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Placer County Land Use & Development Articles



Image caption: LAFCOs were created in part to rein in suburban sprawl.
LAFCOs Are No Joke: The Boards That Set Government Boundaries

What’s a LAFCO? That’s the odd-sounding acronym for the independent boards that get a grip on suburban sprawl and government inefficiency.

Image caption: A Senate bill to create zoning laws that promote affordable housing has been met with protest in Santa Cruz.
Bill to Allow More Housing Meets Protest in Santa Cruz

A State Senate bill would allow quick rezoning for multi-family housing, as a new research study reveals the high cost of single-family zoning laws.

Image caption: Participants in a recent board meeting of the Mountain Housing Council of Tahoe Truckee discuss affordable housing in the wake of a pandemic-fueled boom in real estate prices.
Paradise Found

A pandemic-fueled real estate boom has exploded in the Tahoe-Truckee region. Mountain Housing Council is working to ensure that locals can keep their own little slices of heaven.

Image caption: Cal Fire personnel engaged in live fire training in Williams, California.
Fighting Fire With Fire

What is California’s Forest Management Task Force and what does it do?

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Zoning laws tell you what you can and can't build on the property you own. How does government get away with that?
How Zoning Laws Shape California and Society
Zoning is everywhere, but is it a way to regulate development or a tool for social engineering?
How California reclamation districts turned millions of acres of wetlands into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush.
Reclamation Districts: Turning ‘Swamps’ Into Farmland
From its earliest days as a state, California has been trying to turn marshes into productive land.
Since 1972, the California Coastal Commission has ruled over the state’s shoreline.
California Coastal Commission: Where It Comes From, What It Does
How a nuclear plant, a real estate development and an oil spill led to a landmark law.
The Baldwin Hills area in South Los Angeles is one region where a state conservancy would keep open land accessible to the public.
California’s 10 State Conservancies: How They Protect Parks and Open Land
Starting in 1976, the legislature began creating agencies to buy up open land, and keep it open.
Does California’s signature environmental law protect the state’s scenic beauty, or cause more problems than it solves?
CEQA: The Surprising Story of CA’s Key Environmental Law
54-year-old environmental law is often blamed for causing the state’s housing crisis. Is it getting a bad rap?
The 1965 law known as the Williamson Act has been responsible for keeping about half of California's farmland out of the hands of developers.
The Williamson Act: How the Law That Protects California’s Farmland Works
More than half of California farmland is under contracts that prevent its development.