Sacramentans for Fair Planning v. City of Sacramento

• Decision Date: 03 July 2019
• Docket Number: C086182
• Citation: 250 Cal.Rptr.3d 261,37 Cal.App.5th 698
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: SACRAMENTANS FOR FAIR PLANNING, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SACRAMENTO, Defendant and Respondent; 2500 J Owners, LLC, Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

37 Cal.App.5th 698

250 Cal.Rptr.3d 261

SACRAMENTANS FOR FAIR PLANNING, Plaintiff and Appellant,

v. CITY OF SACRAMENTO, Defendant and Respondent;2500 J Owners, LLC, Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

C086182

Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

Filed July 3, 2019

Michael W. Graf for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Office of the City Attorney, Susana A. Wood and Brett Morgan Witter; Jarvis, Fay & Gibson, Rick W. Jarvis, Oakland, and Christine L. Crowl Attorneys for Defendant and Respondent.

Taylor & Wiley, John M. Taylor, James B. Wiley, Sacramento, and Matthew Steven Keasling for Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Kirk E. Trost for Amicus Curiae on behalf of Real Party in Interest.

HULL, Acting P. J. Plaintiff Sacramentans for Fair Planning contends the City of Sacramento violated zoning law and the California Environmental Quality Act ( Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq. (CEQA)) when it approved entitlements for real party 2500 J Owners, LLC, to construct a high-rise condominium building in the City's Midtown area. The project was not consistent with the general plan and zoning code standards for building intensity and height. But the City approved it pursuant to a general plan policy authorizing more intense development than zoning otherwise allowed if the project provided a significant community benefit.

The City also conducted a streamlined CEQA review. CEQA authorizes the less intense review for a type of residential mixed-use development such as the proposed project which, because of its proximity to mass transit services, may help reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions by generating less use of motor vehicles.

In a petition for writ of mandate, plaintiff argued that approving the project under the general plan policy violated constitutional law and an implied-in-law zoning contract that required identical uses in a zoning district to be treated uniformly and prohibited a delegation of legislative authority without sufficient standards to govern its use. Plaintiff also claimed the City violated CEQA because the streamlined review did not analyze all of the project's environmental effects. The trial court denied plaintiff's petition. We affirm the trial court's order and judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Real party applied to the City for permits to build a mixed-use condominium building at the southeast corner of 25th and J Streets in Midtown. The site is .44 acres, or 19,200 square feet. The proposed building will be 15 stories with an overall height of 178 feet, seven inches. It will contain 177,032 square feet of space; one floor of commercial space, three levels of parking, 134 residential condominiums on 10 floors, and one floor with resident amenities. The project is referred to as the Yamanee project.

The City's general plan designates the site as Urban Corridor Low. There is no dispute that the project complies with the land use requirements imposed under this designation except for the standard for building intensity. Allowable building intensity is measured in terms of floor-area ratio. The floor-area ratio is the ratio of "gross building area on a site, excluding structured parking, to the net developable area of the site. The net developable area is the total area of a site excluding portions that cannot be developed (e.g., right-of-way, public parks, etc.)."

Development on land designated as Urban Corridor Low is authorized to have a floor-area ratio of 0.3-3.0. The proposed building will have a floor-area ratio of 9.22. The general plan also recommends as a guideline that buildings in the Urban Corridor Low designation be from two to six stories high.

We note that in addition to building intensity standards, the general plan includes density standards based on the number of residential units per acre that may be built under the land use designation. Plaintiff argues the project also violates these density standards. Land designated as Urban Corridor Low is authorized to have a density of 20-110 residential units per acre. However, this density range does not apply to mixed-use developments such as the Yamanee project that includes residential uses because the allowable floor-area ratio includes commercial square footage.

The City's zoning code designates the site as General Commercial/Midtown Commercial (C-2-MC). There is no dispute the proposed use of the site is authorized in the C-2 zone except that the project conflicts with the zone's height limitation and building intensity standard. The maximum height allowed in the C-2 zone is 65 feet. The project will slightly exceed 174 feet. The permitted floor-area ratios in the C-2 zone are those that are set forth in the general plan.

