A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision denying an environmental group's petition challenging a local board's approval of a development project in Monterey County. The group argued that by approving the project with a mitigated negative declaration (MND) in lieu of an environmenta...

The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of residents' §1983 suit against county officials for selectively enforcing provisions of the county zoning ordinance against them in retaliation of the residents' public criticism of the county's lax enforcement of environmental and zoning regulations ag...

The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear environmental groups' claims against U.S. Customs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries for allowing threatened and endangered salmon to be imported from Canada into the United States ...

The court held that the U.S. Air Force was liable to homebuilders who had cleaned up asbestos contamination at the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. The homebuilders didn't discover the asbestos until after they purchased the former base property. When the Air Force refused to clean up the asbe...

The court upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's lawsuit against a state agency and its officials seeking to enjoin the agency from conducting dredging operations in a canal until it complies with an earlier order by the state environmental appeals board remanding a dredging permit for a p...

The court affirmed a lower court decision denying a manufacturing plant's post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law in a case involving the plant's alleged emission of "carbon black" into the air that darkened property owners' property. After a 10-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in fa...

A court upheld a town's right to regulate development through zoning that prevents development in flood plains. Landowners filed suit against the town after their property was rezoned from a light industrial zone to a flood-prone conservancy zone. A state land court ruled that the town's action was ...

A California appellate court held that the doctrine of equitable estoppel does not bar the California Coastal Commission from ordering homeowners to remove a private three-hole golf course from around their house and to restore the area to its native sand dune vegetation. The property was burdened b...

A California court upheld the dismissal of a petition under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenging a city's approval of a redevelopment project involving both the rehabilitation of a historic theater and the construction of an adjacent multi-screen cineplex and parking structure...

New York's highest court ordered the modification of a lower court decision reversing a local agency's denial of a landowner's request for a variance to build an underground sewage treatment system within the New York City watershed. The agency denied the variance application because the landowner f...