Schafer

Triangle Center, LLC (Triangle Center), and the City of Los Angeles (City) appeal from a judgment in favor of Carl Schafer, individually and as trustee of the Schafer Trust dated October 3, 2000, and Elizabeth Leslie (collectively Schafer). The trial court granted a peremptory writ of mandate directing the City to set aside a decision by the City’s planning commission that upheld a building permit allowing the restriping of a parking lot owned by Triangle Center and to reinstate a decision by the City’s zoning administrator that denied the permit. Triangle Center and the City contend the evidence supports the planning commission’s decision that the City is equitably estopped from disallowing use of the property as a parking lot, and the trial court erred by concluding that the circumstances here do not justify an equitable estoppel against the City.

We conclude that, regardless of whether the elements of equitable estoppel are satisfied, the circumstances here do not justify an equitable estoppel against the City. This is not one of the rare and exceptional cases in which denying equitable estoppel would result in grave injustice. Allowing Triangle Center to establish…