Dale v. City of Mountain View

In Dale v. City of Mountain View (1976) 55 Cal.3d 101, the court was presented with declaratory relief cause of action attempting to challenge an amendment to a general plan which had the effect of restricting the plaintiff's use of its property to open space, and thus it was alleged that this precluded its development for residential use. There was no allegation of procedural defect in the adoption of the amendment. The appellate court held that a demurrer to the cause of action for review was properly sustained without leave to amend. The court relied upon the holding of the Supreme Court in Selby Realty Co. v. City of San Buenaventura, 10 Cal.3d 110, at pp. 117-118, that the adoption of a general plan is a legislative act, the wisdom of which is within the legislative not judicial sphere. The rationale was that no action had been taken with respect to the plaintiff except that which affected all citizens. Because the potential effect of the plan is tentative and subject to change and dependent upon unpredicatable future events, these circumstances did not admit of definitive and conclusive judicial relief. The court noted that if the county took future action in such manner as actually to affect the plaintiff's free use of his property, the validity of such action could be challenged at that time. In Dale the court stated that this identical reasoning applied to the amendment before it.