Updates and Articles
Protecting Urban Public Lands & Elevating Community Voices
The firm represents Orange County Communities for Responsible Development, a community-labor alliance, in a challenge to the City of Santa Ana's sale of public lands. While the challenge is underway, the state legislature adopts new Surplus Land Act provisions protecting the public's interest in such lands. Many of the Santa Ana sales are halted, giving the community a further chance to advocate for open space and...
Read MoreSMW Defends Sign Ordinance
The Ninth Circuit rejects a billboard developer's challenge to Alameda County's sign ordinance and upholds a rare award of attorneys' fees to a prevailing defendant on the grounds that the lawsuit was frivolous. (Citizens for Free Speech, LLC v. County of Alameda, 953 F.3d 655 (9th Cir. 2020).)
Read MoreIs local control of affordable housing development dead? The answer is unclear.
In the early 1980s, the Legislature enacted the Housing Element Law (Gov. Code § 65580 et seq.) and the Housing Accountability Act (“HAA”, Gov. Code § 65589.5), citing the lack of housing as a paramount state concern. Since then, the Legislature has passed multiple laws limiting the discretion of local agencies to disapprove or condition housing projects, most of them declaring that an adequate supply of housing is a...
Read MoreNavigating the Challenges Posed by SB 35
Since its passage in 2017, Senate Bill 35 (SB 35)—a state law requiring local jurisdictions to streamline approval of certain affordable housing projects—has been controversial, to say the least. Over the last few years, SB 35 has been the subject of much litigation, as discussed in Benjamin Gonzalez’s and Andrew Schwartz’s article, “Is local control of affordable housing development dead?” in this issue. But because none...
Read MoreDown Payment Assistance Programs: Building a Bridge to Home Ownership
Costly down payments are a major barrier to home ownership for many Americans. Medium and even some low-income workers and their families may earn enough to afford monthly mortgage payments, but often struggle to save enough for a down payment. According to a recent Urban Institute report, high housing costs fall hardest on Black families, who are less likely to own homes than white families with comparable income and...
Read MoreStreamlining 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...
Read MoreAgencies Bear Costs of Redacting Electronic Records, But Questions Remain in Recent PRA Decision
The California Supreme Court recently issued a ruling on the seemingly mundane issue of whether public agencies may charge Public Records Act (PRA) requesters for the costs of redacting exempt material from electronic records when responding to PRA requests. Although the decision clarifies that agencies must bear the cost of redacting exempt material from both paper and electronic records, it does not offer a bright line...
Read MoreShifting Coastlines: Managed Retreat Strategies for Cities Addressing Coastal Erosion
As climate change and sea-level rise accelerate erosion, cities and counties along the California coast must act to protect coastal resources and property from the landward march of the sea. To buffer these interests against the effects of coastal erosion, local agencies have adopted a wide variety of management strategies. Where landowners are reluctant to abandon economic investments and resources on the coast, planners...
Read MoreSMW Solidarity Statement
Black people have built America since before it was a country, often driven to the task by systematic oppression and racism. Recently, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Oscar Grant, Mario Woods, Kayla Moore, and countless others suffered deadly violence, with all of us as witnesses. The brazenness and impunity of these acts—the inevitable result of systemic racism in the country that Black people...
Read MoreNew Organic Waste Processing and Food Waste Recovery Rules Moving Forward
On April 20th CalRecycle released what it expects to be the final regulations implementing SB 1383, California’s groundbreaking law to reduce disposal of organic waste at landfills by 75 percent from 2014 levels by 2025. The law is an important part of the State’s strategy to reduce methane and greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of focusing on emissions at landfills, SB 1383 directed CalRecycle to develop regulations...
Read MoreProcessing Housing Construction Projects Under State and Local Shelter-in-Place Orders
Governor Issues Statewide Shelter-in-Place Order After declaring a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 4, 2020, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-33-20 on March 19, 2020. The statewide Order directed all California residents to stay home, except for workers in 16 “critical infrastructure sectors.” Construction was not included in these original 16 sectors. However, on March 22, 2020 the...
Read MoreCourt Overturns Sprawl Development in Wildfire Risk Zone
The firm successfully challenges San Diego County's 2019 approval of the Harmony Grove Village South Project, which would have brought sprawl development to a fire-prone, rural area of the County. Photo by ClassicallyPrinted, Pixabay.
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