Updates and Articles
San Diego Superior Court Ruling Stops Sprawl Development in Fire-Prone Area
Photo: Quino checkerspot butterfly Earlier this month, the San Diego County Superior Court reversed San Diego County’s approval of the Otay Ranch Village 14 project, a proposed development that would have paved over critical wildlife habitat while building 1,100 homes on fire-prone land east of Chula Vista. In a consolidated cases brought by a coalition of environmental groups and the People of California, the court...
Read MoreSMW Attorney Presents at the CLA Environment Law Section Conference
On October 16, 2021, SMW Partner Matt Zinn spoke on a panel at the annual California Lawyers Association (CLA) Environmental Law Section 2021 Yosemite Virtual Conference. The panel provided updates and discussion about major environmental law cases pending in and decided by the United States Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the California Supreme Court over the past year.
Read MoreSMW Attorney Presents at Intro to Environmental Law Series
On October 4, 2021, SMW Fellow Mindy Jian spoke on a CEQA 101 panel, part of the California Lawyer’s Association Environmental Law Section and California Young Lawyers Association’s joint series covering introductory topics in environmental law. The panel provided an overview of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), discussing the statute’s purposes, scope, and application.
Read MoreDaily Journal Article: Competition and Collusion on the Road to Clean Cars
SMW Legal Fellow Peter Damrosch and Partner Matt Zinn traced the history of antitrust enforcement and vehicle emissions in a recent article in the Daily Journal: Competition and Collusion on the Road to Clean Cars. The article provides historical context for the Trump administration’s use of antitrust enforcement to intimidate automobile manufacturers that opposed his environmental rollbacks, which is now the subject of a...
Read MoreSMW Assists Multiple Public Agencies Implementing SB 1383, Organic Waste Reduction and Edible Food Mandates
In anticipation of a January 1, 2022 deadline, SMW attorneys assisted numerous public agencies adopting municipal ordinances to implement SB 1383. California’s groundbreaking law aims to reduce disposal of organic waste at landfills by 75 percent from 2014 levels by 2025. SMW assisted the Alameda County Waste Management Authority (Stope Waste), the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority (RecycleSmart), Cupertino, Half...
Read MoreRecent Housing Legislation and the Initiative Power: What You Need to Know
The State Legislature’s burst of new housing legislation has significant implications for use of the initiative power. Find out more about SB10’s explicit shift of power to local legislatures and other ways in which the new laws may complicate planning and zoning initiatives.
Read MoreTribes Look to Expand Cultural Burning to Restore Traditional Practices and Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats
People indigenous to California have proactively ignited the landscape to manage plants and wildlife, provide community protection, control insects and disease, and engage in cultural and religious practices since time immemorial. Experts estimate that before 1800, between 4.5 million and 12 million acres of the state burned annually, through some combination of lightening and cultural burning.
Read MoreBlack Lives Matter as Government Speech
In June 2020, communities across California and the world protested and mourned the nationally recognized acts of violence against Black lives.
Read MoreKaruk Tribe Releases “Good Fire” Report, Addressing Barriers and Solutions to Increasing Cultural Burning
SMW Attorneys Sara Clark and Andrew Miller, together with cultural fire practitioner Don Hankins, authored Good Fire: Current Barriers to the Expansion of Cultural Burning and Prescribed Fire in California and Recommended Solutions for the Karuk Tribe. The report, which has been extensively cited in the media and by policymakers, examines the specific challenges faced by Native American Tribes in their efforts to restore...
Read MoreThe Public Trust – What Local Decisionmakers Should Know
The ancient public trust doctrine is as relevant as ever in today’s California, with implications for how local governments make decisions that could directly or indirectly affect water resources.
Read MoreBuilding Decarbonization Update: Local Governments in California Consider Strategies to Reduce Natural Gas Use in Existing Buildings
Following up on the October 2019 and February 2020 editions of In the Public Interest, this article provides an update regarding strategies proposed by several cities and counties to encourage or require existing buildings to go all-electric.
Read MoreSMW Attorney on Faculty of Land Trust Alliance Advanced Legal Symposium
On June 10, 2021, Tamara Galanter spoke on amendments to conservation easements and the use of building areas in conservation easements at the Eighth Symposium on Advanced Legal Topics in Land Conservation sponsored by the Land Trust Alliance. As a faculty member, Tamara joined seven other leading legal experts and practitioners to educate more than 200 attendees throughout the United States on emerging issues in land...
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