Monks

In 1978, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes enacted an ordinance imposing a moratorium on the construction of new homes in the vicinity where landslides had recently occurred. Plaintiffs own vacant lots covered by the moratorium. Some have been waiting over 30 years to build homes on their properties. Plaintiffs’ lots are zoned for single-family dwellings.

Eventually, the city council established an administrative process allowing the owners of undeveloped lots to seek an exclusion from the moratorium. After the city completed the installation of a sewer system, plaintiffs filed a joint application with the city for permission to build on their properties. In 2002, while the application was pending, the city council conducted a public hearing and toughened the criteria for obtaining an exclusion from the moratorium, approving a resolution making it impossible for plaintiffs to build.

Plaintiffs then filed this action, seeking a writ of administrative mandate to invalidate the resolution and alleging a claim for inverse condemnation based on the state takings clause. Under the state Constitution, “[p]rivate property may be taken ... for public use only when just…