ELR Citation: ELR 20127
No(s). S123659 (Cal. Jun 29, 2006)

The court holds that the California Timberland Productivity Act of 1982 (TPA) and general state forestry law do not preempt two county zoning ordinances relating to the permissible locations for timber operations. One ordinance restricts timber harvesting to specified zone districts within the county, and the other limits the parcels on which helicopter operations associated with such harvesting may occur. Lumber companies argue that the ordinances were preempted by state law. But local zoning ordinances like the county's zone district ordinance, that speak to the location of timber operations but not to the manner in which they are carried out, are not expressly preempted by the TPA. Nor is the zoning ordinance impliedly preempted by general state forestry law. Similarly, the helicopter ordinance is not preempted because it is a locational zoning provision that regulates not how timber operations may be conducted, but rather where they may take place. The lower court's decision to the contrary, therefore, is reversed.