Updates and Articles
Limits on Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate
In 2018, on behalf of As You Sow, the firm settles its Proposition 65 case against the leading chocolate companies over lead and cadmium in chocolate products. The settlement establishes limits on the amount of lead and cadmium in these products and convened an expert panel to identify methods for reducing these levels.
Read MoreNatural Gas Power Plant Denied
The firm represents the City of Oxnard in 2018 before the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission in its successful opposition to the location of a natural gas-fired power plant on the beach in Oxnard. This effort sets the stage for California's adoption of energy storage and other preferred resources as a viable alternative to gas-fired generation.
Read MoreNo Vested Right to Quarry Expansion
The firm succeeds in the court of appeal in a case challenging Mendocino County's approval of a large expansion of a quarry. (Keep the Code v. Mendocino County (2018).) The court agreed with the firm's position that quarry activities occurring almost 50 years earlier did not establish a vested right to expand the mine.
Read MoreConservationists Set Sights on Preserving a Petaluma Historic Ranch, Enhancing a Regional Park
Working closely with the Earth Island Institute's Kelly Creek Protection Project, in 2018 the firm negotiates an innovative purchase and sale agreement with a property owner that will limit development on an environmentally and historically sensitive parcel of land and extend Sonoma County's Helen Putnam Regional Park.
Read MoreSMW Defeats New Railyard Next to Disadvantaged Long Beach Community
The City of Long Beach, represented by the firm and joined by five other petitioner groups and the Attorney General, prevails in a CEQA challenge to the controversial “SCIG” railyard, whose air pollution threatened the health of nearby residents and schoolchildren. The court of appeal orders the approval rescinded. (City of Long Beach v. City of Los Angeles, 19 Cal.App.5th 465 (2018).)
Read MoreGetting Infrastructure Right for People and Marine Life
The California Public Utilities Commission approves a desalination plant required to provide water to the Monterey Peninsula without overdrawing the Carmel River. Project proponents wanted an oversized plant, discharging excessive, harmful brine into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. If the plant is ever built, the firm's work will ensure the plant is a more reasonable size, reflecting actual demand on...
Read MoreHalting Sprawl on the Suburban Fringe
The firm's lawsuit stops the City of Highland's Harmony Specific Plan, which would have scattered development across a floodplain and required a bridge over — and in — a sensitive creek at the edge of the San Bernardino Mountains. (Greenspot Residents Association v. City of Highland (2018).)
Read MoreSMW Drafts and Defends Ballot Measure to Protect San Jose’s General Plan
In 2018, on behalf of the City of San Jose, the firm drafts and defends a first-of-its kind charter amendment to prevent a developer-sponsored initiative from gutting the City's General Plan.
Read MoreLand Exchange Agreement Allows Pier 70 Project to Move Forward
Representing the Port of San Francisco, SMW in 2018 successfully negotiates an agreement with the state for a trust land exchange to allow for the rehabilitation of historic industrial buildings and the development of a new urban neighborhood on the city's waterfront. The firm drafted the state legislation authorizing the exchange (AB 418).
Read MoreAffordable Housing Project Opens at Candlestick Point
Residents move into 306 units of affordable housing at the Alice Griffith Community at Candlestick Point, on land the Firm helps acquire and entitle, including the prosecution of quiet title litigation that successfully defends the public ownership of the site. (Successor Agency v. All Persons (2017).)
Read MoreFirearm Storage Ordinance Approved
The firm advises the City of Saratoga in 2018 in adopting an ordinance regulating the storage of firearms in the home.
Read MoreVoters approve SMW-drafted Short Term Rental Initiative
In 2018 voters in Pacific Grove pass an initiative, drafted by the firm, that prohibits short-term rentals in most residential neighborhoods in the City.
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