The court remanded for modification an injunction imposed against a corporation for soil and groundwater contamination in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The injunction required the corporation to prevent the release of further contaminants into soil and groundwater; to test for migration and to remedy any ...
A California appellate court affirmed a lower court's denial of a petition for a writ of mandamus to reverse a public agency's sale of land to the Tuolumne Board of Me-Wuk Indians. The land contained a disused but historic railroad right-of-way. A community group argued that the transfer fell within...
A district court held that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) arbitrarily and capriciously denied petitions to list certain genetically engineered varieties of grasses as noxious weeds under the Plant Protection Act. APHIS' insistence that international obligations require that p...
A California appellate court reversed in part a lower court decision denying a neighborhood association's petition to set aside agreements between a city and developers to build a housing project in West Hollywood. Although the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the developer...
A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision denying an environmental group's petition challenging a local board's approval of a development project in Monterey County. The group argued that by approving the project with a mitigated negative declaration (MND) in lieu of an environmenta...
The court upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's lawsuit against a state agency and its officials seeking to enjoin the agency from conducting dredging operations in a canal until it complies with an earlier order by the state environmental appeals board remanding a dredging permit for a p...
A court upheld a town's right to regulate development through zoning that prevents development in flood plains. Landowners filed suit against the town after their property was rezoned from a light industrial zone to a flood-prone conservancy zone. A state land court ruled that the town's action was ...
A California appellate court held that the doctrine of equitable estoppel does not bar the California Coastal Commission from ordering homeowners to remove a private three-hole golf course from around their house and to restore the area to its native sand dune vegetation. The property was burdened b...
A California court upheld the dismissal of a petition under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenging a city's approval of a redevelopment project involving both the rehabilitation of a historic theater and the construction of an adjacent multi-screen cineplex and parking structure...
New York's highest court ordered the modification of a lower court decision reversing a local agency's denial of a landowner's request for a variance to build an underground sewage treatment system within the New York City watershed. The agency denied the variance application because the landowner f...