Updates and Articles
Firm Victory Clarifies Eminent Domain Rules
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger won a significant victory for longtime client Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) when the Third District Court of Appeal upheld a favorable eminent domain jury verdict in Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency v. Dhaliwal (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 1315. The case was tried by the firm’s veteran trial attorney, Andrew Schwartz, and defended on appeal by Mr. Schwartz and SMW’s Catherine...
Read MorePractical Tips for Updating Sign Ordinances Post-Reed v. Town of Gilbert
The dust is still settling from the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, AZ, 135 S.Ct. 2218 (2015), a case challenging the Town of Gilbert’s sign ordinance as a content based and unconstitutional regulation of speech. The Court sided with the challengers, a small church and its pastor, who had faced numerous regulatory obstacles to erecting temporary signs directing members to services, which were held...
Read MoreGreenhouse Gas Emission Thresholds Upheld
The firm defends the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in litigation challenging its CEQA thresholds of significance. After a ruling of the California Supreme Court, the majority of the thresholds are upheld. (California Building Industry Assn. v. BAAQMD, 62 Cal.4th 369 (2015).)
Read MoreCourt Overturns End-Run to Subdivision Map Act
The firm prevails in the court of appeal in a case of first impression challenging Contra Costa County's approval of a subdivision on agricultural land adjacent to Marsh Creek State Park without Subdivision Map Act compliance. (Save Mount Diablo v. Contra Costa County, 240 Cal.App.4th 1368 (2015).)
Read MoreSMW Leads Sale of Land for Transit Oriented Development in San Francisco
The firm helps the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) and the successor to the San Francisco redevelopment agency negotiate the 2015 sale of land for the development of Park Tower. Later, the firm negotiates the sale of Parcel F, the future site of the fourth tallest building in San Francisco, bringing the total land sale proceeds for the transit center to more than $660 million.
Read MoreShort Term Rental Initiative Approved
In 2015 voters in Mammoth Lakes pass an initiative, drafted by the firm, requiring voter approval of changes to City zoning prohibiting short-term rentals in most residential neighborhoods.
Read MoreJury Finds in Favor of TJPA
Photo Credit: Rendering by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, courtesy of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority The firm wins a victory on behalf of the Transbay Joint Powers Agency in an eminent domain jury trial to acquire a five-story office building to be demolished for the Transit Center, bus ramp, and rail tunnel. (City and County of San Francisco v. 564 Howard Street (2015).)
Read MoreSMW Advises on Transbay Transit Center Funding District
Photo credit: Fullmetal2887, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons In 2015 the firm advises the Transbay Joint Powers Agency in helping San Francisco create a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District that requires developers to pay a special tax to fund the Transit Center's rooftop park, Downtown Rail Extension, and other infrastructure in the Transit Center District.
Read MoreSMW Assists Five Cities in Successful Opposition to Dangerous Freeway Extension
Photo credit: Ken Lund, Flickr In 2015 the firm represents South Pasadena and four other cities in opposing a plan by Caltrans and the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority to extend the SR-710 freeway under the City of Pasadena. Thanks in large part to the firm's critique of the environmental impact report for the project, the transportation agencies select another alternative, which maximizes the efficiency of...
Read MoreSMW Chairs Conservation Law Forum
In 2015, firm partner Tamara Galanter begins chairing and helping organize the Conservation Law Forum for the California Council of Land Trusts.
Read MoreSolar Energy Project Ground Lease
On behalf of Marin Clean Energy, California’s first community choice aggregation agency, the firm negotiated a ground lease with Chevron, Inc. for the financing and construction of a 10 Megawatt solar energy project on brownfields in the City of Richmond at the Chevron Refinery.
Read MoreColumbia State Historic Park Protected From Mine Expansion
In response to litigation by the firm, Tuolumne County agrees to rescind its approval of the expansion of a limestone mine near Columbia State Historic Park and to prepare an environmental impact report for the project. (Central Sierra Env'l Resource Ctr. v. Tuolumne County (2014).)
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