New Law Treats Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations like Retail Food Establishments for Health and Sanitation Standards Enforcement
I. SUMMARY Effective January 1, 2019, Assembly Bill 626 (“AB 626”) expands the scope of retail food sanitation standards to include “microenterprise home kitchen operations.” Similarly, Assembly Bill 2178 (“AB 2178”) applies food sanitation standards to “limited service charitable feeding operations.” While cities have discretion to authorize or prohibit the permitting of microenterprise home kitchen […]
New Law Authorizes Affordable Housing Authorities to Construct Emergency Shelters, Supportive Housing & Transitional Housing
I. SUMMARY The passage of Assembly Bill (“AB 1598”) in 2017 authorized cities to create Affordable Housing Authorities. Funded by tax-increment financing, these Affordable Housing Authorities were given power to provide affordable housing and affordable workforce housing and are distinct from other housing authorities with broader purposes. Recently, the Governor signed into law Assembly Bill […]
California Supreme Court clarifies that to be liable in inverse condemnation, damage to private property must be substantially caused by inherent risks associated with the design, construction, or maintenance of a public improvement.
I. SUMMARY The California Supreme Court recently held1 that the City of Oroville (“City”) was not liable in inverse condemnation when untreated sewage backed up into a dental office because the property owner failed to demonstrate the resulting damage was substantially caused by inherent risks in the design, construction, or maintenance of the sewer system. […]
City council meeting agendas must be posted prominently on a city’s internet homepage and must be searchable by commonly used internet search applications
SUMMARY In 2016, the Legislature adopted Assembly Bill 2257 (“AB 2257”) which amended Government Code Section 54954.2 by adding new requirements for posting city council agendas. Effective January 1, 2019, Gov. Code Section 54954.2(a)(2) requires that meeting agendas for all “legislative bodies” be posted on a city’s internet homepage, be retrievable, downloadable, indexable, electronically searchable, […]
Cities cannot limit public comments at special meetings based on comments at prior, distinct meetings.
SUMMARY On February 22, 2019, the California Second District Court of Appeal, in Preven v. City of L.A.,1 held that while the Brown Act allows for restricting public comment under certain conditions at regular meetings, the Act does not permit limiting comment at special city council meetings based on public comments at prior, distinct committee […]