Save Mount Diablo v. Contra Costa County

Real parties in interest Ronald E. and Shirley Nunn bought a large tract of agricultural property in Contra Costa County. The tract was recorded as a single parcel, but it actually consisted of four separated parts of unequal size. These parts were formed years before the Nunns bought the property when a local agency acquired through eminent domain two narrow strips of land crossing the property and intersecting each other. A road was built on one strip, and a pipeline was buried under the other.

After the Nunns abandoned an effort to subdivide the property under the parcel map provisions of the Subdivision Map Act, they asked the county to issue certificates of compliance to confirm that each of the four parts nonetheless satisfied the requirements of the Act. The county did so, and Save Mount Diablo (SMD) petitioned for a writ of mandate challenging the county’s decision. The trial court granted the petition, and we affirm. We hold that a “division” of property within the meaning of the Act does not occur simply because an eminent domain proceeding results in a physical separation of a property’s non-condemned portions. The owner of such a property is therefore not…