Park Area Neighbors v. Town of Fairfax

I. Introduction

In this case we hold that an absence of legal representation in administrative proceedings, and purported misadvice by an agency official as to the proper method of taking an administrative appeal, do not excuse a prospective litigant from the requirement of exhausting administrative remedies as a jurisdictional prerequisite to resort to the courts.

Park Area Neighbors (PAN) appeals from a judgment denying a petition for a writ of administrative mandate (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5) by which PAN challenged the Town of Fairfax’s approval of a low-income housing development proposed by Innovative Housing, Inc. (IH). We affirm.

II. Facts and Procedure

IH has been attempting to develop two sites in Fairfax for more than a decade. Eventually, after various proposals, IH sought administrative approval of a “shared housing” development on the sites, to consist of nineteen bedrooms in six buildings, with each of five buildings containing one shared kitchen and other common facilities. The project required a series of permits and variances.

On March 19, 1992, the Fairfax Planning Commission held a public hearing on the project. Several neighbors spoke out…