State Lands Commission Sues to Overturn San Francisco's Prop B

Not so fast, San Francisco Prop B (the approved measure requiring voter approval for projects exceeding height limits along the waterfront). The State Lands Commission has a legal bone to pick.

1 minute read

July 16, 2014, 8:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


"The State Lands Commission filed suit Tuesday to overturn San Francisco's voter-approved limits on high-rise buildings along the city's waterfront, arguing that the lands belong to the state and are managed by the Port Commission, not the city and its voters," reports Bob Egelko.

A similar suit was filed in February by a developer-backed group hoping to remove Prop B from the ballot, but "Superior Court Judge Marla Miller allowed the vote to proceed, ruling in March that the developers had not clearly shown that Prop. B was invalid. She cited numerous past local ballot measures, some developer-sponsored, that sought to regulate San Francisco waterfront lands."

But the way the Lands Commission sees it, they transferred the waterfront land to the city back in 1968 with stipulations: "According to the Lands Commission suit, the shoreline consists of tidelands that California obtained as state property when it became a state in 1850. The state transferred the land to the city in a 1968 law that specified it would be managed by the autonomous Port Commission and not by city officials or voters, the suit said."

Tuesday, July 15, 2014 in San Francisco Chronicle

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