Posts Tagged ‘environmentalists’
The Weekly 3: Land Development
August 2, 2010
What are the three biggest stories each week in the world of California land development? You’ll find them right here each Monday, or follow LP&A all week long on Twitter at @LPALand for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. This week:
What could you do with this raw land?
1. Builders beginning to buy raw land with eye on market turnaround.
Standard Pacific CEO Ken Campbell made the news recently when he predicted a 2014 housing comeback and said he’s buying raw land in a big way. That’s a sure sign the supply of already-approved lots is drying up … and it also means there will be a new wave of activism from the environmentalist/NIMBY cabal. New legislation and policy have prioritized infill development and attempted to make greenfield development neighborhood non grata in California. That will make entitlement a challenge … but one with great potential financial upsides for those who purchase wisely.
The Weekly 3: Land Development
What are the three biggest stories each week in the world of California land development? You’ll find them right here each Monday, or follow LP&A all week long on Twitter at @LPALand for up-to-the-minute news and analysis. This week:
1. Is Developing Alameda Point worth the hassle?
Alameda Point - What Could Have Been
The city of Alameda voted last week to terminate an exclusive negotiating agreement with SunCal for development of the city’s former Navy base, which closed 15 years ago. SunCal invested nearly $15 million during its four-year process, but was stymied by ever-changing political winds, a city staff with personal agendas and a public that’s not happy without a fight on its hands. SunCal came on board in 2006 after a partnership of Shea and Catellus got fed up and walked away, which begs the question: Is developing Alameda Point worth the hassle? >>Read More
Water Bond Battle Already Underway
We recently attended the Southern California Water Committee board of directors meeting and were very pleased by that group’s early and unanimous support of the $11 billion water bond that will be on this November’s ballot.
Laer Pearce & Associates played a small but important part in getting the comprehensive water legislation passed last November, pulling together a coalition of important local business organizations and taking their pro-water message to Orange County’s Sacramento delegation. We’re proud that an OC senator, Tom Harmon, was the deciding vote in favor of the bond.
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To “Save the Planet,” California must be America’s growth leader
If America’s greenest metro areas are in California, why do environmentalists make it so hard to build here?
The answer may benefit your project.
It may come as a surprise to you, but you’ve probably been indoctrinated by the environmental movement. Don’t think so? Well, just answer this question: Is LA – sprawling, smoggy, freeway crisscrossed LA – a “green” city or a “brown” city?
If you answered “brown,” you’re wrong. It turns out that Los Angeles is the fourth greenest metropolitan area in the country. Why’s that? Because the climate here is temperate, so LA’s carbon footprint for air conditioning is less than Atlanta’s or Houston’s, and its footprint for heating is smaller than that of Minneapolis or Chicago. So says a study by Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, UCLA and Harvard profs respectively.
