Agins v. City of Tiburon

Summary

The California Supreme Court held that a landowner may challenge a zoning ordinance alleged to substantially restrict property use through declaratory relief or mandamus, but may not recover damages through inverse condemnation on the theory that excessive police-power regulation constitutes a compensable taking. The court concluded that Tiburon's ordinance, which allowed one to five residences on the plaintiffs' five-acre property, did not deprive them of substantially all reasonable use and therefore was not subject to invalidation on the pleaded facts. The judgment dismissing the action was affirmed.

Holdings

1. A landowner may not recover damages through inverse condemnation merely because a zoning ordinance allegedly exceeds constitutional limits or substantially restricts the use of property; the appropriate remedies are declaratory relief or mandamus to invalidate the regulation.
2. A zoning ordinance is unconstitutional and subject to invalidation only when its effect is to deprive the landowner of substantially all reasonable use of the property.
3. General land-use planning discussions, acquisition studies, bond-related planning, and the filing and abandonment of the city's eminent-domain proceeding did not constitute a taking or provide an independent basis for inverse-condemnation damages on the facts presented.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a landowner may recover damages through inverse condemnation when a zoning ordinance substantially limits or allegedly eliminates the use and value of private property.
2. Whether declaratory relief or mandamus, rather than inverse condemnation, is the appropriate remedy for challenging an allegedly unconstitutional zoning ordinance.
3. Whether the RPD-1 zoning ordinance unconstitutionally deprived plaintiffs of substantially all reasonable use of their property.
4. Whether the city's precondemnation planning activities and abandoned eminent-domain proceeding independently constituted a taking supporting inverse-condemnation relief.

Disposition

affirmed