Card v. Community Redevelopment Agency of South Pasadena

61 Cal. App. 3d 570, 131 Cal. Rptr. 153, 1976 Cal. App. LEXIS 1836
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 27, 1976
DocketCiv. 47354
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 61 Cal. App. 3d 570 (Card v. Community Redevelopment Agency of South Pasadena) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Card v. Community Redevelopment Agency of South Pasadena, 61 Cal. App. 3d 570, 131 Cal. Rptr. 153, 1976 Cal. App. LEXIS 1836 (Cal. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

Opinion

COBEY, Acting P. J.

Defendant, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of South Pasadena (hereafter Agency), appeals from a judgment that, among other things, declares invalid the city’s ordinance purporting to amend an existing redevelopment plan for the Monterey Hills area in the city and awarding to plaintiffs’ attorneys legal fees in the amount of $20,400.

*573 The essential basis for the judgment of invalidity is that the city actually adopted a new redevelopment plan under the pretext of amending an existing one. 1

The Agency principally contends that: (1) the action should have been dismissed for failure of the plaintiffs to fully comply with the procedure required in validation actions and because all irregularities in the redevelopment proceedings under review were cured by the Third Validating Act of 1973; (2) the trial court lacked the requisite constitutional basis for invalidation; (3) the award of attorneys’ fees was improper.

Background 2

The redevelopment plan for Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project No. 1, as adopted in 1959 by the city, was primarily a plan for the redevelopment of vacant land to upper income residential uses. At the time of the adoption of the challenged ordinance (No. 1644) on December 19, 1973, purporting to amend this plan, the Agency had virtually completed the original plan’s implementation. 3 The purported amendments to the plan expanded for redevelopment purposes the boundaries of the original project area so as to include the city’s downtown business area and an older residential area impacted by the proposed Long Beach Freeway and lying between the downtown business area and the boundaries of the original project.

The downtown business area constitutes one-third of the added area. The remaining two-thirds lies immediately west of the downtown area and east and northeast of the original project area. It is composed of older single family homes with occasional multi-family residential and *574 commercial uses. It is bifurcated north-south by the proposed Long Beach Freeway. It is contiguous to but physically separated from the original project area by some steep hills that prevent vehicular and other traffic across them.

The proposed expansion in project area would not affect the original project area uniquely to that area as compared with the remainder of the city. The purported amendments actually constitute an entirely new and separate redevelopment plan and project of substantial magnitude, wholly different in concept, goals and territory from that of the original plan and project. The amended redevelopment plan represents an attempt through the use of the Community Redevelopment Law to increase commercial activity within the downtown business area and to cope with anticipated problems that the existence of the proposed freeway creates within the added residential area. 4

The Action Is Properly Before Us

As we have indicated, the Agency contends that this action should have been dismissed pursuant to Health and Safety Code sections 33500, 33501 and Code of Civil Procedure section 869, and that the trial court abused its discretion in permitting plaintiffs’ tardy compliance with the just-mentioned statutes. 5

Plaintiffs filed this action originally as an in personam taxpayers’ suit pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 526a and in their complaint alleged that they were citizens, residents and taxpayers of the city and owners of real property assessed for. taxes within the last year by the County of Los Angeles. The defendants originally named included the Agency, the city, the city council and the members thereof, the Los Angeles County Tax Collector-Treasurer and the Los Angeles County Auditor. The last two mentioned defendants were included because plaintiffs sought to enjoin their paying over to the Agency certain tax increment revenues. 6

*575 As previously noted, the challenged ordinance was adopted on December 19, 1973, and plaintiffs’ action was filed on February 14, 1974. Plaintiffs’ action was therefore filed within the 60-day period specified in the aforementioned Health and Safety Code section 33500. It was not, however, filed in the proper form for a validation action in rem as permitted by the aforementioned Health and Safety Code section 33501 and as required by the aforementioned Code of Civil Procedure section 869. The summons originally issued was not in the special form enjoined and no publication thereof was made. (See Code Civ. Proc., §§ 861, 861.1.) Accordingly the Agency moved on July 8, 1974 (see Code Civ. Proc., § 1005.5) to dismiss the action.

At the time of the making of this motion the 60-day period within which a copy of the special summons should have been published and proof of publication filed had long expired. But Code of Civil Procedure section 863 expressly provides, in effect, that dismissal shall not occur if “good cause” for the failure to comply with these publication requirements is shown. This good cause exemption literally applies only to these publication requirements, but in City of Ontario v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.3d 335, 346 [85 Cal.Rptr. 149, 466 P.2d 693], our Supreme Court extended this exemption to a situation like the one before us—that is, where the plaintiff has not simply failed to comply with the publication requirements but has also failed to include in his complaint the allegations required for a validation action. Furthermore in Ontario our Supreme Court suggested that where a plaintiff seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, unavailable in a validation action—something which occurred in that case and also in this case—this circumstance may constitute “good cause” for noncompliance with the validation procedure. (Id., at pp. 344-346.) Of course, in the earlier case of Community Redevelopment Agency v. Superior Court, 248 Cal.App.2d 164, 167-168, 170-175, 180 [56 Cal.Rptr. 201], another division of this court held that permitting tardy amendment of the summons and its subsequent publication was beyond the jurisdiction of the trial court in an action challenging, as here, the validity of a redevelopment plan for the reason that no good cause had been shown for plaintiff’s failure to comply with the requisite validation procedure. In Ontario, supra, 2 Cal.3d at 346-347, this case was distinguished on factual grounds inapposite here.

We nevertheless believe that Community Redevelopment Agency is not controlling in this case. There the action involved was simply a *576

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Bluebook (online)
61 Cal. App. 3d 570, 131 Cal. Rptr. 153, 1976 Cal. App. LEXIS 1836, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/card-v-community-redevelopment-agency-of-south-pasadena-calctapp-1976.