California Development And Redevelopment

Each time Kevin Loder found a potential site for his lake in the desert, he'd call up his friend Laszlo Bayer and they'd drive out to have a look. One time they visited an old vineyard, another time a date farm, then a tract of cholla cacti. Loder would stop the car and ask his friend: "What do you think? Do you see it?" Bayer had to be blunt. He knew young Loder had a wife and three kids, and his insistence on chasing this lake dream had put the family through hard times. "No," he'd admit.

Residential and commercial construction is the leading threat to the vast array of animals and plants at risk of extinction in California, according to a report released Tuesday by a national conservation group. While logging, farming and water diversions often get the brunt of the blame, the National Wildlife Federation found that urban development poses a threat to more of California's endangered species.

California Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) hosted a legislative hearing in Los Angeles on Friday to explore the state's role in promoting smart growth: how to curb sprawl and wisely develop neglected and often polluted urban pockets from downtown to South-Central.

A $6-million plan to preserve 19,000 acres has been approved in the most expensive land-conservation project undertaken by Sonoma County's Open Space District. Cooley Ranch, one of the largest private land holdings in Northern California, would receive permanent protection from development under a proposal that received backing from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last week.

California's war on air pollution is beginning to falter as smog-control efforts increasingly fall behind the state's never-ending growth. From the Sierra Nevada to Ventura beaches, San Francisco Bay to the Salton Sea, some of the nation's most polluted regions are slipping in their commitment to clean air, according to air quality officials from around the state. The cost of delayed cleanup is prolonged damage to human lungs, spoiled forests and crops, and the pervasive pall of dirty air.

Poring over piles of maps and deeds in a bland government office, Larry Kelly might easily be mistaken for Dilbert's quintessential cubicle man. But the 54-year-old senior county planner is no common drone laboring listlessly behind his partition. Through a quirk of circumstances, key decisions about the future of the spectacular, 83,000-acre Hearst Ranch are being made not by some elected politician or blue ribbon committee but by this self-effacing, bespectacled government worker.

Lawmakers launched an eleventh-hour attempt Tuesday to thwart Hearst Corp. from subdividing some of California's most renowned coastal property as a prelude to opening it up to extensive development. Proponents of the bill hope it will not only protect the sweeping tablelands below Hearst Castle on the Central Coast but also curb an increasingly popular tactic of using historic property records to circumvent zoning restrictions and increase land values.

Over Republican complaints that they were being rushed, an Assembly committee passed legislation Wednesday designed to close a legal loophole that speculators have used to make millions by threatening to build on some of California's most treasured coastal lands. The 8-2 vote by the Local Government Committee will send the bill to the Assembly floor as early as Friday, where it could face determined opposition from real estate interests, including representatives of the Hearst family.

After 10 years of debate, Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that forces builders of large subdivisions to show that water supplies exist to support the hundreds of people who will move into their developments. Hailed by proponents as a rational way to regulate growth in arid, populous California, the bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) is the toughest yet enacted to link development and water supplies.

As Gov. Gray Davis ponders whether to sign a bill closing a loophole in land-use law that critics say has allowed speculators throughout the state to shake down taxpayers, a half-built housing project in Glendale has emerged as Exhibit A in a last-minute lobbying battle. Opponents of the bill, including a Texas investment group that owns the land, say the Mountain Oaks project illustrates everything bad about the legislation.