A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco - San Francisco Office Market Shows Signs of Life (Wall Street Journal): Sales slowly materialize as some sellers accept lower prices,...more
In downtown San Francisco, office vacancy has skyrocketed as hybrid work has transformed the way in which employers and employees use office space. This, in turn, has decreased activity downtown, negatively impacting the...more
At the June 13, 2023 Board of Supervisors hearing, the “Commercial to Residential Adaptive Reuse and Downtown Economic Revitalization” legislation was introduced. The legislation would amend various Planning Code sections to...more
In response to Mayor London Breed’s recent Executive Directive, titled “Housing For All,” on May 4, 2023, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve a package of Planning...more
There has been a flurry of recent legislation to encourage the repurposing of underutilized office buildings, both on the state and local level. New legislation recently proposed in San Francisco would facilitate the...more
The court of appeal held that the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) does not apply to a one-unit single-family home project. Reznitskiy v. County of Marin, 79 Cal.App.5th 1016 (2022). ...more
The Second District Court of Appeal held that a Board of Supervisors decision on the appeal of a conditional use permit from the Planning Commission was untimely under the County Code and hence that the Planning Commission’s...more
A Court of Appeal held that the state’s density bonus law (Gov’t Code § 65915) does not require applicants to submit financial information to support requests for incentives or waivers and preempted a city ordinance that...more
Changes are coming to the Fairfax County Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission held a joint meeting Oct. 12, 2021, to discuss the SSPA process for...more
The Suffolk County legislature is currently considering a bill (I.R. 1478-2021) that would provide towns and villages with a greater opportunity to weigh in on certain zoning applications proposed in adjacent municipalities...more
On Monday, May 3, 2021, the New York City Planning Commission (CPC) “referred” the Department of City Planning’s (DCP) proposed zoning text that would mandate a Special Permit for all new hotels in New York City, beginning...more
Multiple applications for a development project are not required where the first permit denial makes clear that no development of the property would be allowed under any circumstance. Felkay v. City of Santa Barbara, No....more
Local agencies routinely require project applicants to agree to indemnification on application forms or as conditions of approval. These agreements or conditions of approval typically include language requiring an applicant...more
Below are summaries of the key California and Ninth Circuit land use and development cases decided in 2020. Each case name is linked to our more extensive discussion of the case on the Land Use & Development Law Report. 1....more
As a “home rule” state, New York’s zoning and other land use decisions are typically made at the village, town, or city level. However, Section 239-m of the General Municipal Law (GML) requires a referral to, and a...more
The Ballard Spahr Zoning and Land Use Team is continuing to monitor all aspects of the Philadelphia land use approval process during the COVID-19 emergency, including the issuance of zoning and building permits, regulation of...more
California Appellate Court Looks to Local Ordinance’s Intention for Determination - In determining what makes a “super majority” of a governing body, a California appellate court said the entire number of seats on the body...more
On March 3, San Francisco voters will consider Proposition E (“San Francisco Balanced Development Act”), which links the City’s “Proposition M” office allocation scheme, originally approved by voters in 1986, to affordable...more
On January 1, 2020, several housing-related bills recently signed into law by the Governor take effect. We will explain the upcoming changes in housing law through a series of updates. Our first update provided information...more
Costs for many non-residential developments in San Francisco are poised to increase. On September 19, 2019, the Planning Commission approved a proposed ordinance that would more than double the City-wide Jobs Housing Linkage...more
Planning and zoning decisions by a non-legislative body or public official authorized under a municipal code are subject to the 90-day statute of limitations of Government Code section 65009(c)(1), the court of appeal ruled...more
After over seven years of planning and public outreach, as of January 7, 2019, the Central SoMa Plan and its implementing legislation are finally effective. The City’s analysis concludes that the Plan area has development...more
Staff of the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC or Commission) will introduce for discussion at the February 14, 2018 Commission meeting proposed revisions to the Commission’s application of the adjacency principle,...more
Since the presidential election last year, there has been lots of discussion about the need to make regulatory reviews of infrastructure projects more modern and efficient. President Trump has called for federal regulatory...more