C-Y Development Co. v. City of Redlands

Plaintiffs C-Y Development Company (C-Y) and Henry and Gloria Lopez (Lopez) petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandate to require the City of Redlands to issue a building permit to Lopez. The trial court denied the petition and plaintiffs appeal.

Facts

In 1978, the voters of Redlands adopted Proposition R, an initiative measure. Proposition R restricted development in the City of Redlands. Proposition R stated that, with certain exceptions, building permits would be issued for only 450 new units per year.

In order to regulate competition for the limited number of building permits, the city council passed ordinance No. 1680. Ordinance No. 1680 provided for, among other things, a point rating system for proposed developments. Only those developments with overall superior point ratings would be allocated any of the limited number of building permits. The point rating system was amended by ordinance No. 1717 and by ordinance No. 1742, but the basic point rating system remained intact.

Proposition R provided certain exceptions to the 450-unit limit. “This limitation shall not apply to individually constructed single family homes, multifamily dwellings…