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Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

SB 288: Sustainable Transportation and the “Road to Recovery” for Post-COVID Air Pollution and Unemployment Concerns

By Sara Atsbaha

October 6, 2020

At the end of the 2020 legislative session, California Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 288 (Wiener)[1] (SB 288) into law. SB 288, amends the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), streamlining the environmental review process for: (i) specific transportation-related projects, including bus rapid transit projects, light rail service projects, construction or maintenance of charging or refueling stations for zero-emission buses; (ii) projects that improve customer information and wayfinding for transit riders, bicyclists, or pedestrians; (iii)…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

California Housing Legislation 2020

By Alfred Fraijo Jr., Yue Shi & Kira Teshima

September 30, 2020

Governor Gavin Newsom just signed a number of housing bills into law that were passed by the Legislature this session ending on August 31, 2020. Due to the severe scheduling constraints placed on lawmakers by the COVID-19 pandemic among other challenges, the Legislature was only able to pass a small number of bills related to housing and tenant protections, despite beginning the year with over 100 bills under consideration. Most notably, some of the most…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

Residential Eviction Protections and California Consumer Financial Protections Pass Muster During 2020 Legislative Session

By Whitney Hodges & Talya Gulezyan

September 29, 2020

During the eleventh hour of the 2020 legislative session, the California Legislature approved 2 significant bills in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the potential to have far-reaching ramifications for mortgage servicers.…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

Army Corps of Engineers Proposes Revising Broad Range of Clean Water Act Nationwide Permits

By Keith Garner & Daniel Maroon

September 15, 2020

On September 15, 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers published proposed revisions to a wide range of Nationwide Permits (NWP) issued under the Clean Water Act. The revisions respond to Executive Order 13783, directing heads of federal agencies to review existing regulations that potentially burden development or use of domestically produced energy resources. Accordingly, the proposed revisions affect NWPs commonly utilized by utility-scale wind and solar energy projects throughout the country. The Corps will accept…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

New Proposed Regulation Provides More Guidance and Some Relief on Prop 65 Warning Requirements for Heat Processed Foods and Acrylamide

By Whitney Jones Roy & Angela Reid

September 8, 2020

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (“OEHHA”) recently proposed a regulation that would provide more certainty to businesses regarding the Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) warning requirements for cooked foods. The proposed regulation is intended to incentivize businesses to lower the concentration levels in foods, encourage consistency and predictability, and ensure that warnings will be given for the foods causing the highest levels of exposure.…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

California Supreme Courts Holds Categorical Classification of Well Permits As Exclusively “Ministerial” Does Not Hold Water

By Whitney Hodges

September 4, 2020

After a nearly two-year wait, in Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources v. County of Stanislaus (2020) __ Cal.5th ____ (POWER), the California Supreme Court unanimously rejected the County of Stanislaus’s (County) bright-line categorization that all groundwater well construction permits are ministerial, and therefore not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In an interesting twist, the Supreme Court also rejected the petitioner’s alternative “all or nothing” position that, if the permits are not…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

The Pandemic’s Impacts on Developers and Contractors May Call for Seldom-Used Relief: An Overview of the Principles of Force Majeure, Impracticability, and Frustration of Purpose

By Whitney Hodges

September 1, 2020

This article originally appeared in the California Lawyers Association’s Real Property, Environmental and Public Law Journals Joint Issue. As society responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, states and local governments across the United States, including the State of California, issued shelter-in place (“SIP”) orders[i] to prevent its spread. While intended to benefit Americans in the long run, these actions have resulted in massive and largely unprecedented disruptions in the economy, including record levels of unemployment…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

County Zoning Ordinance Cannot be Used to Justify Property Seizure

By Whitney Hodges

August 17, 2020

In Granny Purps v. County of Santa Cruz, the Sixth District Court of Appeal green-lit a medical cannabis cultivator’s ability to pursue damages – to the tune of potentially $3.5M – from the County of Santa Cruz when it determined the County cannot rely on zoning ordinance to seize the cultivator’s plants grown in violation of local regulation. Specifically, the Sixth District found that, while the County is not compelled to return seized property if…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

Splitting The Roll – Commercial And Industrial Property Owners May Face Significant California Property Tax Increases Starting As Early As The 2022-2023 Fiscal Year

By Justin Hepworth, Scott Morehouse & Paris Rebeil

July 30, 2020

California’s Proposition 13 prevents the assessed value of California real property from increasing by more than 2% per year, unless there is a change of ownership or completion of new construction. On November 3, 2020, California voters will decide whether most commercial and industrial property should be removed from the protections of Proposition 13, with the result that such property would be subject to tax based on its fair market value.…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

Final Revisions to NEPA Regulations: Six Highlights from Major Rule Overhaul

By Whitney Hodges & Daniel Maroon

July 29, 2020

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently published a final rule (Rule) revising the implementing regulations for the National Environmental Quality Act (42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq ) (NEPA). Touted as the first comprehensive revision of CEQ’s NEPA regulations since their creation in 1978, the stated goal of the Rule includes facilitating more efficient, effective, and timely NEPA review by federal agencies.…

Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law Blog

Up-to-date Information on Real Estate, Land Use & Environmental Law

Blog Authors

SB 288: Sustainable Transportation and the “Road to Recovery” for Post-COVID Air Pollution and Unemployment Concerns

California Housing Legislation 2020

Residential Eviction Protections and California Consumer Financial Protections Pass Muster During 2020 Legislative Session

Army Corps of Engineers Proposes Revising Broad Range of Clean Water Act Nationwide Permits

New Proposed Regulation Provides More Guidance and Some Relief on Prop 65 Warning Requirements for Heat Processed Foods and Acrylamide

California Supreme Courts Holds Categorical Classification of Well Permits As Exclusively “Ministerial” Does Not Hold Water

The Pandemic’s Impacts on Developers and Contractors May Call for Seldom-Used Relief: An Overview of the Principles of Force Majeure, Impracticability, and Frustration of Purpose

County Zoning Ordinance Cannot be Used to Justify Property Seizure

Splitting The Roll – Commercial And Industrial Property Owners May Face Significant California Property Tax Increases Starting As Early As The 2022-2023 Fiscal Year

Final Revisions to NEPA Regulations: Six Highlights from Major Rule Overhaul

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