Long Range Development Plan (“LRDP”) for the University of California Berkeley (“UC Berkeley”) and a controversial housing project...more

Meyers Nave

CA Supreme Court Holds CEQA Does Not Cover Social Noise from Residential Projects, Clearing Way for UC Berkeley’s Housing Project...

Meyers Nave on

So-called “social noise”—i.e., noise created by human voices—is not an environmental impact required by the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) to be analyzed for residential projects, the California Supreme Court...more

Perkins Coie

Court Must Determine Revised EIR Is Adequate Before Discharging Writ Overturning Prior EIR

Perkins Coie on

An appellate court interpreted a writ that ordered an agency to vacate certification of an EIR in part and file a final return to the writ “upon certification of a revised EIR” to require an assessment of the adequacy of the...more

Allen Matkins

CEQA Reform on the Horizon?

Allen Matkins on

On May 8th, 2024, the Little Hoover Commission released its much-anticipated report, “CEQA: Targeted Reform for California’s Core Environmental Law” putting forth recommendations to improve the functioning of the California...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

CEQA News You Can Use, May 2024 - Volume 9, Issue 1

Welcome to “CEQA News You Can Use,” a quarterly production of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication provides quick, useful bites of CEQA news, which we hope can be a resource to...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Hilltop Group, Inc. v, County of San Diego: Throwing a Judicial Monkey Wrench into the Spin Cycle of Local Agency CEQA Laundering?

Miller Starr Regalia on

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has long required a full analysis of project's potential adverse effects on the environment. The environmental impact report (EIR)-known as the "heart of CEQA"-is intended to...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters March 2024 – CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

Alston & Bird on

City of Los Angeles - Proposed Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance - In 1999, the city council adopted the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) that enabled the conversion of commercial buildings constructed in the downtown area in...more

Perkins Coie

Court Overturns County’s Decision to Require an EIR For Lack of Substantial Evidence

Perkins Coie on

The County of San Diego planning staff found a project qualified for a CEQA exemption under Guideline 15183, which applies to projects consistent with a general plan for which an EIR had been prepared. On appeal, the Board...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

2023 CEQA Legislative Recap: Insignificant Effects, Housing Exemptions, and Streamlining

Several modest amendments to CEQA took effect on Jan. 1, 2024. Our CEQA News You Can Use team summarized a few of changes to keep in mind in the new year....more

Downey Brand LLP

Downey Brand Compilation of Published CEQA Cases in 2023

Downey Brand LLP on

2023 served up roughly the same number of published appellate CEQA cases as 2022 with a defense win percentage of over 80 percent, which has been the case in many, if not all, of the past ten years. A prominent theme of...more

Downey Brand LLP

Annual Legislative Update: Important Land Use Laws Taking Effect in 2024

Downey Brand LLP on

The 2023 legislative session culminated in Governor Newsom signing dozens of land use bills. This post discusses the most important. The Legislature continued its multifaceted approach to addressing the housing crisis, with...more

Downey Brand LLP

Court Upholds Master Plan EIR’s Climate Change Analysis that Used Sector and Region-Specific Data to Develop a Threshold of...

Downey Brand LLP on

In Tsakopoulos Investments v. County of Sacramento (2023) 95 Cal. App. 5th 280, the Third District Court of Appeal (“Court”) upheld the County of Sacramento’s (“County”) certification of the Mather South Community Master Plan...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters December 2023 - CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

Alston & Bird on

City of Los Angeles - The Processes and Procedures Ordinance Becomes Operative January 22, 2024 - The city council adopted the Processes and Procedures Ordinance amending the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) to...more

Downey Brand LLP

Sixth District Says City’s Specific Plan EIR Need Not Analyze Speculative Alternative Scenario Conjured by Project Opponents

Downey Brand LLP on

The Sixth District Court of Appeal, in Santa Rita Union School District v. City of Salinas (2023), 94 Cal.App.5th 298, reversed the lower court, finding that the City of Salinas’ (“City”) final programmatic environmental...more

Holland & Knight LLP

California's 2024 Housing Laws: What You Need to Know

Holland & Knight LLP on

The 2023 California Legislative session, like the last several, saw the enactment of a large number of significant new housing production laws. (See Holland & Knight's previous annual recaps of California Housing Laws in the...more

Allen Matkins

Critical State Housing Laws Approved by Governor Newsom

Allen Matkins on

Governor Newsom recently approved multiple state housing bills passed by the State Assembly and Senate. The following is a summary of a few of the key bills that are expected to benefit multi-family, mixed-income housing...more

Nossaman LLP

California Appellate Court Upholds CEQA Greenhouse Gas Emissions Methodology

Nossaman LLP on

A recent court decision provides guidance to lead agencies seeking to comply with CEQA requirements related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Tsakopoulos Investments, LLC v. County of Sacramento, the Third District Court...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

CEQA News You Can Use - August 2023 - Volume 8, Issue 2

Welcome to “CEQA News You Can Use,” a quarterly production of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication provides quick, useful bites of CEQA news, which we hope can be a resource to...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court Holds Proposed Ballot Measure Excluding Community Plan Area from Height Limit Is Not a “Later Activity” For...

In late June, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court decision in Save Our Access v. City of San Diego, providing clarity for determining when a “later activity” is beyond the scope of an existing...more

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