A court held that a city cannot disregard the mitigating conditions it placed on the demolition of certain buildings in its approval of a redevelopment project without conducting a supplemental California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review. The city claimed that the demolition at issue was not ...

The court upholds an individual's conviction for violating the Delaware Wetlands Act when he built an erosion barrier on wetlands on his waterfront property without a permit. The statute is not overly broad because it does not unnecessarily restrict his constitutional right to access navigable water...

A court holds that a county must set aside its approvals for a development project. The project is inconsistent with the county's general plan because it will cause an impermissible increase in traffic. In addition, the environmental impact report for the project must be set aside. It uses an improp...

The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §309, which preempts a state's statute of limitations if it provides a commencement date earlier than the federal commencement date, does not preempt Texas' 15-year statute of repose in a che...

A court holds that a city violated the California Environmental Quality Act in adopting revisions to its general plan with regard to unleashed dogs at a state beach. The city's initial study failed to adequately describe the impacts of off-leash dog use at the beach. Once the informational requireme...

The court dismisses various parties' challenges to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operation of the Missouri River main stem reservoir system and associated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wildlife assessments. The court dismissed as moot several claims concerning the conditional summer low f...

The court holds that an oil company's insurer must indemnify the company for environmental cleanup and abatement costs ordered by a state administrative agency. In a previous case concerning another insurer of the company, the court held that the insurer's duty to indemnify the company for "all sums...

The court holds that an insurance company need not indemnify a county for expenses it incurred in responding to an administrative agency order requiring it to remediate environmental contamination at a county landfill. The nonstandard, excess third-party liability policy at issue obligates the insur...

A court holds that portions of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a water quality improvement program in the San Francisco Bay comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. The court rejected the majority of challenges that concerned the adequacy of the EIR's analysis of impacts on the...

A court orders a lower court to grant a county's motion to dismiss on ripeness grounds an inverse condemnation action brought by a land developer. The developer argued that a land use regulation, as applied to its property, constituted a taking under the federal and California Constitutions. The cou...