Law Commons^™

Vertical Consistency In The Climate Change Context, Susan M. Bradford

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This paper explores the role of general plan consistency in the context of climate change. As California’s statewide response to global warming continues to evolve, new statutory and regulatory requirements are changing the scope of local land use planning, both directly and indirectly. The San Diego case provides one example of how this changing legal framework has led to new kinds of land use conflicts over competing strategies for climate mitigation. The growing imperative for local governments to rethink land uses in response to climate change could signal a larger role for general plan consistency as a lever for enforcing …

It's Been A Long Time Coming: A Short Manifesto For Urgently Needed Change In Land Use Law & Regulation, Colin Crawford

Publications

Pandemic illnesses from Ebola and HIV to COVID-19, the hastening consequences for land and the environment of climate change, and global protests over racial and social inequity in the wake of brutal police killings in the United States, all demand that we re-examine and rethink some land use basics. Therefore, in what follows, I will briefly highlight five areas of land use orthodoxy that I suggest the current historical moment demands we revisit. I will, furthermore, try to do so in the spirit of Julian Juergensmeyer and his work, pushing and questioning, seeking for new alternatives.

My five-part list for …

The Transformation Of The Antiquities Act: A Call For Amending The President’S Power Regarding National Monument Designations, Andrew Diaz

Golden Gate University Law Review

Part I of this Comment discusses the background of the Antiquities Act, including: the legislature’s intent in drafting the Act, changes to the law, and how it has been used throughout the years. This section then discusses various legal challenges to designations made under the Antiquities Act and looks at why these designations are sometimes controversial. Part II discusses the calls by many politicians to either amend or repeal the Act and explains why current proposed legislation is insufficient. This Comment critiques the proposed legislation and calls for the passage of sensible legislation that would require a more transparent designation …

A Comparative Consideration Of Development Charges In Cape Town, Colin Crawford, Julian C. Juergensmeyer

Publications

This article, will look at the relatively new Cape Town development charge initiative in a comparative perspective. Part I will discuss the U.S. experience with development charges, including examples both effective and less so. The aim in Part I will be to demonstrate the achievements and shortcomings of development charges - or impact fees, as they are most commonly called in the U.S. - as utilized in the U.S., which was an early adopter of such practices globally. Part I will also suggest areas in which Cape Town practitioners (of whatever kind, whether lawyers, urban planners, engineers and so on) …

Density, Affordable Housing And Social Inclusion: Modest Proposal For Cape Town, Colin Crawford

Publications

What I would like to offer in this short article are some thoughts about ways Cape Town might benefit from lessons in the United States' long and still continuing struggle with racially segregated housing and to do so by promoting strategies that are not only inclusionary in aim but also more environmentally sustainable if developed properly. I do this in part from the conviction that this is a benefit of any comparative legal scholarship - to suggest different ways of looking at problems. In this, I will particularly examine density-focused incentives. Indeed, incentive-based practices, it seems to me, might have …

Social Function And Value Capture: Do They Or Should They Have A Role To Play In Polish Land Development Regulation, Colin Crawford, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer, Dawid Sześciło

Publications

Following the introductory Part I, in Part II, two of the three authors here, both U.S. law professors, seek to identify some conceptual and practical legal tools for a more orderly and balanced land use development in the Warsaw metropolitan region, one that promotes not just economic and industrial growth but one that also serves medium- and longer-term social and environmental interests as well. Part III, written by the third author – a Polish law professor, will evaluate the prospects for, as well as the challenges and impediments to, implementing these legal tools in the Polish context. Finally, in Part …

Wasted Water: Reasonable Use Law In 21st Century California, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law Symposia

Proceedings of 2015 California Water Law Symposium (WLS), Prepared by Center on Urban Environmental Law (CUEL) at Golden Gate University (GGU) School of Law.

Redefining And Analyzing Development And The Role And Rule Of Law, Colin Crawford

Publications

This article introduces a series of articles prepared in connection with an April 2015 conference jointly sponsored by the Law & Development Institute and the Payson Center for International Development at Tulane University Law School. The introduction first surveys the uncertain and chaotic terrain of current and competing definitions of development and then introduces the articles in this special volume, identifying common themes and differences. In the process, the introduction suggests, law and development studies present great promise to provide greater coherence to development studies and practice going ahead, providing the approach is pluralist and inclusive.

The California Land Conservation (Williamson) Act 2014 Status Report, California Department Of Conservation

California Agencies

The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the state’s premier agricultural land protection program since its enactment in 1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open-space uses under minimum 10-year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value.

