Firm Helps Giants Ballpark Get Off the Ground
The San Francisco Giants ballpark at China Basin breaks ground in 1997 after the Port of San Francisco, with the firm’s help, successfully negotiates a design that the state finds consistent with the tidelands trust.
Port of San Francisco Adopts First Waterfront Land Use Plan
The Firm represents the Port of San Francisco in a negotiation with the State Lands Commission and BCDC that results in 1997 in adoption of the Port’s first Waterfront Land Use Plan.
Major Report Advocates a Triple Bottom Line for Sierra Communities
The firm assists the Sierra Business Council in preparing its award-winning 1997 book, Planning for Prosperity, designed to help rural Sierra communities plan wisely and effectively for their future.
SMW Defends Agricultural Preservation Initiative in City of Ventura
The firm successfully defeats a challenge to an agricultural preservation initiative passed by the voters of the City of Ventura. (FAIR v. City of San Buenaventura (1997).)
Federal Court Invalidates Approval of Hatton Canyon Freeway in Monterey County
The firm prevails in a federal court challenge to the Hatton Canyon Freeway, a proposed freeway that would have devastated a large Monterey Pine forest just east of Carmel. The federal and state transportation agencies drop the project, and the land becomes a regional park. (City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, 123 F.3d […]
SMW Helps City of Ventura Form Special Assessment District
Photo Credit: Ken Lund, Flickr The firm assists the City of Ventura in establishing a special assessment district to fund the removal of silt from the Ventura Keys, and then represents the City in its successful defense of a legal challenge to the district. (Aggen v. City of San Buenaventura (1997).)
Santa Clara County Parks and Trails Master Plan Approved
The firm advises Santa Clara County in 1996 in the development of its Parks and Trails Master Plan.
Point Reyes Water Quality Protected
The firm assists a coalition of conservation advocates in1996 in blocking expansion of the West Marin Sanitary Landfill in Point Reyes Station, which would have degraded water quality in the area.
SMW Advises Alameda on Cleanup and Reuse of Two Navy Bases
In 1996 the firm begins advising the City of Alameda on site cleanup of the former Naval Air Station and Fleet & Industrial Supply Center Navy bases and on environmental permitting and historical resources for site reuse. Large mixed-use projects come to fruition in 2006 and 2014.
SMW Drafts Numerous Urban Growth Boundary Initiatives
In 1996 the firm begins drafting a series of initiatives that establish urban growth boundaries limiting urban sprawl and promoting infill development in Sonoma and Solano Counties. Within a few years, there are UGBs in Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Petaluma, Sonoma, Cotati, Windsor, Fairfield, and Vacaville.