Dahms

Robert Dahms appeals from the trial court’s rejection of his challenge to the creation of a special assessment district in downtown Pomona, California. In our previous opinion in this case, we applied the substantial evidence standard of review to Dahms’s challenges and affirmed, but we recognized that the issue of the proper standard of review was then before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted review in this case but deferred briefing pending its decision in the case already under review. Last year the Supreme Court decided that case, Silicon Valley Taxpayers’ Assn., Inc. v. Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (2008) 44 Cal.4th 431 [ 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 312 , 187 P.3d 37 ] (SVTA), and held that the proper standard of review is de novo. (Id. at p. 450 [“[C]ourts should exercise their independent judgment in reviewing whether assessments that local agencies impose violate article XIII D” of the California Constitution].) The court remanded this case to us with directions to vacate our decision “and to reconsider the cause in light of [SVTA].” We do so and again affirm.

*712 BACKGROUND

This case concerns the formation of the PBID, a special assessment district…

I write separately to express a divergent view about some of the textual analysis in the majority opinion, but I ultimately agree with the result reached in this case, for the reasons expressed below.

The majority has rejected the possibility that the constitutional system governing business improvement districts requires that the assessments levied against the many parcels within such a district reflect a consistent districtwide proportionality between levies and benefits. The task here requires a parsing of article XIH D, section 4, subdivision (f) of the California Constitution, which states that in any action contesting the validity of an assessment by a public improvement district (as in the present case), the district must demonstrate “that the amount of any contested assessment is proportional to, and no greater than, the benefits conferred on the property or properties in question.” The majority has found this provision to be “not a model of precise draftsmanship” and has therefore undertaken some extensive “interpretative work” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 718) involving a review of several other sections of this article. My study has been simpler; I hope not simplistic. But…

Robert Dahms appeals from the trial court's rejection of his challenge to the creation of a special assessment district in downtown Pomona, California. In our previous opinion in this case, we applied the substantial evidence standard of review to Dahms's challenges and affirmed, but we recognized that the issue of the proper standard of review was then before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted review in this case but deferred briefing pending its decision in the case already under review. Last year the Supreme Court decided that case, Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Assn., Inc. v. Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (2008) 44 Cal.4th 431 [ 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 312 , 187 P.3d 37 ] ( SVTA ), and held that the proper standard of review is de novo. ( Id. at p. 450 ["[C]ourts should exercise their independent judgment in reviewing whether assessments that local agencies impose violate article XIII D" of the California Constitution].) The court remanded this case to us with directions to vacate our decision "and to reconsider the cause in light of [ SVTA ]." We do so and again affirm. [1]

This case concerns the formation of the PBID, a special assessment district…