It seems like year-after-year, attempts are made to reform or repeal California’s rent control regulations, namely the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Civ. Code §§ 1954.50 et seq.) (Costa-Hawkins Act). 2024 has proven to be...more
4/24/2024
/ CA Supreme Court ,
California ,
Housing Market ,
Landlords ,
Leases ,
Legislative Agendas ,
New Legislation ,
New Rules ,
Rent ,
Rental Property ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Tenants
Undoubtedly, development impact fees (DIFs) can make or break the pro forma of any development project. Until this month, developers hoping to challenge the assessment of project-related DIFs were often limited in the causes...more
4/23/2024
/ Building Permits ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Construction Project ,
Fifth Amendment ,
George Sheetz v County of El Dorado ,
Impact Fees ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Development ,
SCOTUS ,
Supreme Court Justices ,
Takings Clause ,
Traffic Impact Assessments
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank, California is facing a jaw-dropping 3.5 million unit housing deficient for the current population. This despite several...more
Despite repeated attempts at reform by the Legislature, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) continues to be a minefield for those assigned with the herculean task of complying with the law’s myriad of directives....more
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
On June 13, 2023, the Second Appellate District affirmed the City of Pomona’s use of a statutory exemption for its Commercial Cannabis Overlay Permit Program under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines...more
7/13/2023
/ California ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
CEQA ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Local Ordinance ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
State and Local Government ,
Urban Planning & Development ,
Zoning Laws
Last week, in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, the Ninth Circuit ruled the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) preempts local bans on the installation of natural gas infrastructure in new...more
Last week the Office of the Attorney General demonstrated the State of California’s unwillingness to cede its enforcement of state housing laws even in the face of defiance from local governments. On April 10, in People of...more
As of January 31st, the deadline for many Bay Area cities and counties to adopt legally compliant Housing Elements now has passed, and many jurisdictions remain without certifications from the California Department of Housing...more
2/2/2023
/ California ,
City Planning Departments ,
Construction Project ,
Entitlements ,
Land Developers ,
Local Ordinance ,
New Legislation ,
New Rules ,
Property Owners ,
State and Local Government ,
Urban Planning & Development
In a historic move, on October 6, 2022, President Joe Biden announced a three-step program to bring broad changes to federal cannabis policy. As an initial step towards reform, President Biden will pardon all federal...more
10/7/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Cannabis Products ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Deregulation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Presidential Pardons ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Wrongful Conviction
Acting in one fell swoop, on September 18, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed 10 cannabis-related legislative bills into law. These bills, which touch on issues that run the gamut of the cannabis industry, are...more
9/21/2022
/ California ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Governor Newsom ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
New Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
For many in the cannabis industry, April 1, 2022 is seen as a day of reckoning following the July 2021 passage of Assembly Bill 141 and Senate Bill 160 (collectively, the Cannabis Trailer Bill)...more
4/12/2022
/ Agribusiness ,
California ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
CEQA ,
Compliance ,
Licensing Rules ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
In Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge et al. v. City of Newark et al., the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) found the California Environmental Quality Act did not require subsequent or supplemental...more
On September 16th, hot off the heels of surviving California’s latest recall effort, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation aimed at addressing the statewide housing crisis – a critical topic leading up to last week’s...more
In Alliance for Responsible Planning v. Taylor, the Third District Court of Appeal recently struck down a voter initiative requiring a developer to fund all cumulative traffic mitigation as a condition precedent to project...more
Effective February 1, 2021, the California Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom approved Senate Bill (“SB”) 91 – Eviction Protection and Relief Act in further response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In essence, SB 91...more
2/10/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Eviction ,
Extensions ,
Foreclosure ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Homeowners ,
Landlords ,
Moratorium ,
New Legislation ,
Property Owners ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Rental Assistance Programs ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Tenants
Late last week, in an effort to control the increase of COVID-19 cases and stabilize the overwhelming hospital systems, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new Regional Stay At Home Order (December Order) based on...more
On Friday, the United States House of Representatives voted to approve The Marijuana Opportunity and Expungement Act (MORE Act), which would decriminalize cannabis. This vote marks the first time that a chamber of Congress...more
While the results are yet to be certified, it is clear, a week after Election Day, that Californians have rejected both Proposition 15 – The California Schools and Local Communities Act of 2020 (“Prop. 15”) and Proposition 21...more
During the eleventh hour of the 2020 legislative session, the California Legislature approved 2 significant bills in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the potential to have far-reaching ramifications for mortgage...more
9/30/2020
/ Borrowers ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Documentation ,
Eviction ,
Financial Distress ,
Homeowners ,
Landlords ,
Local Ordinance ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Penalties ,
Rent ,
Rental Property ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Tenants
After a nearly two-year wait, in Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources v. County of Stanislaus (2020) __ Cal.5th ____ (POWER), the California Supreme Court unanimously rejected the County of Stanislaus’s (County)...more
In Granny Purps v. County of Santa Cruz, the Sixth District Court of Appeal green-lit a medical cannabis cultivator’s ability to pursue damages – to the tune of potentially $3.5M – from the County of Santa Cruz when it...more
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently published a final rule (Rule) revising the implementing regulations for the National Environmental Quality Act (42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq ) (NEPA). Touted as the...more
On April 23, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-54-20 (EO) which, in part, addresses an outstanding question related to the California Environmental Quality Act’s (CEQA) “public review”...more
In a continued effort to take aggressive steps to protect the health and welfare of its citizens from COVID-19, the City of San Diego (“City”) enacted a temporary moratorium on evictions to provide relief to residential and...more