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San Joaquin County Land Use & Development Articles



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McKinley Park’s $15.6M Facelift Also Restoring Hope for a Neglected Stockton Neighborhood

BRENDA HUGGINS HAS lived a few blocks from McKinley Park in South Stockton for all of her life. And she’s thrilled her childhood playground is about to get a much-needed facelift.

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Controversial Housing Law Could Get a Makeover

Some of California’s top lawmakers want to clear up, but also rein in, the “builder’s remedy.”

Local News Matters Stockton logo LOCAL NEWS
Stockton Council Turns Away Motion to Add Controversial Publisher to Planning Board

AN ATTEMPT TO add controversial website founder Motecuzoma Sanchez to another city commission during the March 19 City Council meeting ended abruptly when a motion to confirm his appointment failed to be seconded.

Image caption: 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

The Williamson Act, passed in 1965, now keeps more than 16 million acres of farmland out of the hands of developers. Here's how the law puts the brakes on the development of California agricultural properties.

Image caption: 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

The California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, is both the state’s signature environmental legislation, and is also often named as the villain in the state’s housing shortage. But the story may not be that simple.

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Silicon Valley Billionaires vs. Bay Area’s Housing Crisis?

In NYT’s “The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted,” we meet a man who wants to build a city in the middle of nowhere, and folks who are slowing him down.

Image caption: 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

How California’s 10 state conservancies buy up open land and shield it from developers to preserve the natural environment for public use.

Image caption: The roundabout joining Highway 12 and State Route 113 in Rio Vista, just south of the site for a proposed new city of 400,000 people.
Solano County May Get to Vote on New City in November

California Forever, the company behind a proposed new city in Solano County, will submit a ballot measure seeking an exemption from local laws to allow development on the massive project to proceed.

Image caption: "Impact fees" add thousands to the cost of building new housing. The Supreme Court could end them.
SCOTUS Hears California Case That Could Make it Cheaper to Build Housing

The highest court in the land will soon decide how much leeway cities and counties have in offsetting new construction with fees to pay for infrastructure.

Image caption: The state has $576 million to dole out to affordable housing developers. They say they need $3.5 billion.
End-of-Year Affordable Housing Funding Blast Comes Up Short

The state has hundreds of millions to spend on affordable housing. Developers say they need billions.

Image caption: Warehouse storage is just one aspect of the highly complex logistics industry that keeps supply chains running.
Logistics: the Crucial Industry You’ve Never Heard Of

Logistics is one of the largest industries in California and keeps the state economy running. But it also comes with a heavy cost to the environment. Here are the facts on the most important industry you don't know much about, …

Image caption: Since 1972, the California Coastal Commission has ruled over the state’s shoreline.
California Coastal Commission: Where It Comes From, What It Does

What is the California Coastal Commission? How one of the state’s most powerful agency protects public access to the state’s scenic coast from Mexico to Oregon.

Image caption: Conservation director Bryan Largay helps the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County choose its priorities.
A Conversation with California Conservationist Bryan Largay

The conservation director of Land Trust of Santa Cruz talks about the highlights of his work, and some of the issues he sees in maintaining California’s parks.

Image caption: California Forever, a company that wants to use Silicon Valley cash to develop a new city, promises to open a "conversation" with Solano County residents about it.
California Forever: Tech Investors Begin PR Campaign for New City

California Forever, the company backed by billionaire Silicon Valley investors that wants to build a new city in Solano County, has posted a new website in an attempt to start a "conversation" about the massive project.

Image caption: Disney’s planned community of Celebration in Florida is far from Walt Disney’s earlier vision of a utopian city.
Solano County Planned City Latest in a California Tradition

Silicon Valley billionaires want to create a new city in Solano County. How have planned cities fared in California? From Lakewood to Irvine to Disney’s new Cotino, there have been many.

Image caption: One of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River targeted for demolition.
Dam Demolition Gets Going. Can Klamath River be Saved?

As four aging hydroelectric dams are demolished, tribes and communities along the Klamath River wait anxiously to see what the future holds. “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” experts ask.

Image caption: About 52,000 acres land in Solano County, southwest of Sacramento and east of the Napa Valley, will become a new “megacity” if a group of tech titans get their way.
Tech Titans Revealed as Buyers of $1 Billion of Land in Solano County

The mysterious buyers of $1 billion worth of Solano County land have been revealed as a consortium of Silicon Valley billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch.

Image caption: 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

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

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Working Together: TTCF and California Local

A conversation with Stacy Caldwell, CEO of Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation

Image caption: Unexplained land purchases surrounding Travis Air Force Base on three sides have raised national security fears among U.S. officials.
Why Is a Mysterious Company Buying Land Around Travis AFB?

Travis Air Force Base in Solano County is now surrounded on three sides by a Delaware company with millions of dollars and no public record of who is behind it. And the federal government hasn’t been able to solve the …

Featured

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.
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