Kinzli v. City of Santa Cruz

• Decision Date: 21 April 1982
• Docket Number: No. C-80-2863 MHP.,C-80-2863 MHP.
• Parties: Margaret KINZLI, Evelyn Goossen, Philip Kinzli, and Ernest Kinzli, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF SANTA CRUZ, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

539 F. Supp. 887

Margaret KINZLI, Evelyn Goossen, Philip Kinzli, and Ernest Kinzli, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF SANTA CRUZ, Defendant.

No. C-80-2863 MHP.

United States District Court, N. D. California.

April 21, 1982.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Jess S. Jackson, Burlingame, Cal., for plaintiffs.

Neal R. Anderson, Atchison & Anderson, Santa Cruz, Cal., for defendant.

OPINION

PATEL, District Judge.

This case is presently before the court on the defendant's motion for summary judgment as to all claims. Section I summarizes the complaint, and the succeeding sections consider the defendant's challenges to various claims.

I THE COMPLAINT

The central facts alleged in the amended complaint are as follows. The plaintiffs are Mrs. Margaret Kinzli, a 74-year-old widow, and her three children, Ernest and Philip Kinzli and Evelyn Goossen ("the Kinzlis"). The Kinzlis have for many years been the owners in fee simple of approximately 62 acres of essentially undeveloped land in the City and County of Santa Cruz.

The ownership of this property, on which Mrs. Kinzli and her late husband raised their children, is the chief product of their lifetime efforts. The land is presently uninhabited, and the only structural improvements are an outdated residence and some old barns, all of which have fallen into disuse. Since 1970 it has been surrounded by developed urban uses—including, on three sides, residential and commercial ones. It is, in its present state, economically non-productive, and it cannot feasibly be put to agricultural or timber uses. At all times from 1970 to March 6, 1979, the period which is a principal focus of this action, the land was zoned to allow construction of seven dwelling units per acre, and it was the intention of the Kinzlis to develop most of this land for urban residential and commercial purposes.

Prior to 1970, the Kinzlis had owned more than their present 62 acres. But on August 14, 1968, Santa Cruz filed a state court condemnation action to acquire approximately four acres of their land for construction of a public street across the property. This street would have connected Broadway, on the west of the Kinzli property, with Brommer, on the east. Negotiations to arrive at a compromise settlement of the condemnation action followed. During these negotiations, the city assured and promised Margaret Kinzli and her agents that it would construct the proposed Broadway-Brommer project "within a few years," that the project would provide ample direct access to the remaining Kinzli property, that the project would substantially benefit the remaining property by facilitating its development at a density of seven residential units per acre, and that the city would permit both residential and commercial development. In reliance on these assurances and promises and in consideration for them, the Kinzlis stipulated with the city to a judgment in the action which fixed the amount of compensation, and which incorporated as part of the agreement, among other things, the written plans containing the general construction design for the Broadway-Brommer project. This stipulated judgment was entered on May 18, 1970.

In the years following the 1970 stipulation and condemnation judgment, the city continued to represent to Margaret Kinzli that the project would be built. On October 5, 1978, it filed a second condemnation action to acquire an additional small piece of the Kinzli property, for the purpose of making a slight modification of the proposed project; but this second action was later abandoned. In reliance on the city's representations, the Kinzlis delayed development or sale of the property, waiting for the completion of the project. In the meantime, the land has not produced any economic return, nor has it been salable. To date, the project has not been commenced.

On March 6, 1979, the city enacted an initiative ordinance styled "City of Santa Cruz Measure O Greenbelt and Low Growth General Plan Policy Ordinance" (hereinafter "Measure O"). Subsequently, the Santa Cruz City Council enacted two ordinances the purpose of which was to implement Measure O: (1) Ordinance No. 79-9, adopted March 13, 1979, styled "An Ordinance of the City of Santa Cruz Imposing a Moratorium On the Division of Land, Zoning, Rezoning, or Prezoning, and On the Issuance of Building Permits On Certain `Greenbelt' Lands In and Around the City of Santa Cruz and Declaring the Urgency Thereof," (hereinafter "the Moratorium Ordinance"), and (2) Ordinance No. 80-02, adopted January 22, 1980, styled "An Ordinance of the City of Santa Cruz Adding Chapter 24-53 To the Santa Cruz Municipal Code Establishing a Greenbelt Overlay District" (hereinafter "the Greenbelt Overlay Ordinance").