Order, Progress And Carioca Environments: A Preface To Study Space V, Colin Crawford

Publications

Study Space is on ongoing series of field seminars designed to allow faculty and senior graduate students from multiple disciplines, with the center of gravity in law, to "evaluate human habitats and habits in the 21st century." The fifth iteration of this series, which I started while the co-director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth at Georgia State University College of Law, in Atlanta, took place from July 11-18, 2010. Participants, who included professors and senior graduate students in anthropology, law, philosophy, political science and sociology, came from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and the United States. …

The California Land Conservation (Williamson) Act 2012 Status Report, California Department Of Conservation

California Agencies

The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the state’s premier agricultural land protection program since its enactment in 1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open-space uses under minimum 10-year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value.

Proceedings Of The 2011 California Water Law Symposium (Wls). The End Of Paper Water: Natural Limits, Unlimited Demands And Reliable Supply, Paul S. Kibel, Anthony Austin, Melosa Granda, Luthien L. Niland

CUEL - Center for Urban Environmental Law

Proceedings of the 2011 California Water Law Symposium held at Golden Gate University School of Law on January 22, 2011.

Assured Water Supply Laws In The Sustainability Context, Lincoln L. Davies

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

By juxtaposing five western states’ existing assured supply laws, this Article provides a preliminary assessment of whether, and how, assured supply laws can best promote sustainability—and, by extension, make at least one area of environmental law more like sustainability law. The Article reaches three principal conclusions. First, it finds that, as they appear to, assured supply laws in fact promote sustainability. Second, the extent to which assured supply laws likely promote sustainability greatly varies by state, because these laws’ policy designs also depend on the state of enactment. Finally, additional work is needed to provide a more concrete assessment of …

Optimizing Land Use And Water Supply Planning: A Path To Sustainability?, Randele Kanouse, Douglas Wallace

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The rise of the environmental movement and the growing public embrace of ecological values roughly coincided with the end of the dambuilding era. By the 1970s, most of the good sites for dams had already been taken, and those that remained, such as California’s North Coast rivers, were increasingly valued as natural and recreational resources that should be permanently protected. At the same time, California’s population continued to swell, from under 20 million in 1970 to nearly 38 million today. How did these trends affect water supply development in California? Among other impacts, the average time a major water supply …

Alice In Groundwater Land: Water Supply Assessments And Subsurface Water Supplies, Kevin M. O'Brien

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The purpose of this Article is to explore the preparation of Water Supply Assessments in the context of subsurface water supplies. The term “subsurface water supplies” is used here rather than “groundwater” because, as discussed below, the proponent of a development project may propose to utilize a subsurface water supply (such as water produced from beneath the surface of land via a well or a flowing spring) that is not properly classified as groundwater because it falls within the legal definition of subterranean stream flow. In such a case, the supply would be subject to the water rights permitting jurisdiction …

Friant Dam Holding Contracts: Not An Entitlement To Water Supply Under Sb 610, Barry Epstein

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Nearly ten years ago, California’s Legislature enacted Senate Bill (SB) 610, a new law requiring that any proposed large development project receiving local land use approvals be supported by a Water Supply Assessment demonstrating available water supply to meet the project’s 20-year forecast water demand. While some, perhaps most, proposed large development projects are within the service territory of large, public or private municipal water purveyors whose entitlement to the water they deliver is well-established (though not necessarily adequate or secure), developments outside the service territory of such water purveyors can require more scrutiny of the underlying water rights entitlement …

Show Me The Water Plan: Urban Water Management Plans And California’S Water Supply Adequacy Laws, Ellen Hanak

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Article reviews the effectiveness of California’s strategy of using enabling legislation and passive enforcement to encourage more integrated local water and land use planning. To shed light on the effectiveness of the current policy framework, the Article begins with a critical overview of the Urban Water Management Planning process, drawing on a detailed analysis of plans submitted in the early 2000s. It then evaluates how water supply assessments are proceeding, with a particular emphasis on steps used to identify adequacy, drawing on telephone surveys of land use authorities and water utilities conducted by the author in 2004 and 2009. …

The Relationship Between Water Supply And Land Use Planning: Leading Cases Under The California Environmental Quality Act, James G. Moose

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Article will survey and analyze this 2007 California Supreme Court decision and the key appellate court cases leading up to and following it, all of which address the relationship between land use planning and water supply planning under CEQA. The Article will also address a subsequent California Supreme Court decision addressing the adequacy of the EIR for one of the most significant water supply programs in recent decades, the so-called CALFED Record of Decision, which reflected, as of the year 2000, a long-term strategy for addressing ecological problems occurring in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta while increasing the reliability …

