New California Permit Streamlining Changes in Effect January 1, 2020

Senate Bill 330 (Skinner
2020) (the “Bill”) goes in effect at the start of the year. The Bill is
designed to mitigate the shortage of housing California is experiencing in
several ways.  One such way is streamlining the permitting process for
proposed housing development projects.  The Bill defines a “housing
development project” to mean any of the following: residential units ...Read More

CDFW Listing Decision for California Yellow-Legged Frog Announced

At its December 2019 meeting in Sacramento, the California Fish and Game Commission  took action on a number of issues affecting California’s natural resources. The following are just a few items of interest from the two-day meeting.

The Commission made a listing decision under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) regarding the foothill yellow-legged frog. Due ...Read More

‘The California price’: Why it costs so much to build a home in the Golden State

The sound of electric saws
slicing through plywood pierces the air in the Twelve Bridges neighborhood in
Lincoln, a suburb outside Sacramento where new single-family homes are rising.
Despite the progress, Mike Wyatt, like many housing developers in this state,
is frustrated.

Building these two-story tract
homes will take a few months, but getting to that point, he says, is an
exercise ...Read More

Blue States Sue Feds Over Trump Rollback of Obama Waters of the U.S. Rule

A coalition sued the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) on December 20, 2019 over the rollback of the Obama 2015 Waters of the U.S. (“WOTUS”) rule. The coalition included the states of New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, the commonwealths of Massachusetts and Virginia, Washington, D.C., ...Read More