The Oregon Court of Appeals decided today that Metro’s urban and rural reserves have four legal defects and large parts must be done over.
February 20, 2014
Beware! Builders Targeted by Patent Trolling Company
February 19, 2014
Last week, several Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan area home builders received a demand letter from Savannah IP, Inc (“Savannah”) asserting patent rights over certain commonly used moisture removal processes.
Stuck Between a Rock and a Crusher
February 11, 2014
In a tough aggregate case, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against Kittitas County, for two reasons.
NPDES Phase I Municipal Stormwater Permit Decision Coming Soon!
January 23, 2014
A decision will be issued on or around February 28 regarding PCHB NOS. 12-093c.
Washington House Bill 2293
January 15, 2014
Representative Pike and others just dropped House Bill 2293, which would create triggers for the review of rules, permits, or guidelines by the joint administrative rules review committee. The triggers would be based on (1) an economic impact of ten million…
Is Household Formation Coming? And What Does it Look Like?
January 14, 2014
Here is an interesting paper just issued by the Kansas City Federal Reserve regarding the state of household formation in the United States, one of the largest drivers and predictors of future housing growth. The paper suggests that the robust growth…
Woodburn UGA – Strike Two
January 10, 2014
The Oregon Court of Appeals kicked off the new land use year with a reprise of its 2010 opinion rejecting the City of Woodburn’s urban growth boundary expansion. In 2005, the city decided to expand its urban growth boundary to…
The Third Special Session—A SEPA Reform Bill Got Introduced Amongst All the Jet Engine Noise
November 11, 2013
Governor Inslee called a third special session in Washington this past week to assist Boeing. Measures include aircraft tax incentives, set to expire in 2024, getting a 16-year extension to 2040, money for aerospace training, and a streamlined permitting system to…
Reflections from the NPDES Phase I Municipal Stormwater Permit Appeal – The Spooky Halloween Post
October 31, 2013
On Thursday, October 24, after three weeks of testimony on the Phase I permit (and some issues from the Phase II permit), the trial at the Pollution Control Hearings Board concluded. Clearly, stormwater management in Washington is a very complicated…
Stormwater Appeal Update
October 17, 2013
BIA of Clark County and the counties of Pierce, King, Snohomish and Clark, and cities of Seattle and Tacoma, along with a number of smaller Phase II jurisdictions concluded their case in chief this week challenging various aspects of Ecology’s…
