Citizens for Honesty and Integrity in Regional Planning, and Karl J. Turecek v. County of San Diego

ORDER

The appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The district court record reveals that there was no case or controversy between Karl A. Turecek (“Turecek”) and the County of San Diego (“the County”) when the pleadings were before the district court. The judgment of the district court, styled Citizens for Honesty and Integrity in Regional Planning v. County of San Diego and reported at 258 F.Supp.2d 1132 (S.D.Cal.2003), must be vacated because no basis for federal jurisdiction existed.

Turecek seeks a declaratory judgment that the definition of “wetlands” employed by the local county Resource Protection Ordinance (“RPO”) is preempted by the federal definition of “wetlands” contained in the “Swanapbuster” section of the Food Security Act. RPO Art. II(16); 16 U.S.C. § 3801 (a)(18). The district court did not have jurisdiction to consider the preemption question. First, there is no evidence in the record that the County’s decision to deny Turecek’s land use permit application was grounded in its refusal to follow the narrower federal definition of wetlands rather than the broader local definition of wetlands. Second, there is no threat of prosecution, imminent or otherwise,…