Water is not a free resource in California. The right to use it is a property right. It is governed by a complex body of law that can significantly affect what a landowner can do with their land. A ranch that depends on a creek for irrigation, a development project requiring a new well, or… Read more »
The Biggest Rewrite of California’s Environmental Law in Fifty Years Just Happened, and More Is Coming For most of its history, the California Environmental Quality Act has been one of the most powerful tools available to anyone who wants to slow down, condition, or stop a development project. Enacted in 1970, CEQA requires public agencies… Read more »
Groundwater Rights in California: What Property Owners Need to Know as SGMA Reshapes the Law The Water Beneath Your Land May Be Worth More Than the Land Itself, and the Law Is Changing In Merced County in 2017, a lender foreclosed on a ranch worth roughly $20 million. Beneath that ranch sat approximately 500,000… Read more »
