A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco - San Francisco Family Zoning Plan Updates (SF Planning): As of late July, the Planning Department has updated the draft zoning height...more
On June 27, 2024, the California First District Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of a writ petition challenging the City of Lafayette’s determination that a 12-unit residential condominium building qualified for the Class...more
The Osceola Board of County Commissioners is proposing a 90-day county-wide moratorium on applications that would allow residential development on land zoned for non-residential uses, among other restrictions. The proposed...more
A California Supreme Court ruling will allow student housing at University of California to be built at Berkeley's historic People's Park. In February 2023, a state appeals court in San Francisco had sided with the opponents,...more
Last month, we delved into the fundamentals of zoning as they relate to developers and builders. Now, let’s take a deeper dive into specialized zoning topics that merit closer examination....more
What is zoning and how does it work? In simple terms, zoning refers to a city’s ability to regulate property owners’ use of their land within its corporate boundaries. For instance, a city may prohibit commercial...more
The Florida Legislature on Feb. 28, 2024, passed Senate Bill 328, which amends the Live Local Act (Amended Act). It becomes effective upon becoming law (except as otherwise provided). While most of the 2023 Live Local Act...more
As covered in prior PSH Client Alerts on June 26, 2023, August 22, 2023, and November 27, 2023, this past year included numerous major reforms to the Rhode Island zoning and land development statutes, all aimed at spurring...more
We would not blame you if you said that dealing with attorneys is not your favorite part of being a municipal official. However, in our defense, people use attorneys because they need help with complicated legal processes and...more
Recognizing that Downtown San Francisco is “struggling” post-pandemic, State Senator Scott Wiener has announced new legislation to exempt certain projects in the area from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review...more
In Yes In My Back Yard v. City of Culver City (2023) 96 Cal.App.5th 1103, the Second District Court of Appeal (“Court”) held that the City of Culver City (“City”) violated Government Code section 66300 (“Section 66300”)—a...more
After more than two years of resistance, the city of Coronado, a wealthy island city in San Diego County, has agreed to follow state housing law by setting aside more land for development, Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney...more
On January 18, 2021, the Office of Planning (“OP”) introduced its first set of proposed amendments to the Inclusionary Zoning (“IZ”) Regulations to increase inclusionary housing requirements, known as “IZ XL.”...more
In this op-ed for pv magazine, David Lazerwitz and Linda Sobczynski of Farella Braun + Martel examine the levels of precaution necessary to ensure fire risk mitigation in project development. Originally published in...more
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during his campaign that one of the ways in which he intended to deliver on his ambitious housing goals was to make state and local surplus properties more available for affordable...more
Portland's neighborhood associations have generated news lately, from Montavilla's resolution resisting the City's efforts to clear homeless camps, to controversy over whether transient persons can vote in Overlook's...more
CEQA decisions usually arise in the context of a challenge to a lead agency’s approval of a project and a related CEQA document. However, in a recent decision, Kutzke v. City of San Diego (2017) 11 Cal.App.5th 1034...more