Ventura v. City of San Buenaventura, 02-56566.
| Decision Date | 10 June 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-56566.,02-56566. |
| Citation | 371 F.3d 1046 |
| Parties | VENTURA MOBILEHOME COMMUNITIES OWNERS ASSOCIATION, an unincorporated association, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN BUENAVENTURA, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Robert S. Coldren, C. William Dahlin, and Mark D. Alpert, Santa Ana, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.
Robert G. Boehm, Ventura, CA; and Donald R. Lincoln, Henry E. Heater, and Linda B. Reich, San Diego, CA, for the defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Christina A. Snyder, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-01-09685-CAS.
Before: SILVERMAN, GOULD, and BEA, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-Appellant, Ventura Mobile Home Communities Owners Association, contends the district court (1) miscalculated the date on which its claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 accrued and improperly applied the limitations period, (2) erroneously prevented it from asserting an "as applied" takings challenge, (3) erroneously found the Association had not properly exhausted the remedies provided by state law so that its federal claims were not ripe, and (4) erred in not considering its argument that the city ordinance is preempted by state law. We affirm the district court's dismissal of Appellant's federal claims, but remand for entry of a judgment of dismissal without prejudice on Appellant's state law claims.
The City of Buenaventura ("the City") first adopted its Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization Ordinance ("the Ordinance") in 1981. Noting "the lack of alternative homesites for mobile home residents" and a "virtual monopoly ... in the rental of mobile home park spaces," the City imposed a rent control structure for the claimed purpose of protecting mobile home residents from unreasonable rent increases.
The ordinance provided that space rents in mobile home parks could be increased only with the approval of the Mobile Home Rent Review Board and could not be increased more than once per year. Approved increases were limited to seven percent of the base rent the first year an increase was requested or, for later increases, seven percent of the then-existing space rent not attributable to housing services or capital improvements. Because no provision was made for rent increases in the event a mobile home was sold or transferred, the ordinance imposed de facto "vacancy control" on mobile home parks.1
In 1996, the city enacted new vacancy control in Ordinance 96-3. The 1996 amendment prohibited park owners from including provisions in leases by which tenants waived rent controls. The amendment also stated:
Absent an agreement to the contrary, the maximum rental fee that may initially be charged to the purchaser of an existing mobile home, in an existing mobile home park, is a rental fee that does not exceed the rental fee in force and effect on the date that title of the mobile home transfers from the seller to the purchaser.
The 1996 amendment also changed the formula for setting approved rent increases. The limit imposed on rent increases became the lesser of seven percent of the then-existing rent or seventy five percent of the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Los Angeles-Long Beach area for the preceding year.
The City's mobile home rent control ordinance was codified as Municipal Code Section 6.600, et seq., and has not been materially amended since 1996. The codified Ordinance reiterates the City's intention
to continue to protect the mobile home owners' investment in their mobile homes, and to protect the owners and occupiers of mobile homes from unreasonable rent increases, while at the same time recognizing the need of park owners to receive a fair return on their property and rental income sufficient to cover increases in the costs of repairs, maintenance, insurance, employee services, additional amenities, and other costs of operation.
Appellant filed its complaint on November 9, 2001 asserting that by enacting rent and vacancy controls, the Ordinance prevented the owners of mobile home parks from charging rents at market rates and conferred a premium on renters by artificially inflating the value of mobile homes at the expense of park owners. Appellant alleged the Ordinance constituted a regulatory "taking," did not substantially advance a legitimate governmental purpose in violation of the Fifth Amendment, deprived the Appellant of due process, violated civil rights and equal protection of the law under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and was preempted by state law.
On May 23, 2002, the district court entered a minute order dismissing Appellant's complaint without prejudice. The district court found that Appellant's claim constituted a facial challenge to the Ordinance, but was not filed within the one-year statute of limitations for § 1983 actions brought in California; if construed as an as-applied challenge to the Ordinance, Appellant's takings claim was not ripe2; the Ordinance was not preempted by state law and the Ordinance did not violate due process; and Appellant's claims that the Ordinance conflicted with state Public Utilities Commission ("PUC") rulings and infringed on equal protection were facial challenges also barred by the statute of limitations. The district court granted the City's motion to dismiss with leave to amend.
Appellant filed an amended complaint on June 19, 2002. With the exception of allegations that plaintiff was subject to delayed discovery of the damage done it by the subject statute, the amended complaint asserted claims substantially identical to the original complaint.
Ripeness allegations
Appellant freshly alleged, however, that any state law compensatory remedies would be futile considering
the City has failed and refused to take any action to amend, address or otherwise correct the deficiencies and constitutional infirmities of the Ordinance, despite the specific requests of Plaintiff and the clear direction and authorization for such change in the Ordinance. Thus, Plaintiff has fully exhausted its available administrative remedy and has no additional legal recourse but this court.
Appellant described how its members "discussed the City's rent control ordinance with designated representatives and attorneys representing Defendant City" and "engaged in mediation with the aid and participation of an independent mediator" over the rent control issue from May to July 2001. Notwithstanding these negotiations, the Buenaventura City Council decided against changes in the Ordinance at a July 30, 2001 meeting. In a letter from the city council dated August 7, 2001, and attached as an exhibit to the amended complaint, Appellant was informed "the City Council does not intend to revise the Ordinance's vacancy control provisions." According to Appellant,
Appellant alleged that the Ordinance failed to provide for a "fair and reasonable return for a capital investment in a mobilehome park project." Appellant also alleged that the City "knowingly, intentionally and specifically refused applications of various property owners to build ... additional mobile home park housing," thus exacerbating the housing shortage in Buenaventura.
Appellant further alleged that premiums resulting from the City's vacancy rent control regime became reasonably measurable or discoverable only in late 2000 or early 2001. According to the amended complaint, premiums were generated because of an "increase in demand for land close to the ocean, the increase in housing costs and rents generally and inflation... but also by the specific application of the Ordinance." As a result, "empirical data and evidence demonstrate that, in fact, resale prices for mobilehomes in mobilehome parks in Defendant City are greatly inflated, have no relationship to their actual intrinsic value, and that the Ordinance does not further the goal of preserving or protecting affordable housing." Appellant reiterated its request that the Ordinance be declared a "regulatory taking" preempted by determinations of the California Public Utilities Commission.
On August 13, 2002, the district court granted the City's motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The district court again found that notwithstanding Appellant's augmented allegations, its takings claims were facial challenges which accrued, at the latest, when the Ordinance was enacted in 1996. As a result, Appellant's facial takings claims were time-barred by the one-year statute of limitations. The district court also perfunctorily rejected Appellant's claim that takings claims do not accrue until the existence of a premium can be reasonably measurable or discoverable.
The district court noted that Appellant essentially amended its complaint only with regard to the takings claims. Accordingly, the district court dismissed the remaining claims for the same reasons stated in its May 23, 2002 order. Appellant's complaint was dismissed with prejudice because the district court determined that the Association "had already been given one opportunity to amend its complaint and neither the original complaint nor the [First Amended Complaint] have stated a claim ... [and] further amendment would be futile."
On appeal, the Appellant contends that the district court miscalculated the accrual date of its claims and as a result improperly applied the statute of limitations; erroneously failed to construe its cause of action as both a facial and an as-applied challenge to the Ordinance; and erred in finding its takings claim was not ripe and that the Ordinance was not preempted by state law.
Dismissal for failure to state a claim is reviewed de novo, as are...
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