Newsletters

03.20.20

County Recorder Office Closures

Increasingly severe limitations on public gatherings and other measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 have disrupted essential recording services in the real estate industry.


03.20.20

Governor’s Executive Orders Waive Public Meeting Procedures

On March 12, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-25-20, a broad, far-reaching order that authorized state and local authorities to impose social distancing measures, to waive the one-week waiting period for unemployment insurance, and to suspend work hour limitations for certain ...


12.02.19

California’s ‘Housing Crisis Act of 2019’

SB 330, signed into law on October 9, 2019, and effective January 1, 2020, substantially limits the ability of municipalities to disapprove housing projects, condition housing projects to reduce density, or levy excessive standards on housing projects that raise costs and extend the permitting ...


06.24.19

Supreme Court Shortens the Path for Takings Cases

In a case resolving a complex procedural question about the ability of property owners to have access to federal courts for their disputes with local government agencies, the Supreme Court overruled a 34-year-old precedent and held that property owners—like all other Americans—are ...


09.24.18

CEQA Reform—Relief on Aesthetics? ‘I just don’t see it’

Just as the Court of Appeal inked and agreed to publish what many fear is a new and potentially sweeping avenue to challenge and invalidate negative declarations under the guise of “aesthetic” impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).


07.24.18

Will State Climate Policy Usurp Local Land Use Control?

The consequences of climate change are broadcast regularly: wildfires, sea-level rise, drought and others.


05.16.18

New Regulations Require Disclosure of Energy Use in Certain Buildings

On March 7, 2018, the California Energy Commission (CEC) implemented the regulations behind California Assembly Bill 802 (AB 802). AB 802 directed the CEC to create a statewide building energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program for buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.


12.21.17

New Trump Tax Plan’s Impact on Real Estate

On Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, Congress passed a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax reform of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.


12.18.17

Los Angeles Adopts Affordable Housing ‘Linkage Fee’

The newly adopted Affordable Housing Linkage Fee will be assessed against all commercial and residential developers in order to help pay for affordable housing in the city.


07.18.17

EIR Need Not Analyze Consistency With GHG Executive Order

The California Supreme Court upheld the San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS) and concluded that CEQA does not necessarily mandate that the environmental impact report (EIR) include an analysis of consistency ...