Clary

Diehl, while a resident of Washington State, owned eight vacant lots in the City of Crescent City, California (City). 1 Diehl appeals from the superior court’s denial of his petition for a writ of administrative mandate, brought under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5. Diehl’s writ petition challenged the City’s determinations that the overgrown weeds and rubbish on his lots constitute a public nuisance that required abatement and, when he refused to abate the nuisance, that a lien be placed on his lots for the City’s abatement costs.

*278 Diehl has relentlessly asserted that the conditions on his properties, including high growing blackberry bushes, broom plants, other weedy vegetation, abundant trash and illegally dumped material, are not a nuisance. But what in his eyes is simply “natural landscaping” that provides habitat for birds and other wildlife and “a more attractive vista than a lot scraped clean of all trees and bushes” is in the City’s view a blight, a habitat for rats and vermin and an attractive nuisance.

Having carefully considered Diehl’s lengthy briefs and many arguments, we conclude the City acted lawfully and therefore affirm.

BACKGROUND

Diehl…