Kavanau v. Santa Monica Rent Control Board, 16 Cal. 4th 761 (1997)

Citation: Kavanau v. Santa Monica Rent Control Board, 16 Cal. 4th 761 (1997)
Parent Document: Kavanau v. Santa Monica Rent Control Board, 16 Cal. 4th 761 (1997)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 1997-08-26
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/5607899/kavanau-v-santa-monica-rent-con... ↗

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A regulation, however, may effect a taking though, as is true here, it does not involve a physical invasion and leaves the property owner some economically beneficial use of his property. In Lucas, the high court expressly rejected the “assumption that the landowner whose deprivation is one step short of complete is not entitled to compensation.” (Lucas, supra, 505 U.S. at p. 1019, fn. 8 [112 S.Ct. at p. 2895].) “Such an owner” merely lost “the benefit of [the court’s] categorical formulation.” (Ibid.; see also Nollan v. California Coastal Comm’n (1987) 483 U.S. 825, 831 [107 S.Ct. 3141, 3145-3146, 97 L.Ed.2d 677] (Nollan).) Of course, we held in Agins v. City of Tiburon (1979) 24 Cal.3d 266, 277 [157 Cal.Rptr. 372, 598 P.2d 25], “that a zoning ordinance may be unconstitutional . . . only when its effect is to deprive the landowner of substantially all reasonable use of his property.” (See also Fisher, supra, 37 Cal.3d at p. 686 [paraphrasing and citing Agins v. City of Tiburon).) But the regulation at issue in Agins v. City of Tiburon left the plaintiffs a substantial use of their five-acre property, including building as many as five single-family homes on it. In order to uphold the regulation, we did not need to limit the protections of the takings clause to total deprivations of “substantially all reasonable use” of property, because the case before us did not even approach a total deprivation. Thus, our holding was dictum. Moreover, Lucas makes clear we misinterpreted the federal Constitution, and nothing in our opinion in Agins v. City of Tiburon suggests we were interpreting the state takings clause more narrowly than the federal *775clause. Finally, even if we did intend to interpret the state right more narrowly than the federal right, the federal Constitution would nevertheless apply here to protect Kavanau.

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