If you don’t know your route of review and when to invoke it, you end up like the plaintiff in Tejon Real Estate, LLC v. City of Los Angeles, B247255 (2d Dist. January 23, 2014). In fact, not only did that plaintiff fail to seek review properly, it never even got a final determination subject to review.
The plaintiff wanted to build a residence on a vacant lot and received an informal opinion from the fire department that it could not build a residence unless a fire hydrant was installed within 300 feet of the property. It then got an estimate from the city Department of Water & Power (“DWP”) that extending the water line and hydrant would cost the plaintiff $77,000.
Plaintiff filed a declaratory relief action seeking an interpretation of DWP rules regarding the extension of existing water lines. When the city demurred for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and contending that any administrative decision should be reviewed by writ of mandamus rather than a declaratory relief action, the trial court sustained the demurrer and the plaintiff appealed:
The sole cause of action in appellant’s complaint was for declaratory relief. Appellant contends (1) that it “completed the application process for water service” and received a “final determination,” and (2) that it is, therefore, entitled to a declaration interpreting the pertinent rules and regulations under Code of Civil Procedure section 1060. Appellant is incorrect on both counts.
that it did not prepare or submit plans or seek a building permit which would have provided an opportunity for all the relevant City departments to determine precisely what conditions to impose under the City’s various building and safety provisions before appellant could commence construction of the proposed residence.
Here, appellant was provided preliminary opinions and estimates from City personnel. Appellant did not receive a final determination from the City and cannot say with certainty what charges will be imposed or conditions enforced once the City has rendered its final decision based on specific plans for construction. It would be premature for a court to step in at this point before the City has had an opportunity to interpret its own rules and building requirements.
Plaintiff would have been sunk even if it had obtained a final administrative determination, though. Because plaintiff sought a declaration as to how the rules were applied to a particular parcel, it had no right to have the matter decided by a declaratory judgment action. Rather, it should have obtained the final determination and, assuming it was aggrieved, petitioned for administrative mandamus under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5.