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.
"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."
FULL STORY: State Lands Commission files suit to overturn S.F.'s Prop. B
Trial Over San Francisco Waterfront Development Height Limits Begins
The State Lands Commission filed suit shortly after San Francisco voters approved Prop. B in June 2014, requiring waterfront developments exceeding height limits to obtain voter approval rather than go through the Planning Commission process.
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San Francisco Waterfront Heights Lawsuit Moves Forward
The lawsuit would not restrict heights—just the opposite. Back in June, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly backed Proposition B to restrict building heights along the waterfront. The State Lands Commission sued.
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The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association