Updates and Articles
Protected: Protection of Affordable Housing in San Francisco
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Read MoreSMW Selected as Legal Counsel to Transbay Joint Powers Authority
In 2005 the firm is selected as legal counsel to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), the public agency charged with delivering a multi-modal transit hub in downtown San Francisco. The firm has been honored to serve as legal counsel to the agency for more than 15 years.
Read MoreSMW Helps El Segundo Combat Adverse Airport Impacts from LAX
The firm negotiates a global settlement of a dispute over the expansion of the Los Angeles International Airport, limiting the size of the expansion, mitigating its impacts on neighbors, and assisting in the development of a long-term regional strategy to satisfy aviation demand through other airports in the Los Angeles area. (El Segundo v. Los Angeles (2005).)
Read MoreSMW’s Defense of Affordable Housing
Photo Credit: Satellite Affordable Housing Associates The firm successfully defends a challenge to an affordable housing project for low-income seniors in Berkeley. (Bowman v. City of Berkeley, 122 Cal.App.4th 572 (2004).)
Read MoreSuccessful Defense of Transbay Transit Center
Photo credit: Sergio Ruiz, Flickr, CC BY 2.0 The firm and the San Francisco City Attorney's office in 2005 successfully defend the Transbay Joint Powers Agency against challenges to its CEQA/NEPA compliance for the Transit Center, Downtown Rail Extension, and associated redevelopment.
Read MoreSMW Defends Ability Of NGOs to Enforce Clean Water Act
The firm obtains a ruling from the Ninth Circuit holding that an environmental organization gave adequate notice of its intent to sue under the Clean Water Act. (Waterkeepers Northern Cal. v. AG Industrial Manufacturing, Inc. (2004).)
Read MoreCourt Upholds Lake Tahoe Scenic Regulations
Representing the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the firm secures a federal court victory in a regulatory takings challenge to TRPA's scenic regulations that apply to development on Lake Tahoe. (Committee for Reasonable Regulation of Lake Tahoe v. TRPA, 311 F.Supp.2d 972 (2004).)
Read MoreAcquisition of Property for Transit Oriented Development
The firm represents the Transbay Joint Powers Agency in the acquisition of 26 properties for the Transbay Transit Center project over ten years starting in 2005, including 13 eminent domain actions.
Read MoreCity Reverses Course on Monster Home Ordinance
After the firm files a referendum on behalf of a community group against a Menlo Park ordinance that would have eased restrictions on monster homes, the City Council in 2004 votes to rescind the ordinance.
Read MoreSMW Helps Community Stop A Flawed High-Voltage Transmission Line
In 2004 the firm represents Riverside County residents before the California Public Utilities Commission, which rejects a deeply flawed San Diego Gas & Electric Company proposal to build a high-voltage transmission line directly through their communities and scenic areas.
Read MoreSMW Advises Merced County on University Community Plan
Photo Credit: Qymekkam, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Assisted by the firm, Merced County in 2004 adopts the University Community Plan for the land uses and infrastructure necessary to support the new UC Merced campus.
Read MoreVoters in City of Orange Pass Referendum of Sprawl Development Project
Voters in the City of Orange in 2004 pass a referendum, drafted by the firm, that rejects the Fieldstone project, which would have allowed sprawl development on 110 acres of valuable open space.
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