The City of Thousand Oaks violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by adopting a CEQA exemption without having listed the exemption as an item on its agenda for at least 72 hours before the meeting. G.I. Industries v. City of Thousand...more
The Ninth Circuit held that statutory language defining the scope of operations of Twitchell Dam was sufficiently broad to potentially include releases of water to facilitate migration of Southern California Steelhead to the...more
The Court of Appeal held that an action to set aside an ordinance restricting short-term vacation rentals on the ground of failure to obtain a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) was barred by the 90-day statute of limitations...more
The Second District Court of Appeal held that a Board of Supervisors decision on the appeal of a conditional use permit from the Planning Commission was untimely under the County Code and hence that the Planning Commission’s...more
A court of appeal invalidated a water district’s adopted rate increases, concluding that the district failed to meet its burden under Proposition 218 of establishing that the increases did not exceed the cost of providing the...more
The Court of Appeal held that an agreement obligating a developer and city to indemnify LAFCO against claims arising from its annexation decision lacked consideration because the agreement simply required LAFCO to do what it...more
The Court of Appeal upheld a Coastal Commission cease-and-desist order requiring demolition of a seawall and payment of a $1 million penalty by homeowners who performed major reconstruction on their coastal home without...more
The Ninth Circuit rejected a Fourth Amendment challenge to the City of San José’s Apartment Rent Ordinance, ruling that the plaintiff landlords had failed adequately to allege a reasonable expectation of privacy in the...more
A claim that a contract for construction of a school violated public bidding requirements did not become moot after construction was completed because effective relief — in the form of disgorgement of public funds paid to the...more
12/4/2020
/ Appellate Courts ,
Competitive Bidding ,
Construction Contracts ,
Construction Disputes ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Litigation ,
Construction Project ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contractors ,
Disgorgement ,
Local Ordinance ,
Mootness ,
Public Bidding ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
School Districts ,
State and Local Government
An administrative agency must provide the notice required under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.6(f) specifying when its decision becomes final, and may not add potentially confusing information that undermines the...more
The Ninth Circuit held that a local ordinance prohibiting short-term vacation rentals (such as those available on Airbnb and other websites) did not conflict with Congressional policies fostering development of the Internet...more
The Second District Court of Appeal has held that California’s minimum wage law is a matter of statewide concern and hence applies to charter cities as well as general law cities. Marquez v. City of Long Beach, No. B282270...more
3/1/2019
/ Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Construction Industry ,
Home Rule States ,
Local Ordinance ,
Municipalities ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Public Projects ,
Public Works ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
The Second District Court of Appeal held that the purported amendment of an agreement to extend the period in which billboards were permitted within the City constituted a new agreement and hence violated the terms of a...more
Governor Brown has signed AB 2913 (Wood), which amends current law to extend the duration of building permits from six months to one year.
Under current law, a building permit is subject to the state Building Standards Code...more
The Building Industry Association of the Bay Area has filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Northern District of California challenging the City of Oakland’s recent adoption of a public art ordinance on constitutional...more
7/31/2015
/ Art ,
Artists ,
Bay Area ,
California Building Industry Association (CBIA) ,
Construction Industry ,
Fifth Amendment ,
First Amendment ,
Injunctions ,
Land Developers ,
Local Ordinance ,
Real Estate Development