West Coast Advertising Co. v. City & County of San Francisco

The City and County of San Francisco, its zoning administrator and its director of planning, appeal from a judgment granting petitioner, West Coast Advertising Company, a peremptory writ of mandate directing the issuance of a building permit to erect a billboard. The question on appeal is whether the trial court’s order granting the writ pursuant to the then-existing city ordinance should now be reversed because of a subsequent amendment prohibiting such billboards.

The facts are not in dispute. On April 1, 1965, petitioner, a California corporation engaged in the business of erecting and maintaining advertising signs, applied to the city zoning administrator for a permit to erect a billboard on its premises adjacent to the freeway at 2513 San Bruno Avenue. The zoning administrator denied the permit and thereafter petitioner appealed to the Board of Permit Appeals, hereafter Board. The Board heard the appeal of petitioner on May 10, June 16 and June 21, 1965, overruled the decision of the zoning administrator and ordered approval of the application for a permit on the grounds that the billboard was not a structure within the planning code. Thereafter, the zoning administrator and…