Shea Homes v. County of Alameda
| Decision Date | 01 July 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. A097387.,No. A097454.,No. A097072.,A097072.,A097387.,A097454. |
| Citation | 2 Cal.Rptr.3d 739,110 Cal.App.4th 1246 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | SHEA HOMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. COUNTY OF ALAMEDA et al., Defendants and Respondents, Sierra Club et al., Interveners and Respondents. Trafalgar, Inc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. County of Alameda, Defendant and Respondent. |
Trent W. Orr; Earthjustice and Deborah S. Reames, San Francisco, for Interveners and Respondents The Sierra Club, Preserve Area Ridgelands Committee, Golden Gate Audubon Society and Greenbelt Alliance.
Shea Homes Limited Partnership, Hong Yao Lin, Jennifer Lin (collectively Shea Homes) and Trafalgar, Inc. (Trafalgar) appeal judgments on the pleadings and denials of petitions for writ of mandate in their actions challenging the validity of Measure D, a "Citizens for Open Space Initiative Plan to Protect Agriculture and Open Space" adopted by the electorate of Alameda County (County) in November 2000.1 They contend Measure D violates the single-subject rule. They also contend the trial court erred in granting judgment on the pleadings because their complaints sufficiently allege that Measure D violates various state housing laws. Trafalgar further contends that Measure D constitutes an arbitrary planning and zoning law, that it effects an unconstitutional regulatory taking on its face, and that respondents are estopped from enforcing it against Trafalgar.2
In May 1994, the County adopted the East County Area Plan as a component of its general plan. "East County" encompasses 418 square miles of eastern Alameda County and includes the cities of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton, and a portion of Hayward, as well as surrounding unincorporated areas. Its planning area is bounded on the west by the Pleasanton/Dublin ridgeline, on the east by the San Joaquin County line, on the north by the Contra Costa County line, and on the south by the Santa Clara County line. The purpose of the East County Area Plan was to state clearly the County's intent concerning future development and resource conservation in the area to the year 2010. It established permissible land uses in the unincorporated areas. The East County Area Plan encompasses North Livermore, an unincorporated area of approximately 13,500 acres, located north of Interstate 580 and the City of Livermore's municipal boundary. Shea Homes owns approximately 2,700 acres of unimproved county property in North Livermore.
The Castro Valley and Palomares Canyonlands (Canyonlands) is an unincorporated area that lies, generally, west of the East County Area Plan and east of the cities of Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward. It is encompassed in the Eden Planning Unit and the Castro Valley Plan components of the County's general plan; it is outside the Castro Valley Urban Boundary Area.3 Trafalgar owns an equitable interest in approximately 77 unimproved (except for one private residence) acres within the Canyonlands.
Measure D, an initiative approved by the County electorate on November 7, 2000, and effective December 22, 2000, amends portions of the East County Area Plan. It revises the urban growth boundary of eastern Alameda County to reserve less land for urban growth and more land for agriculture and open space.
Specifically, it relocates the urban growth boundary to coincide with existing or proposed city urban growth boundaries. Outside the urban growth boundary it removes land from previous urban development use designations, which included industrial, major commercial and land use categories having a density of one or more residential units per acre. It generally converts that land to 20-acre enhanced agricultural parcels upon demonstration of available water. In areas outside the relocated urban growth boundary that were not formerly designated for urban development, the existing rural zoning is maintained. New housing, including the County's affordable housing obligations, are inside the urban growth boundary unless otherwise required by state law. Land outside the relocated urban growth boundary that had been designated as urban land use is now redesignated as agricultural land.
Measure D removes the County from participation in the North Livermore planning process, including plans for the development of 12,500 housing units north of Interstate 580. This area is redesignated as agricultural land with the possibility for 20-acre enhanced agricultural parcels upon demonstration of available water. The East County Area Plan's "urban reserve" land use category is eliminated, and areas outside the urban reserve boundary are redesignated for agricultural use.
Measure D similarly amends the general plan's documents governing the Canyonlands. It maintains the Canyonlands' existing agricultural zoning and land uses. It prohibits development on ridgelines or hilltops unless no other site exists on a parcel.
Measure D provides that its provisions may be changed only by a vote of the electorate, although the Board of Supervisors may impose more stringent restrictions on development and land use. The board may also make technical or nonsubstantive modifications to Measure D's provisions for purposes of reorganization, clarification or formal consistency within the County's general plan.
Following the enactment of Measure D, Shea Homes filed a petition for writ of mandate and complaint for declaratory relief (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 1085, 1060; Alameda Co. action 835510-2). Pertinent to this appeal, it alleged that Measure D violated article II, section 8, subd. (d) of the California Constitution, the "single subject rule," and state statutes governing housing requirements for a general plan. It prayed for a writ of mandate commanding the County to set aside its approval of Measure D as invalid and to refrain from implementing and applying it, and for a declaration that Measure D was invalid and unenforceable.
Trafalgar filed a separate petition for writ of mandate and complaint for declaratory relief. (Alameda Co. action no. 835646-0.) It alleged that since April 1998 it has been in the process of seeking the requisite land use approvals, including an amendment to the Castro Valley Plan, to redesignate its property from "agriculture" to "residential" so it could construct a development of 62 single-family houses thereon. As of the November 2000 election it had received initial approval from the County's planning staff for its project.
Like Shea Homes, Trafalgar alleged violations of the single subject rule and various state housing laws. Additionally, it alleged that Measure D was inconsistent with the County's general plan, and it made a facial challenge to Measure D as an unconstitutional regulatory taking without just compensation. It sought the same relief as Shea Homes, plus a declaration that Measure D was inapplicable to its property.
The Sierra Club, Preserve Area Ridgelands Committee, Golden Gate Audubon Society, and Greenbelt Alliance (collectively, Interveners) sought to intervene as defendants in the two actions.
Pursuant to the stipulation of appellants and the County, the court ordered the two actions consolidated for purposes of briefing and hearing but not for judgment and appeal, and allowed the intervention, on condition Interveners acted as a single party.
The County and Interveners moved for judgment on the pleadings as to all causes of action in appellants' petitions for writ/complaints for declaratory relief. At the hearing on the motion, the parties stipulated that the court's ruling on the petitions for writ of mandate would be dispositive on the motions for judgment on the pleadings, except for appellants' causes of action for violation of the state housing statutes and Trafalgar's unlawful taking cause of action.
The court denied the petitions for writ of mandate. It granted judgment on the pleadings without leave to amend as to the causes of action for violation of the housing statutes and unlawful taking because the pleadings, moving papers and matters judicially noticed demonstrated that appellants could not amend their pleadings to state a viable or ripe claim that Measure D violated state housing laws or that Measure D effected a facial regulatory taking without just compensation. It granted judgment on the pleadings without leave to amend as to the remaining causes of action pursuant to the parties' stipulation that denial of the petitions for writ of mandate would dispose of them.
Judgment on the pleadings is akin to a demurrer and is properly granted only if the complaint does not state facts sufficient to state a cause of action against that defendant. (Code Civ. Proc., § 438, subd. (c)(1)(B)(ii); Smiley v. Citibank (1995) 11 Cal.4th 138, 146, 44 Cal. Rptr.2d 441, 900 P.2d 690.) The grounds for the motion must appear on the face of the complaint, and in any matters subject to judicial notice. (Code Civ. Proc., § 438, subd. (d).) The...
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