beyond the legal opinion
November 16, 2012
The Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”) announced their preferred alignment for the I-5 Reinforcement project today. The site contains a map along with other critical documents regarding the selection of this route. The BPA evaluated several alternatives and selected the central alternative that…
October 12, 2012
CNN money posted an interesting article this morning, which suggests that housing will reach peak levels by 2015. Furthermore, the article suggests what many of us in the industry have been forecasting for a long time: There will soon be an underserved housing…
September 26, 2012
Developers who spent months and possibly years on a project and have invested a tremendous amount of capital on architectural plans, engineering, environmental studies, required services studies, and economic viability studies required in the the land use process, may find themselves barred from proceeding further on their project, even though they believed they had final approval from a municipal government. This bar results from a local government’s ability to amend its development regulation
September 26, 2012
Government remains addicted to impact fees.Â
September 26, 2012
The Washington Supreme Court took up this question last month in oral arguments which can be seen inside.
September 20, 2012
“Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes[1].” To which we can add the corollary: ”and aging.” Baby Boomers, a major segment of U.S. demographics, are becoming senior citizens at the rate of 10,000 per day. With better health care and lifestyle choices, seniors…
August 21, 2012
Soundmarks are the unique sound identifiers of a place.
August 16, 2012
The Columbia River Economic Development Council has issued a call to action to streamline Washington’s permitting system. They essentially state that protecting the environment and economic development are not mutually exclusive, but that there needs to be a balance and…
July 24, 2012
Just one day after writing a blog post on the Portland metro area running out of residential lots, the news keeps coming in that housing may be turning the corner and is heading for a strong recovery (according tosome). Bloomberg just reported on Zillow’s Home…
July 23, 2012
In the past two months, the local real estate market has started to do some very interesting things. We are beginning to witness the turn away from already-built subdivisions to subdivisions that are only preliminary platted. This is simply because…
