Articles

Plan Bay Area argument set for May 31

May 23, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Next Tuesday, May 31, the California Court of Appeal will hear argument over the legality of Plan Bay Area — the plan to restrict future development in all but a tiny fraction of the already incredibly expensive Bay Area. The Court will consider whether regional agencies were free to ignore the plan’s significant environmental consequen ...

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Zoning people out of cities

August 11, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

A recent New York Times article reports that Americans are moving in droves from expensive, highly centralized cities to cities with more affordable housing. In the last ten years, the number of people who moved more than 500 miles cited the cost of housing as their main motivation. Large cities on the eastern seaboard and … ...

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President's weekly report — June 13, 2014

June 13, 2014 | By ROB RIVETT

Property Rights — Hearing on the One-Plan-to-Rule-Them-All A San Francisco Superior Court heard arguments on Thursday in Bay Area Citizens v. Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.  This case is our challenge to “Plan Bay Area” a multi-jurisdictional juggernaut of a land use plan that ...

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The Bay Area's ignored citizens will finally be heard

June 09, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This Thursday, June 12th, I will be arguing PLF’s challenge to Plan Bay Area in Alameda County Superior Court. As readers will recall, PLF’s client Bay Area Citizens challenges the plan — and its dozens of significant environmental impacts — because the agencies misled public and failed to property analyze the impacts of the ...

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Briefing complete in challenge to Plan Bay Area

May 01, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Today, we filed our last brief in the trial court before the hearing in our challenge, on behalf of the nonprofit Bay Area Citizens, to the adoption of Plan Bay Area.  (We filed our opening motion in March, and the respondent agencies filed their opposition brief in April).  The case is set for a hearing … ...

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President's weekly report — March 14, 2014

March 14, 2014 | By ROB RIVETT

Property Rights — Supreme Court Victory! The United States Supreme Court handed down an 8 – 1 victory in Brandt v. United States, a case brought and argued by our allies at Mountain States Legal Foundation.  As explained more in our blog here and in our amicus brief,  Brandt involved an attempt by the United States … ...

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Opening salvo in Bay Area Citizens v. Association of Bay Area Governments

March 13, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

This week, we filed our opening brief in the trial court in PLF’s challenge to Plan Bay Area.  We represent the Bay Area Citizens, a group of concerned Bay Area residents who object to the Plan’s “stack and pack” and anti-personal-commute-vehicle approach to land-use planning.  The heart of our case is the argument that th ...

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An inconvenient truth : Stack-and-pack going down in Tinseltown

December 16, 2013 | By JONATHAN WOOD

As readers know, PLF is representing the Bay Area Citizens—a non-profit organization that represents citizens opposed to excessively burdensome regulations in the region—in their challenge to Plan Bay Area. Plan Bay Area is designed to pack the vast majority of future development in the region into approximately 5% of its’ surface ...

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Plan Bay Area oped

November 21, 2013 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Yesterday, the Washington Times published an oped I co-authored with Randall O’Toole of the Cato Institute.  Entitled provocatively, “Do single-family homes threaten the planet?“, Mr. O’Toole and I take aim at the foolish premise of Plan Bay Area and other instances of the new urbanism.  We argue that there are many much m ...