Rancho De Calistoga v. City of Calistoga

Fifth Amendment takings challenges to mobile home rent control laws are ubiquitous in this and other circuits. Quoting Yogi Berra, we have previously characterized these claims as “deja vu all over again.” MHC Fin. Ltd, P’ship v. City of San Rafael, 714 F.3d 1118, 1122 (9th Cir. 2013). Each time a court closes one legal avenue to mobile home park owners seeking to escape rent control regimes, the owners, undaunted, attempt to forge a new path via another novel legal theory. This time, it is in the form of an “as-applied private takings claim” as a claim separate and independent from the owner’s regula tory takings claim. Alas, it is also deja vu again with respect to the result;' we decline to open the door to using this so-called “private takings claim” as an end-run around established regulatory-takings jurisprudence. We hold that no regulatory taking occurred here and that Rancho de Calistoga’s self-styled “private takings claim” is not a separately cognizable claim. Similarly, we are not persuaded by the related due process and equal protection claims. We affirm the district court’s dismissal of the case.

Background

Rancho de Calistoga (“the Park”) is a mobile home…