Tips for Complying with the FPPC’s Revised “500 Foot Rule” Addressing When Public Officials Have a Conflict of Interest in Decisions Potentially Affecting Their Real Property
As local government officials and attorneys are no doubt aware, the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has once again changed its rule regarding property-related conflicts of interest. On January 17, 2019, the FPPC amended Regulation 18702.2, which governs whether public officials have a conflict of interest in governmental decisions potentially affecting their real property. Recent […]
Supreme Court Reaches Major Takings Decision in Knick v. Township of Scott
Photo Credit: Sunira Moses, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania. The decision has significant implications for state and local government agencies faced with regulatory takings claims under the Fifth Amendment. (SMW filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of eight state and […]
Coyote Valley Saved!
The firm works with the Peninsula Open Space Trust, the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, and the City of San Jose to preserve 937 acres in Coyote Valley for wildlife and open space in 2019. SMW partners Bill White, Tamara Galanter, and Sara Clark receive the 2020 California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year (CLAY) […]
Multi-Million Dollar Naming Rights Agreement for a Public Facility
In coordination with special counsel, the firm assisted the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) in the negotiation of a 2017 agreement for the rights to name the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco. The agreement will produce more than $110 million in aggregate escalated revenue over the 25-year term, offsetting the cost to operate the […]
Limits on Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate
In 2018, on behalf of As You Sow, the firm settles its Proposition 65 case against the leading chocolate companies over lead and cadmium in chocolate products. The settlement establishes limits on the amount of lead and cadmium in these products and convened an expert panel to identify methods for reducing these levels.
Natural Gas Power Plant Denied
The firm represents the City of Oxnard in 2018 before the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission in its successful opposition to the location of a natural gas-fired power plant on the beach in Oxnard. This effort sets the stage for California’s adoption of energy storage and other preferred resources as a […]
No Vested Right to Quarry Expansion
The firm succeeds in the court of appeal in a case challenging Mendocino County’s approval of a large expansion of a quarry. (Keep the Code v. Mendocino County (2018).) The court agreed with the firm’s position that quarry activities occurring almost 50 years earlier did not establish a vested right to expand the mine.
Conservationists Set Sights on Preserving a Petaluma Historic Ranch, Enhancing a Regional Park
Working closely with the Earth Island Institute’s Kelly Creek Protection Project, in 2018 the firm negotiates an innovative purchase and sale agreement with a property owner that will limit development on an environmentally and historically sensitive parcel of land and extend Sonoma County’s Helen Putnam Regional Park.
SMW Defeats New Railyard Next to Disadvantaged Long Beach Community
The City of Long Beach, represented by the firm and joined by five other petitioner groups and the Attorney General, prevails in a CEQA challenge to the controversial “SCIG” railyard, whose air pollution threatened the health of nearby residents and schoolchildren. The court of appeal orders the approval rescinded. (City of Long Beach v. City […]
Getting Infrastructure Right for People and Marine Life
The California Public Utilities Commission approves a desalination plant required to provide water to the Monterey Peninsula without overdrawing the Carmel River. Project proponents wanted an oversized plant, discharging excessive, harmful brine into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. If the plant is ever built, the firm’s work will ensure the plant is a more […]