Westgate Communications, LLC v. Chelan County

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff Westgate Communications, LLC, doing business as WeavTel, appeals the district court’s judgment in favor of Defendant Chelan County, following a bench trial in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that the County’s delay in issuing an administrative use permit violated Plaintiffs due process rights. Reviewing “the district court’s findings of fact for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo,” Lee v. W. Coast Life Ins. Co., 688 F.3d 1004, 1009 (9th Cir.2012) (internal quotation marks omitted), we affirm.

Plaintiff failed to establish that it had a protected property interest before receiving the permit. A local government’s denial of a completed land use application in conformity with all applicable codes is a deprivation of a protected property interest. Bateson v. Geisse, 857 F.2d 1300, 1303 (9th Cir.1988). But the County correctly held that Plaintiffs permit application was not complete because Plaintiff had obtained neither a shoreline permit nor an amendment to the County’s floodplain map, at least one of which would be required under the County Code and regulations. Although Plaintiff had acquired a “Conditional Letter of Map Amendment” from the…