Lex and the City - Land Use and Planning Law Conference

Annual Central California Land Use And Planning Conference
(7.5 hours of MCLE and AICP/CPDP credit including one hour of ethics)

Join us in Avila Beach on April 16th!
This one-day intensive conference at the Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort in Avila Beach provides a Central California venue and quality source for practical information and timely updates on California land use and environmental legislation, regulations, and court decisions, as well as on emerging issues likely to shape land use and development in the near future. This year's list of featured update subjects includes:

2009 Land Use Legislation
General Plans & Zoning
Takings & Exactions
Subdivision Map Act
Affordable Housing & Inclusionary Programs
Initiatives and Referenda
Historical Preservation
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Endangered Species, Wetlands & Natural Resources

New Information relevant to today's tough economic realities

Special Seminar on Recession Ghost Towns
The rising number of abandoned or foreclosed projects, developer bankruptcies and citizens living in unfinished complexes is having a dramatic effect on communities. Cities and counties are receiving repeated requests for extensions of time to start projects from cash-strapped builders. Improvement bonds are often proving insufficient or unenforceable. How do public agencies deal with these issues? And what opportunities might exist for developers to negotiate with cities and counties to take over and complete the projects? What risks exist for taking over these partially built communities? Cecily Talbert Barclay of Bingham McCutchen and David Barclay of Barclay Consulting Group will provide strategies for all groups struggling to tackle these problems head on.

Special Workshop: Stormy Waters Ahead
What Implementation of California's New NEPDES Construction General Permit, SB 790 and the Revised MS4 (Municipal Permits) Mean For You

Stormwater is the most rapidly evolving area of environmental regulation in California. Recent administrative and legislative actions have introduced a new chapter in how stormwater is regulated: late last year the Governor signed SB 790 into law creating a new framework for how California municipalities address stormwater and contemporaneously the SWRCB adopted a new NEPDES Construction and Land Disturbance General Permit effective July 1, 2010 which marks a dramatic shift in the State Board's approach to regulating new and redevelopment sites and imposes new affirmative duties and fixed standards on builders and developers. Finally, several Regional Boards have adopted new municipal storm water permits which include significant new regulations impacting development projects. Learn how the stormwater game has changed and how you can incorporate the new requirements into your operations. Ella Foley Gannon of Bingham McCutchen will outline the changes and how public agencies can meet the new laws.

Luncheon Address: Adaptation to Climate Change:
Applying Principles of Adaptation to Land Use Decisions in the Coastal Zone

The California Coastal Act of 1976 ushered in an era of new land use planning in California. Local governments prepared and implemented Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) to carry out the Coastal Act’s mandates to protect coastal resources and provide public access to our shoreline. In the last three decades LCPs have become an important part of California’s coastal zone management program but the Commission and many local governments realize that LCPs need to be updated to remain effective. Significant changes have occurred that directly impact efforts to protect California’s coast, to reduce risks to life and property, and to avoid substantial changes to natural landforms. Population and development patterns have changed, leading to new pressures on resources and access. New non-point source pollution laws are in place. Scientists have learned more about sensitive species, habitats and other coastal resources. One of if not the most significant change impacting our Coast is climate change.

Climate change and its associated sea level rise are real concerns that must be considered in land use decisions. If adaptation is coping with those impacts that cannot be avoided, then LCPs have great potential to guide development and land use options and choices so as to increase adaptive capacity to climate change while discouraging patterns of development that can undermine these advances by exposing populations and property to ever-higher levels of climate risk.

Charles Lester, Senior Deputy Director of the California Coastal Commission and Director of the Commission’s Central Coast and North Central Coast District offices, responsible for Coastal Act compliance in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties, will discuss recent Commission decisions and policy concerns and provide practical guidance for coastal communities in developing, amending, and updating LCPs to guide adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

Ethics Review: What Would You Do?
Experts will discuss ethical quandaries in planning and CEQA contexts using scenarios from actual disciplinary cases and ethics opinions. One hour of ethics credit (AICP/CPDP and MCLE)

Post Conference Reception
All those attending are invited to join conference faculty, speakers, sponsors, and fellow attendees following the program at 5:30 pm.

Sponsoring Winery: Coquelicot Estate Vineyard