A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision ordering a county to set aside its decision extending the expiration date of the tentative subdivision map for a residential housing project. Contrary to the lower court's interpretation, §66452.6 of the California Government Code aut...

A California appellate court held that for determining just compensation in a "quick" take eminent domain action, the date of valuation should be the date a deposit of probable compensation was made rather than the date of trial on the issue of just compensation. Under California law, the date of va...

The Ninth Circuit held that California's air pollution control districts are not arms of the state and therefore are not entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. To determine whether an entity is an arm of the state, the Ninth Circuit uses a five-point test that looks at whether ...

A district court granted the state of Washington's motion for partial summary judgment on its claim that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington State Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) when it decided to ship radioactive and hazardous mixed transuranic waste to the Hanford Nu...

A California appellate court upheld a city's approval of a general plan framework that includes proposed operational and physical improvements to traffic systems and infrastructure, policies to encourage the use of public transit and reduce vehicle trips, and other measures to reduce traffic congest...

A California appellate court held that the partial obstruction of billboards caused by a city's planting of palm trees is not compensable under the California Constitution. The trial court erred in finding loss of visibility would not be compensable based on the fact that the loss was caused by a pu...

A Nevada court upheld a county decision denying a company's request for a special use permit to mine clay from two open pits on federal land north of Reno, Nevada, and to build a plant to produce cat litter on private land nearby. The Mining Law of 1872 and federal regulations don't exempt the proje...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision invalidating an amendment to a redevelopment plan due to insufficient evidence of blight. The amendment was proposed 14 years after the initial plan was adopted. The trial court properly found that the requirement of a blight finding to su...

The Court rules that the state of Oregon's imposition of a surcharge on the in-state disposal of solid waste generated in other states that is nearly three times that imposed on the disposal of waste generated within Oregon violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Oregon imposed a $2.5...

The court holds that the Illinois Coal Act violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Act requires public utilities to devise Clean Air Act (CAA) compliance plans and present them to the Illinois Commerce Commission for approval. The Act requires the utilities and the Commission to t...