Mobile Home Rent Control Upheld Against Takings Challenge
Photo credit: Sarah Schwartz The firm obtains a ruling by the Ninth Circuit overturning a multi-million dollar jury verdict against the City of Carson in a regulatory takings challenge to a mobile home rent control ordinance, preserving affordable homes. (Colony Cove Properties, LLC v. City of Carson, 888 F.3d 445 (9th Cir. 2018).)
Protecting Ag Land from Development
The firm successfully represented the Cleveland National Forest Foundation in challenging San Diego County’s approval of a residential subdivision on ranchland protected under the Williamson Act. The Court of Appeal held that such projects are permissible only where homes would support the land’s agricultural use.
SMW Victory in the Ninth Circuit
Photo Credit: Tim Evanson, Flickr, CC BY 2.0 The Court rejected a billboard developer’s challenge to Alameda County’s sign ordinance, and upheld a rare award of attorneys’ fees to a prevailing defendant, on the grounds the lawsuit was frivolous. Read the court’s opinion at https://www.smwlaw.com/files/Citizens_Free_Speech_v._County_of_Alameda.pdf
Ninth Circuit Provides Further Clarity on the Limits of Regulatory Takings
On April 23, 2018, in Colony Cove Properties, LLC v. City of Carson, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed the broad leeway local governments have to regulate the use of property without causing a “taking” under the under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The court reversed a nearly $8 million jury verdict […]
Tribal Participation Results in Revised Solar Project
When initially proposed, the Palen Solar Project would have involved scraping thousands of acres of the Mojave Desert to make a perfectly level site suitable for solar thermal technology. A later iteration would have involved 700-foot solar power towers, a technology known to harm birds, bats, and insects, including those of cultural significance. Throughout these […]
Selection of Asset Manager for Public Facility
The firm assisted the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) in the procurement for an asset manager to manage the Salesforce Transit Center operations, public spaces, and retail leasing in San Francisco.
Streamlining Agency Operations with Electronic Signatures
Does your agency require “wet-ink” signatures on contracts, resolutions, or permit applications? In California, use of electronic signatures has been valid since 2000. With public agencies increasingly conducting business electronically during the COVID-19 pandemic, more are accepting and using e-signatures for certain official documents. Read on for an overview of the laws surrounding electronic signatures and for […]
The Public Doctrine, Climate Change, and the Coast
A new report from Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions discusses the impact of sea level rise on the increasingly constrained California coast, and how the public trust doctrine can provide a framework for coastal adaptation through long-term planning and decision making. Authored by a working group of authorities on coastal land use and public […]
Stopping A Fire Trap at the Wildland-Urban Interface
Pressing claims under CEQA and the city’s own Code, the firm obtains an appellate victory in its challenge to the City of Brea’s approval of a residential subdivision in a fire-prone canyon abutting Chino Hills State Park. (Hills For Everyone v. OSLIC Holdings LLC (2017).)
SMW Defends Cap and Trade Auction
The firm represents the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council as intervenors in successfully defending the state’s auction of greenhouse gas emission allowances under AB 32’s cap and trade program. (California Chamber of Commerce v. State Air Resources Board, 10 Cal. App. 5th 604 (2017).)