Traverso

Plaintiff Richard Traverso does business as ADCO Outdoor Advertising (ADCO). ADCO applied for a permit to place a billboard. Defendant Department of Transportation (Caltrans) [1] denied the application. ADCO unsuccessfully petitioned for a writ of traditional mandamus (Code Civ. Proc., § 1085) to overturn this determination. On appeal, ADCO maintains Caltrans and the trial court misconstrued the scope of the authority vested in Caltrans by the Outdoor Advertising Act (the Act) (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 5200 et seq. [undesignated section references will be to this code]) to require compliance with local zoning ordinances as an additional criterion for a state billboard permit.

We agree with ADCO that Caltrans may not condition state billboard licenses upon compliance with local zoning ordinances. Assuming Caltrans will comply in the future with our interpretation of its governing statute, we decline to reach ADCO's alternative argument that the policy under which Caltrans denied ADCO's application amounted to an unauthorized regulation promulgated in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (Gov. Code, § 11340 et seq.). We reject the fallback argument by…