Civil Procedure › Zoning, Planning & Land Use › Commercial Real Estate

Temporary Regulatory Takings Do Exist in California!

Given the maze of procedural and substantive hurdles involved, property owners rarely succeed with regulatory takings claims. Even when owners do win, it is yet more uncommon for courts to award damages, instead allowing the...more

The EPA Reaches Back in Time: Appeals Court Allows Government to Veto 404 Permits Issued Years Earlier

Both public and private landowners have to obtain Section 404 discharge permits for the discharge of dredged materials from navigable waters. The Army Corps of Engineers is the permitting authority for the Section 404...more

Earth Matters - April 2013: Recent Decision Highlights Distinction Between Compliance With Multiple Environmental Programs

A recent New York Court of Appeals decision, Bronx Committee for Toxic Free Schools v. New York City School Construction Authority, 20 N.Y.3d 148 (2012), highlighted the interplay between the compliance process for the State...more

City May Not Use “Anti-SLAPP” Motion to Dismiss Claim That City Employee Falsely Told Potential Tenants That Property Owner Was...

Property owners often bristle at statements that local government staff make to prospective tenants or purchasers of their property, concerned that they will be scared away by overly harsh or inaccurate speech. When those...more

Late Filing Of Appeal Of Environmental Impact Report And Project Approval Is Not Excused Under Code Of Civil Procedure Section 473

An organization sought to challenge a county’s project approval and certification of an Environmental Impact Report for a 155,000-square-foot building, but filed the case three days late. The trial court dismissed the case. ...more

Court Addresses California's Changed Eminent Domain Prejudgment Possession Rules

Following the 2005 Kelo decision, California enacted a number of modest eminent domain reforms. For eminent domain attorneys, the most significant changes arguably came in the procedures for obtaining prejudgment possession....more

CEQA Reform Update

This year has seen more momentum for CEQA reform than in many previous years. California’s economy has placed a spotlight on the burdens that environmental regulations and litigation, particularly CEQA litigation, impose on...more

Supreme Court Will Review CEQA Decision From Fifth District In Wal-Mart Citizen Initiative Case

After receiving three separate petitions for review, including petitions from real parties Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the City of Sonora, the California Supreme Court voted unanimously on February 13, 2013 to grant review of...more

NH Supreme Court Reverses Recent Decision Regarding Restrictions On Excavation Permitting

In a November 16, 2012 alert, we discussed the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s November 9, 2012 decision in Town of Carroll v. Rines. That decision concluded that state law preempts certain municipal restrictions on excavation...more

Are Courts Actively Limiting CEQA’s Scope In The Absence Of Meaningful Legislative Reform?*

While no California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) reform was achieved by the California Legislature in its last session, Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg has indicated in a recently-issued statement that it...more

No Need To Address Adjacent Project In EIR Because Projects Are Separate, Have Different Proponents, And Serve Different Purposes

A city certified an environmental impact report (“EIR”) for development of a park. A conservancy group claimed the city wrongly defined the project to exclude a residential and commercial development project that was pending...more

EPA Will Continue to Apply the "Functional Interdependence" Test for Air Quality Source Determinations Outside of the Sixth...

Introduction - On December 21, 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a new guidance memorandum (the “Page Memorandum”) on single source determinations for the oil and gas industry under the Clean...more

Fourth District Applies CEQA’s “Murky” Piecemealing Tests To Reject “Project Definition” Challenge To Park Development in Banning...

Harmonizing CEQA’s rules and principles is, to say the least, not always easy, and is often quite challenging. The relevant concepts are often in tension, or are so malleable that they can be argued or construed to conflict....more

Virginia Supreme Court Opinion Affecting Local Government Law, January 10, 2013

Today, the Virginia Supreme Court issued one opinion affecting Virginia local government law. Congratulations to the County of Albemarle and the City of Charlottesville! The Local Government Attorneys of Virginia supplied an...more

Zoning Director Approval Triggers Section 65009 Statute of Limitations

A letter of approval finding a project consistent with a City’s Master Development Plan triggers the running of the 90-day statute of limitations under Government Code subsection 65009(c)(1)(E), the Third District Court of...more

NH Supreme Court Rules That State Law Preempts Municipal Restrictions on Excavation Permitting

On November 9, 2012, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued its decision in Town of Carroll v. Rines (“Rines”), invalidating certain municipal regulations that limited excavations....more

How Far Can Government Go When it Comes to Permit Conditions?

The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case brought by a property owner who challenged permit conditions imposed by the St. Johns River Water Management District for permits to develop a portion of the...more

November 1, 2012, Virginia Supreme Court Opinions Affecting Local Government Law

Today, the Virginia Supreme Court issued opinions affecting Virginia local government law, and evidently, the City of Virginia Beach and the law of beach replenishment: 112193 3232 Page Ave. Condo. Ass’n v. City of...more

EIR Satisfies CEQA Despite Minor Deficiencies and Inaccuracies Where Environmental Review Process Not Prejudiced, Third District...

A unanimous Third District panel upheld SiskiyouCounty’s EIR for Roseburg Forest Products Co.’s (Roseburg) electricity cogeneration project involving expansion of its existing wood veneer manufacturing facility. (Mount Shasta...more

Further Confirmation Notice of Exemption Filed Before Project Approval is Void

Coalition for Clean Air v. City of Visalia (Oct. 4, 2012, No. F062983M)- The partially published opinion in Coalition for Clean Air v. City of Visalia brightened the line regarding when a California Environmental Quality...more

“CEQA’s Unusual Circumstances Exception To Small Structures Categorical Exemption Is Applied By Third District To Water Supply MOU...

As the regulated community eagerly awaits completion of briefing at the Supreme Court in the Berkeley Hillside Preservation case, the Courts of Appeal continue to decide CEQA categorical exemption cases – as is their...more

Determining an Occurrence in Environmental Insurance Cases

Like a comet which drags a long trail in its wake, large CERCLA cases in federal court often are accompanied by related insurance coverage cases in state court. That is true with the Lower Fox River Superfund Site in...more

Prematurely Filed Notice Of Exemption Does Not Trigger 35-Day Limitations Period In CEQA Actions

A court of appeal recently concluded that a notice of exemption filed before a project is actually approved is invalid and does not trigger the 35-day limitations period in which to bring a California Environmental Quality...more

Coalition for Clean Air: Filing an NOE Before Project Approval Does Not Trigger CEQA's 35-Day Statute of Limitations

On September 14, 2012, the Fifth District Court of Appeal decided in Coalition for Clean Air v. City of Visalia that a Notice of Exemption (NOE) filed before the final approval of a proposed project is invalid and does not...more

Susquehanna Bank v. United States (In re: Restivo Auto Body, Inc.)

Order granting summary judgment

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gordon entered an order granting summary judgment in favor of Susquehanna Bank, and against the IRS, declaring the bank has lien priority and thus may claim the fund created by the sale of the...more