Despite the project's noncompliance with the floor-area ratio and height limits, the City's planning staff recommended the project be approved pursuant to a unique provision in the general plan. That provision, LU 1.1.10, gives the City authority to approve projects that do not conform with building intensity standards if the projects provide significant public benefits. LU 1.1.10 states: "The City may allow new development to exceed the maximum allowed FAR [floor-area ratio] or density if it is determined that the project provides a significant community benefit."

The planning staff stated LU 1.1.10 "allows that there may be a circumstance where the City determines that the benefit the community would derive from the project outweighs strict adherence to the General Plan's maximum FAR." Staff detailed numerous benefits it believed the Yamanee project would provide to the community that justified its approval. For example, the project is based on a high level of design. It would contribute to the City's goal of building 10,000 new residential units in the downtown area by 2025. The project's higher density at an infill location would reduce dependency on personal vehicles and reduce carbon emissions.

The planning staff reviewed the project's environmental effects under CEQA. Staff determined the project as mitigated would not have a significant effect on the environment, and that the project qualified for review using a sustainable communities environmental assessment (SCEA) instead of the traditional negative declaration or environmental impact report. An SCEA is a relatively new method for conducting a streamlined environmental review for certain projects that assist the state in meeting its greenhouse gas reduction targets. ( Pub. Resources Code, § 21155.2, subd. (b) ; Stats. 2008, ch. 728, § 14.)

Relying on LU 1.1.10, the City's planning and design commission approved the project's entitlements and its environmental review. The entitlements consisted of a tentative subdivision map to divide the condominium spaces and a site plan and design review. Plaintiff appealed the commission's decision to the city council. Following a public hearing, the city council unanimously denied the appeal, adopted the SCEA, and approved the tentative map and the site plan and design review.

Plaintiff petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandate, claiming the approval violated state planning and zoning law and CEQA. The court denied the petition.

DISCUSSION

I

Planning and Zoning Law Contentions

Plaintiff contends the City's approval violates planning and zoning law in three respects: (1) the approval is contrary to a constitutionally-derived doctrine of zoning uniformity and a similar implied-in-law zoning contract; (2) the approval resulted from an unlawful delegation of legislative authority; and (3) the City committed various procedural errors in approving the project. We disagree with each contention.

A. Standard of review

The bulk of plaintiff's argument raises questions of constitutional law. We exercise our independent judgment on questions of law that arise in mandate proceedings. ( Department of Health Care Services v. Office of Administrative Hearings (2016) 6 Cal.App.5th 120, 140, 210 Cal.Rptr.3d 790.)

The City's approval of the project's tentative map was a quasi-adjudicatory action reviewable for abuse of discretion under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5. ( Youngblood v. Board of Supervisors (1978) 22 Cal.3d 644, 651, fn. 2, 150 Cal.Rptr. 242, 586 P.2d 556.) "Abuse of discretion is established if the respondent has not proceeded in the manner required by law, the order or decision is not supported by the findings, or the findings are not supported by the evidence." ( Code of Civil Proc., § 1094.5, subd. (b).)

The City's approval of the site plan and design review is similarly reviewed for substantial evidence. Under this standard, we review the administrative record to determine whether substantial evidence supports the City's findings and whether the findings support the City's decision. The burden is on plaintiff to show there is insufficient evidence to support the City's findings. ( Breneric Associates v. City of Del Mar (1998) 69 Cal.App.4th 166, 174-175, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 324.)

We review decisions regarding a project's consistency with a general plan for an abuse of discretion. While there is disagreement in the courts of appeal over whether a finding of consistency is a quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial action, the standard of review under either is not materially different. ( San Francisco Tomorrow v. City and County of San Francisco (2014) 229 Cal.App.4th 498, 514, 176 Cal.Rptr.3d 430 [reviewed by administrative mandamus]; Endangered Habitats League, Inc. v. County of Orange (2005) 131 Cal.App.4th 777, 782, 32 Cal.Rptr.3d 177 [quasi-legislative act reviewed by ordinary mandamus under arbitrary and capricious standard].) The question for us "is whether the City's finding of consistency with the general plan was reasonable based on the evidence in the record." ( California Native Plant Society v. City of Rancho Cordova (2009) 172 Cal.App.4th 603, 637, 91 Cal.Rptr.3d 571 ; Endangered Habitats League, Inc. v. County of Orange, supra , 131 Cal.App.4th at p. 782,...