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There is a lot of talk these days about “license to operate” for data centers, meaning management of the relationships with stakeholders and broader communities concerning both the benefits and adverse consequences of...more
Parties intervening in a CEQA case and actively litigating to defend the agency’s challenged decision in order to protect a direct and immediate interest are subject to being held jointly and severally liable for a successful...more
Los Angeles County is preparing to adopt a Revised Oil Well Ordinance to permanently phase out oil production across all unincorporated areas of the County and set a new course for development and future use of oilfield...more
On April 21, 2026, the California Attorney General (AG) filed a lawsuit against the City of Poway (City or Poway) alleging violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) after the discovery of ancestral human...more
On the heels of a snow season that alarmed water managers across the Colorado River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation is taking action to keep levels stable in Lake Powell....more
On April 8, 2026, the California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) released draft guidance for the Assembly Bill 130 Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program (the Program) for public...more
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 for...more
On September 24, 2025, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition (the Petition) to the California Fish and Game Commission (the Commission) to list the western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii) as threatened...more
In Bair v. California Department of Transportation, ___ Cal. App. 5th ___, 2026 WL 835777 (Mar. 26, 2026), the First District Court of Appeal held that a losing party in writ of mandate proceedings may not resuscitate a CEQA...more
In an important published opinion filed March 26, 2026, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 2) affirmed a trial court’s judgment denying the third CEQA writ petition filed over the last fifteen years challenging...more
On April 6, 2026, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in Sunflower Alliance v. California Department of Conservation (Case No. S287414). The case addresses two key California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)...more
As interest in artificial intelligence (AI) continues to increase, the California legislature has set its sights on the data center and renewable energy projects powering AI development, introducing a series of bills...more
The “catalyst theory” of California law governing attorney’s fees sometimes allows a plaintiff to obtain fees even in the absence of a favorable judgment, if the plaintiff can show that the lawsuit was the catalyst for a...more
Land Use Matters provides information and insights into new CEQA and other land use appellate decisions and legal and regulatory developments, primarily at the Los Angeles City and County levels, affecting land use matters....more
A recent decision by the Third District Court of Appeal confirms that an EIR's water supply assessment need only provide decisionmakers with sufficient information to evaluate the pros and cons of supplying a project's water...more
In a lengthy published opinion filed March 5, 2026, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 6) affirmed the trial court’s judgment adopting a “physical solution,” to be implemented by a watermaster, in a multiparty,...more
On January 14, 2026, a California Court of Appeal upheld the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) certified by the City of American Canyon (American Canyon) and the accompanying water supply assessment (WSA) in City of Vallejo...more
The U.S. Senate is advancing a sweeping housing package, which includes legislative efforts around affordability and housing production with a federal objective to ban institutional investment in single-family homes....more
In a published opinion filed March 4, 2026, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s post-judgment order denying losing CEQA plaintiffs’ motion for attorneys’ fees brought pursuant to Code of Civil...more
In City of Vallejo v. City of American Canyon (Case No. C102070), the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgment rejecting a neighbor city’s CEQA challenge to the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”)...more
In Krovoza v. City of Davis (2025) 117 Cal.App.5th 623, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of a writ petition challenging the City of Davis’s use of categorical exemptions under the...more
In a partially published opinion filed on February 2, 2026, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 3) addressed a “weighty issue . . . affecting the CEQA responsibilities of local governments throughout the state” in...more
A catch-all provision in the County’s encroachment permit checklist requiring “[o]ther information as may be required” violated the Permit Streamlining Act because it failed to specify required information with sufficient...more