City of Redondo Beach v. 9300 Wilshire CA2/4

INTRODUCTION

This case involves the site of a power plant in the City of Redondo Beach (the City). Respondents have been the owners of the power plant and its real property since 2020; we will refer to them as Owners.1 In a writ petition proceeding, Owners filed a cross-complaint against the City alleging that the City’s zoning of the property in 2010, and subsequent refusals to re-zone the property in a way that would benefit Owners, constituted a taking by depriving Owners of economically viable uses of the property and violated Owners’ substantive due process rights. The City filed a special motion to strike under the anti-SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16,2 asserting that because Owners alleged the City’s zoning decisions were based on a decades-long scheme to deprive Owners and their predecessor of any economically viable use of the property, and the statements evidencing that motive were protected activity under section 425.16, Owners’ claims “arise from” that protected activity. The trial court denied the City’s motion at the first step of the anti-SLAPP analysis, and we affirm. Owners’ claims arise from the zoning decisions themselves, which are not…