The effect of these measures, both facially and as applied to the Kinzli property, has been to restrict the uses to which it can be put. But none of the uses permitted the Kinzlis are viable economic uses; and the ordinances do not so restrict certain other undeveloped parcels within Santa Cruz. Since enacting these ordinances and, on December 13, 1979, abandoning the second Broadway-Brommer condemnation action, the city and its public officials have intentionally acted to prohibit all feasible private uses of the land, including development, and to maintain it permanently for the public use and benefit as unimproved open space without compensating the fee owners. On several occasions city officials warned the Kinzlis and prospective purchasers of the Kinzli land that no viable private development proposal would receive the city's approval, that any application to the city to improve the property would be futile, and that the city's staff would not even process such an application.

The foregoing summarizes the amended complaint's factual allegations. The claims based on these allegations are as follows. The plaintiffs' first, second, fourth, eighth, tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth claims purport to be based squarely on federal law, and the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth claims all seem to arise from state law, although the legal basis of the seventh claim, discussed below, is ambiguous. The eighteenth and last claim is one for declaratory relief.

The federal law claims are brought directly under the due process, equal protection, and taking clauses of the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, and also under these same provisions through the Civil Rights Acts, principally 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, and 1986. The pendent California law claims are based on equivalent provisions in the state constitution, on state law contract, estoppel, and unjust enrichment theories, on the 1970 judgment in the condemnation action, and on other state law provisions that the complaint does not identify. These causes of action will be discussed in greater detail below. The plaintiffs filed this action against the city on July 8, 1980, and the city has now moved for summary judgment, seeking a full resolution of all claims against it.

II THE ORDINANCES

Measure O, "An Initiative Ordinance Exacting A Greenbelt And Low Growth General Plan Policy," was adopted by popular vote on March 6, 1979. Among its self-described purposes is "to adopt certain policies as part of the General Plan of the City of Santa Cruz," and to require certain further revisions of the General Plan within nine months of the ordinance's effective date. Id. § 1. It sets forth "findings" which list the likely "adverse effects" of an expected "rapid rate of population and urban growth in the future." These effects include such things as traffic congestion and the degradation of the "scenic, historic, aesthetic, and environmental resources of the city." Id. § 2.

Measure O states that Santa Cruz "is presently substantially surrounded by `Greenbelt' lands which provide scenic, aesthetic, environmental, and economic benefits to the citizens" of the city, and it defines "greenbelt land" as land which is

essentially unimproved, and which is devoted to, or which may be devoted to, uses such as the following:

(1) Timber production and harvesting

(2) Agriculture, including grazing

(3) Private recreation

(4) Public recreation

(5) Wildlife habitat

(6) Watershed or groundwater recharge

(7) Scientific or educational purposes which maintain the open space character of the land

(8) Other uses which maintain the open space character of the land.

Id. § 3. It incorporates a map delineating the areas designated as greenbelt lands — areas which include the Kinzli property. It states a policy to limit population growth to an average of 1.4% per annum or the statewide average, whichever is greater. Id. § 4. And it declares a city policy to "preserve" the greenbelt lands

in greenbelt land uses, as specified in this ordinance, through the year 1990, and to that end, the City shall provide no additional urban services to said greenbelt lands, including water, sewer, and roads, and the City shall in all other possible ways consistent with this ordinance seek to preserve such lands in greenbelt land uses through the year 1990.

Id. Measure O also provides that no part of it "shall be amended or repealed except by a vote of the people." Id. § 8.

The Moratorium Ordinance, adopted by the city council shortly after the passage of Measure O, forbade the issuance of permits to build on the greenbelt lands (excepting only permits to remodel or restore existing buildings under very narrowly defined conditions), for a period of nine months, or until the city council adopted a general plan revision. It was followed approximately nine months later by the Greenbelt Overlay Ordinance, adopted by the city council on January 22, 1980, the "purpose and intent" of which, by its terms, "is to maintain essentially undeveloped lands surrounding existing urban development in uses that retain the land's physical characteristics and its...