For many California property owners and developers, the California Environmental Quality Act is the most significant legal hurdle between a project and a building permit. CEQA’s environmental review process can take months or years and expose approved projects to litigation from neighbors, advocacy groups, and project opponents who use the statute’s private right of action… Read more »
A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is something California property owners, buyers, developers, and lenders encounter routinely in real estate transactions. Yet the legal significance of that document is frequently misunderstood. A Phase I ESA is not a clean bill of health. It is not a guarantee of no liability. And the absence of a… Read more »
Two environmental review statutes shape most significant land use and development decisions in California: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). They operate on different legal tracks, carry different procedural requirements, and expose property owners and developers to different categories of risk. Knowing which law applies, or whether both… Read more »
Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk, has decided to build a 500,000 unit per year battery factory (Gigafactory) in Sparks, Nevada. This facility, desgned to be as large as nearly 200 football fields, will employ tens of thousands and contribute billions of dollars per year to the local economy. Destined to come online in 2017, the Gigafactory’s goal is… Read more »
