Politics & Government

City Wants Supreme Court to Overturn Developer's Lawsuit Victory

Although the case involves just 3 acres, the implications for the Avenida San Juan neighborhood and overall zoning rules could be major, San Clemente officials say.

San Clemente officials hope California's Supreme Court will intervene in a land-use lawsuit that has rolled on for more than four years.

Although the parcel is small -- just under 3 acres -- the city is pursuing the case to discourage future lawsuits, and because the surrounding Avenida San Juan neighborhood has opposed the plot’s development.

“People in the neighborhood are nearly unanimous and very vocal in their opposition,” said City Attorney Jeff Oderman. “If this had been a project where there had been a division of opinion in the neighborhood, [the city] may not have gone the extra mile.”

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A landowner wants to subdivide a 2.85-acre parcel at 404 Avenida San Juan and build four homes overlooking the I-5 freeway at the south end of town. In 1993, the city zoned the area “very low residential,” meaning it would allow only one single-family home per 20 acres, the practical outcome of which is to maintain open space, according to court documents.

A 1983 landslide in the neighborhood prompted a petition drive to zone the area as open space, although the slide didn't involve that property. The City Council at that time didn't reclassify the land, according to court documents.

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The city asserts it has the right to zone as it sees fit, and that the landowner failed to challenge the 1993 zoning amendment within the statute of limitations, Oderman said.

The property owner, Avenida San Juan Partnership, sued in late 2007 when the council denied development plan based on the zoning amendment. The partnership said it obtained permission to subdivide the lot in 1983, three years after buying the parcel. The lawsuit also claims the plaintiff wasn’t notified of the zoning change in 1993, and notes that none of the surrounding properties comply with that zoning, so the rule is discriminatory.

On Dec. 15, Orange County Superior Court Judge David McEachen ruled in favor of the landowner. He said rendering the land undevelopable through rezoning amounts to seizing property, and therefore the city owes the Avenida San Juan Partnership $1.3 million plus attorney’s fees.

The amount is the value of the land minus the cost of a road that would have been required to access it, according to the ruling.

As an alternative, the judge said, the city could allow the owner to develop the land with the four single-family homes in the original plan.

Oderman said the best-case scenario for the city now would be for the Supreme Court to hear the case. However, only a tiny percentage of petitions submitted actually get a hearing, he said.

A state Supreme Court ruling on Avenida San Juan Partnership v. San Clemente could also settle a number of other related and contradictory lower-court land-use rulings, officials said.

“We believe there are strong reasons for why they would want to hear the case,” Oderman said.

Oderman will send the paperwork to the Supreme Court within the next few days, he said.


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