Pearl Investment Company, a California Partnership v. City and County of San Francisco, a Municipal Corporation

Pearl Investment Company (Pearl) brought this civil rights action against the City and County of San Francisco (City) alleging that the City Planning Commission (Commission) violated the fifth and fourteenth amendments in acting upon a building permit application filed by Pearl. The sole issue on appeal is whether the district court abused its discretion in postponing the exercise of its jurisdiction pursuant to the Pullman abstention doctrine. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Pearl owns two buildings in an area of San Francisco zoned for community business. The property has been used for eight commercial shops and twenty-four residential units. On December 31, 1981, Pearl filed an application with the City’s Department of Public Works for a building permit to renovate the buildings for office use. Pearl was not apprised of the status of its application until July 2, 1982, when the Department of City Planning (Department) advised Pearl by letter that an environmental review would be required before the application was processed. After that review, the Department, on November 19, issued a Preliminary Negative Declaration that stated that the building renovation would not have a significant…