Miller Starr Regalia has been at the forefront of recent developments in cutting edge fields such as air quality and climate change-related laws, and its attorneys are established experts in environmental impact review of projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Miller Starr Regalia’s first blog, CEQA Developments, was created to highlight the firm’s expertise in the area of CEQA law.
Miller Starr Regalia’s Land Use Practice Group has broad and deep experince obtaining and defending approvals required to successfully develop real property throughout California. The firm’s Land Use Developments blog was created to provide practical information, judicial, legislative, and regulatory updates, tips, and guidelines on cutting edge issues to those in the land use industry, including property owners, developers, public agencies, and technical consultants.
As we draw near the close of another year, a number of recent CEQA developments bear noting.
New SB 35 Implementing Regulations
Senate Bill 35, more colloquially known as “SB 35,” was signed into law by Governor Brown on September 29, 2017. While somewhat byzantine in its details, the law essentially allows qualifying development projects ...
California State Senator Scott Wiener is taking another whack at seriously addressing the state’s housing supply crisis with a bill that would create new state zoning requirements for high-density residential development near certain high-quality public transit. And this time the bill would apply to certain communities that are considered to be “job-rich” by virtue of ...
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II, ll. 47-48.
In a partially published 40-page opinion filed on November 26, 2018, the Sixth District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s post-judgment order determining ...
On September 26, 2018, the First District Court of Appeal partially published Atwell v. City of Rohnert Park, __ Cal.App.5th __ (2018) (Case Nos. A151896, A153011), a decision originally filed on September 18, 2018, addressing important procedural defenses in connection with the approval and subsequent re-approval of a Wal-Mart expansion project.
In a lawsuit ...
In an opinion filed October 19, and later ordered published on November 15, 2018, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment upholding Plumas County’s First comprehensive update of its 1984 general plan, and rejecting arguments that the update violated the California Timberland Productivity Act of 1982 (the “Timberland Act” or “Act”) and that ...