An owner of property in Palos Verdes could not sue the city for a taking of his property by refusing him a building permit (due to a location near an active landslide) because the owner had not exhausted his administrative remedies by applying for a building permit. An earlier case had held no application was needed, but the city had since changed its applicable ordinance to allow individual exceptions to the general ban on building in the landslide zone based on characteristics of the individual parcel at issue rather than on the characteristics of the neighborhood in which the property was located. Based on the changed ordinance exhaustion of administrative remedies could no longer be excused as futile.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1 (Chaney, Acting P.J.); September 6, 2018; 26 Cal. App. 5th 1077