Ryan Zinke, secretary of the Interior Department, has been a key figure in the Trump administration’s push to roll back burdensome environmental regulations and ramp up domestic energy production. Mr. Zinke is facing increased scrutiny based on allegations that he abused travel spending by paying for his wife to travel with him, and maintained close […]
On May 29, a federal judge in California dismissed an environmental group’s lawsuit accusing the U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, of improperly approving a forest-thinning project. The group argued that the project would imperil gray wolves and northern spotted owls; the former is endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, while […]
February 26, 2018 | Category:
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Land Use LawProposed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1905 by Assemblyman Tim Grayson aims to make it harder for lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) to stop construction of roads and public transit. This legislation is specifically aimed at the road or transit projects that are included in state-approved regional growth plans. These projects have already […]
February 4, 2018 | Category:
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Water | Tags:
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Land Use Law,
lawsuit,
Water,
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Waters Of The U.S.On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit ruled that wastewater injections whose pollutions reach navigable U.S. waters via groundwater are subject to the Clean Water Act (“CWA”). Experts say this decision could drastically expand the scope of CWA liability and includes activities ranging from coal ash and pipeline spills to agricultural runoff. In coming to this decision, […]
January 16, 2018 | Category:
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NEPA,
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lawsuitOn Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit rejected environmentalists’ appeal to overturn a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) policy that allows the taking of one owl species to help recover another. Friends of Animals initially sued the USFWS over a 2014 plan to kill thousands of barred owls (on the left in […]
January 15, 2018 | Category:
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Lawsuit,
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California,
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lawsuitIn an unpublished opinion filed January 4, 2018, the Fifth District Court of Appeal rejected challenges to a general plan update prepared by the City of Visalia. Plaintiffs in the case argued that the EIR prepared by the City failed to adequately address urban decay impacts. In particular, plaintiffs argued that the 40,000 square foot […]
January 9, 2018 | Category:
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lawsuit Last week, California River Watch sued a group of vineyard developers for allegedly violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA), arguing that the group engaged in agricultural practices that harm the protected California Tiger Salamander (CTS). In 2014, a group of developers filed for and received permits to convert 9.8 acres of their property into […]
January 8, 2018 | Category:
Air Quality,
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Greenhouse Gas,
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lawsuitIn a case certified for partial publication, the Second District Court of Appeal addressed the Public Resources Code section 21168.9 mandate that a court’s order overturning the CEQA decision of a public agency shall be limited to the scope necessary to bring the agency’s decision into compliance with CEQA. The case, Center for Biological Diversity […]
December 14, 2017 | Category:
California,
CEQA,
Land Use,
News | Tags:
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california land use,
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Housing,
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Land Use LawIn its latest update to the Housing Opportunity Index (“Index”), the National Association of Home Builders identified Los Angeles to be the most expensive housing market in the nation, overtaking San Francisco, who had held the dubious number ranking for nearly five years. According to the NAHB, just 9% of the homes sold in Los […]
This week, President Trump signed two proclamations, which reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah by 2 million acres and is now the largest rollback of federal land protection in U.S. history. Using the Antiquities Act, Trump formally downsized the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument to about half its size (from 1.9 million acres to […]
