Preservation of Piazzoni Murals With Asian Art Museum’s Move to Civic Center’s Old Main Library
In 1998 the firm advises the Asian Art Museum Foundation regarding local, state, and federal historic preservation laws during its renovation of the Old Main Library and relocation of the Piazzoni murals to the De Young Museum.
Settlement Protects Thousands of Acres of Viticulture and Open Space, Leading to Plan that Ensures City Centered Growth
The firm helps the City of Livermore negotiate a complex settlement agreement that results in 1998 in the award-winning South Livermore Valley Specific Plan. The Plan allows focused development, curbs urban sprawl, and protects over 5,000 acres of viticulture and open space.
Legislation Empowers Treasure Island Development Authority
The firm and the Office of the San Francisco City Attorney draft and the legislature passes the 1997 Treasure Island Conversion Act (AB 699), the enabling statute for the Treasure Island Development Authority, giving TIDA the power to redevelop and administer the former military base.
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 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.
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.
California Supreme Court Upholds Napa County Initiative
The firm successfully defends Napa County in a California Supreme Court case challenging Measure J, a farmland protection initiative drafted by the firm. In a ground-breaking ruling, the court holds that voters have the right to amend general plans by initiative. (DeVita v. County of Napa, 9 Cal.4th 763 (1995).)