California Land Use Blog

by Matthew Hinks

The California Legislature and the courts have recognized that challenges to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), if allowed to drag on, would impede the decisions of public agencies regarding land use. For this reason, CEQA imposes very short limitations periods and requires CEQA cases be given priority in both the trial courts and the courts of appeal.

But in a potentially troubling new case, the California Court of Appeal explicitly blessed the type of unreasonable litigation delay the Legislature protected against in enacting CEQA.

By Matthew Hinks

May a property owner who sells property to a non-governmental entity as part of a government redevelopment project under the threat of eminent domain transfer the tax base of the original property to replacement property? Not on the record presented by the plaintiff in Duea v. County of San Diego, 204 Cal. App. 4th 691 (2012).

by Scott Castro

This article was first published by Law360. © 2012 Portfolio Media, Inc.

In mid-March, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued a nationwide injunction that significantly affects mining exploration activities within lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Until this ruling, the Forest Service has relied on a June 4, 2003 agency regulation (located at 36 C.F.R. Part 215) (the "215 Regulation") that exempted from public notice, comment and administrative appeals activities deemed to be categorically excluded ("categorical exclusions" or "CEs") from the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA").

In a March 19, 2012 summary judgment ruling in Sequoia ForestKeeper v. Tidwell, however, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill invalidated the 215 Regulation's exemption for categorical exclusions.