Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. Monterey-Del Monte Dunes Corporation v. City of Monterey

Appellants seek damages and other relief against the City of Monterey for its denial of appellants’ application to develop oceanfront property. Appellants allege violations of the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause as incorporated in the Fourteenth Amendment, of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, and of state law. The district court dismissed the takings claim as unripe and the remainder of the claims as both unripe and inadequately stated. The appellants contend that the property owners worked with the city planning staff, the planning commission, and the city council in preparing and refining the plans for a development of the property through five separate applications, meeting the City’s objections and reducing the density of the project. The city council then approved a 190-unit development, provided that 15 conditions were met. Appellants contend that they met all of the conditions that were legally possible to fulfill, but the City reneged on its earlier approval of the project, without valid justification, when it denied approval of the tentative map.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The property at issue consists of 37.6 ocean-front acres (“Del…