Updates and Articles
Short Term Rental Initiative Approved
In 2015 voters in Mammoth Lakes pass an initiative, drafted by the firm, requiring voter approval of changes to City zoning prohibiting short-term rentals in most residential neighborhoods.
Read MoreJury Finds in Favor of TJPA
Photo Credit: Rendering by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, courtesy of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority The firm wins a victory on behalf of the Transbay Joint Powers Agency in an eminent domain jury trial to acquire a five-story office building to be demolished for the Transit Center, bus ramp, and rail tunnel. (City and County of San Francisco v. 564 Howard Street (2015).)
Read MoreSMW Advises on Transbay Transit Center Funding District
Photo credit: Fullmetal2887, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons In 2015 the firm advises the Transbay Joint Powers Agency in helping San Francisco create a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District that requires developers to pay a special tax to fund the Transit Center's rooftop park, Downtown Rail Extension, and other infrastructure in the Transit Center District.
Read MoreSMW Assists Five Cities in Successful Opposition to Dangerous Freeway Extension
Photo credit: Ken Lund, Flickr In 2015 the firm represents South Pasadena and four other cities in opposing a plan by Caltrans and the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority to extend the SR-710 freeway under the City of Pasadena. Thanks in large part to the firm's critique of the environmental impact report for the project, the transportation agencies select another alternative, which maximizes the efficiency of...
Read MoreSMW Chairs Conservation Law Forum
In 2015, firm partner Tamara Galanter begins chairing and helping organize the Conservation Law Forum for the California Council of Land Trusts.
Read MoreSolar Energy Project Ground Lease
On behalf of Marin Clean Energy, California’s first community choice aggregation agency, the firm negotiated a ground lease with Chevron, Inc. for the financing and construction of a 10 Megawatt solar energy project on brownfields in the City of Richmond at the Chevron Refinery.
Read MoreColumbia State Historic Park Protected From Mine Expansion
In response to litigation by the firm, Tuolumne County agrees to rescind its approval of the expansion of a limestone mine near Columbia State Historic Park and to prepare an environmental impact report for the project. (Central Sierra Env'l Resource Ctr. v. Tuolumne County (2014).)
Read MoreSMW Prepares Ballot Measure to Fund Open Space Protection
In 2014, voters approve a parcel tax measure sponsored by the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority and drafted by the firm.
Read MoreVictory for Environmental Justice in Southern California
The firm successfully defends the South Coast Air Quality Management District's regulation of airborne arsenic and other toxic air pollutants against a challenge by a lead acid battery recycling facility in a predominantly low-income, Latino neighborhood in Vernon, California. Following the firm's victory in Los Angeles Superior Court, the facility shuts down in 2015. (Exide Technologies, Inc. v. SCAQMD (2014).)
Read MoreSMW Drafts and Defends Anti-Fracking Initiatives
In 2014 the firm drafts initiatives in Santa Barbara and San Benito Counties that ban the use of land for fracking. The San Benito measure passes, and subsequent litigation challenging the measure fails. In 2016, Monterey County voters pass an anti-fracking measure drafted by the firm. The firm is defending the Monterey measure from multiple oil industry lawsuits.
Read MoreSMW Advises Orinda With Senior Affordable Housing Development Process
The firm advises Orinda in its successful 2014 collaboration with the developer of a 67-unit, senior affordable apartment complex on the City's former library site.
Read MoreSMW Advises Alameda on Reuse of Naval Air Station
In 2014, advised by the firm, the City of Alameda approves a major project for reuse of the former Naval Air Station site (Alameda Point) as a mixed-use, transit-oriented community with affordable housing and hundreds of acres of parks and open space. The project is based on the firm's work since 1996 regarding site cleanup, environmental permitting, and historic resources.
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