The City of Santa Ana (City) has recently undertaken an ambitious — and highly controversial — effort to reshape the landscape of its historically industrial-centric Transit Zoning Code (TZC) district. Through the adoption of...more
Maine's Supreme Judicial Court has held that a 2021 referendum that may have killed the New England Clean Energy Connect project may also have violated the project's "vested rights" in violation of the Maine Constitution....more
Below are summaries of the key California and Ninth Circuit land use and development cases decided in 2020. Each case name is linked to our more extensive discussion of the case on the Land Use & Development Law Report. 1....more
The protection from ordinance changes, commonly known as “vested rights,” conferred by the grant of a final subdivision or site plan approval is one of the most important legal tenets of New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law...more
This week the General Assembly of North Carolina provided some relief to developers with active development approvals. Pursuant to Senate Bill 704, signed into law on May 4, 2020 (the "Act"), the expiration of those...more
While all of us are still firmly entrenched within the early stages of the global response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, I’m already thinking about “what’s next”. The land use world must roll on, after all, but it must do...more
The California Supreme Court recently issued its decision in the Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS case – the first of six so-called “California Rule” (“Vested Pension Rights”) cases pending before the Court. The California...more
As expected, the California Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court’s holding in Cal Fire Local 2881 v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System et al., concluding that the plaintiffs did not have a vested right to...more
In a much awaited announcement, on November 8, 2018, the California Supreme Court scheduled oral argument in CalFire Local 2881, et al. v. CalPERS, et al., which is the first of the five pending vested rights cases that are...more
It’s a big litigation year for California pensions. The California Supreme Court ruled last month that San Diego’s landmark pension cutback legislation, Proposition B, was illegally placed on the 2012 ballot because city...more
California’s cities are in crisis mode. With pension costs outpacing revenue growth and severely underfunded retirement systems (the California Public Employee Retirement System is only 68 percent funded), local...more
In the latest twist in California’s pending vested rights litigation, parties on all sides of Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. et al v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Assn., et al. (2018) 19 Cal.App.5th 61...more
Chapter 245 of the Texas Local Government Code (the “Vested Rights Statute”), provides a regulatory scheme in which developers and the public may rely upon regulations of a regulatory agency in effect at the time an initial...more