Conservation Of What?: An Introduction To The Issue, Paul Stanton Kibel, Anthony A. Austin

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How California Local Governments Became Both Water Suppliers And Planners, A. Dan Tarlock

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The paradox of California is that growth is concentrated in arid southern California but most of the state’s water supply, with the exception of the Colorado and Owens Rivers, originates in the north. This has meant that the state has had to bring massive amounts of water to the south to support the state’s celebrated continued population growth in order to compensate for California’s “bad hydrology.”1 From 1940 to 2007, California’s population increased from 6,950,000 to 37,786,000, and that growth has stressed the state’s capacity to meet the demand for water. Predicting the future is impossible, but the most conservative …

San Francisco's Neighborhood Commercial Special Use District Ordinance: An Innovative Approach To Commercial Gentrification, Mark Cohen

Golden Gate University Law Review

What follows in this article is a discussion of: (1) the problems that have resulted in ten of San Francisco's neighborhood commercial streets due to economic revitalization that has been rapid and disorganized; (2) the City of San Francisco's attempt to deal with these problems by means of the Neighborhood Commercial Special Use District ordinance currently in effect; (3) how the provisions of the ordinance work; (4) the legal issues involved; and, (5) the planning and sociological principles the ordinance seeks to advance.

Bozung V. Lafco: Municipal Boundary Changes And The California Environmental Quality Act, Henry Michael Domzalski Ii

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Construction Industry Ass'n Of Sonoma County V. City Of Petaluma: Constitutional Limitations Placed On Controlled Growth Zoning, Harriet Parker Bass, Judith Bazeley

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Development Rights Transfer In Livermore: A Planning Strategy To Conserve Open Space, Patricia Sheehan Peterson, Gerald Richards

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free-Range Cattle On The Bay Area's Rural Fringe, Paul C. Ringgold

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

As the population of the San Francisco Bay Area continues to in-crease, added pressures are placed on public land uses in the rural fringe. These uses include natural-resource conservation, scenic value, recreation, and historic activities, including agriculture and grazing. This Article will explore the use of public and nonprofit open space land for grazing, and the unique opportunities and challenges that this use presents in relation to the other public benefits that these lands provide. Key opportunities include the use of carefully managed grazing to restore and maintain California's native grasslands and to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire along …

The California Land Conservation (Williamson) Act 2010 Status Report, California Department Of Conservation

California Agencies

The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the state’s premier agricultural land protection program since its enactment in 1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open-space uses under minimum 10-year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value.

Our Bandit Future - Cities, Shantytowns, And Climate Change Governance, Colin Crawford

Publications

This Article seeks, to begin to define a role for cities and their inhabitants in climate change governance. Part I argues that if we fail to take into account global urbanization and its defining characteristics, namely extreme squalor and associated social ills, as a central feature of climate change policy, we face, as a Rio de Janeiro taxi driver said to me during the hot, dry, violent winter of 2006 in that city, 13 "urn futuro bandido," literally "a bandit future." That is, we face a future where cities, the places where most of the world's population lives, will experience …

Foreword And Acknowledgments: About The Study Space Project, Colin Crawford

Publications

Study Space: Evaluations of Human Habitats and Habits in the 21st Century, is an intensive series of workshops, held at diverse locations around the world, the goal of which is to acquire a deeper understanding of the legal, policy and human challenges posed by the global growth of megacities. Study Space intends, at various times and in different places, to provide a vehicle for progressive scholars and graduate students from varied backgrounds and disciplines to study, learn and seek to understand experientially this trend in all of its implications - for identity and self-determination, for participatory democracy, for equality and …

The California Land Conservation (Williamson) Act 2008 Status Report, California Department Of Conservation

California Agencies

The California Land Conservation Act, better known as the Williamson Act, has been the state’s premier agricultural land protection program since its enactment in 1965. The Williamson Act preserves agricultural and open space lands through property tax incentives and voluntary restrictive use contracts. Private landowners voluntarily restrict their land to agricultural and compatible open-space uses under minimum 10-year rolling term contracts with local governments. In return, restricted parcels are assessed for property tax purposes at a rate consistent with their actual use, rather than potential market value.

Rethinking Redevelopment Oversight: Exploring Possibilities For Increasing Local Input, California Research Bureau

California Agencies

No abstract provided.