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California’s First District Court of Appeal recently provided clarification regarding the life of tentative subdivision maps under California’s Subdivision Map Act.

The case, Ailanto Properties, Inc. v. City of Half Moon Bay, involved a vesting tentative map for a residential project in the City of Half Moon Bay that was subjected to significant delays as a result of the City’s water and sewer moratoria. The court refused to extend the life of the vesting tentative map to account for the total actual time of the moratoria. In reaching its decision, the court addressed two issues: (1) how long the life of a tentative map may be extended when a city or county has a development moratorium in effect; and (2) when filing a final map prevents a tentative map from expiring.

Effect of Moratorium

The first issue hinged upon the interpretation of a provision of the Map Act, California Government Code section 66452.6(b)(1), which tolls the expiration of a tentative map while a development moratorium is in effect, but provides that “the length of the moratorium shall not exceed five years.” The project site at issue was subject to a water service moratorium at the time the vesting tentative map was approved. The site subsequently became subject to a separate sewer moratorium that the City of Half Moon Bay extended several times so that it remained in effect for some eight years.

The developer, who had obtained approval of the vesting tentative map in 1990, argued that the five-year limit applied to the length of the development moratorium itself, rather than the length of the extension of the life of the map. Under the developer’s theory, a tentative map would continue to be extended as long as the development moratorium remained in place. The court rejected this theory, holding that section 66452.6(b)(1) was intended to limit to five years the total length of time that a tentative map could be extended by a development moratorium, rather than limiting the length of a development moratorium itself.

The developer also argued that even if the five-year limit applies to the length of time the life of the map can be extended, a separate five-year limit applies to each development moratorium (and its extension) that delays approval of the final map, so that the expiration of the map had been tolled for multiple five-year periods and the map was still alive. The court also rejected this argument, holding that the five-year limit applied to the total of all development moratoria that could be applied to a project to extend a map.

Satisfaction of Conditions for Filing Final Map

The second issue in Ailanto was whether “filing” of a final map was sufficient to extend the life of the tentative map, regardless of the development moratorium. Government Code section 66452.6(a)(1) provides that if a subdivider has expended $178,000 or more on off-site improvements, the filing of a final map will extend the life of a tentative map by 36 months. One of the conditions of approval attached by the City to the vesting tentative map required the developer to obtain a coastal development permit, and the developer filed a final map with the city engineer before obtaining it.

The developer argued that the expiration of the tentative map nevertheless was tolled by this submittal, because Government Code section 66452.6(d) provides that delivery of a final map to the city engineer is deemed a timely filing, and does not specify that the delivered final map must meet all conditions of tentative map approval at that time. The court rejected this argument, holding that the filing of a final map that did not conform to the vesting tentative map did not extend the life of the tentative map. The court explained that in this case, there was a “significant deficiency” in the final map, since a coastal development permit was required both by the California Coastal Act of 1976 and by the conditions attached to the vesting tentative map.

The court also rejected the developer’s theory that equitable estoppel prevented the City from claiming that the vesting tentative map had expired. The developer had expended millions of dollars in a good‑faith attempt to fulfill the conditions attached to the vesting tentative map, and alleged that the City had a “practice” of tolling the expiration of a vesting tentative map while a coastal development permit application was pending. Given that practice, the developer argued that its expenditures estopped the City from asserting any five-year limit on the extension of the life of the tentative map due to development moratoria. The court explained that the City did not have the power to indefinitely waive the limitations imposed by state law on the life of vesting tentative maps. Although the court’s rejection of the equitable estoppel argument is dictum (the court found that the developer waived its estoppel claims, but nonetheless discussed the merits of the argument), it could be an obstacle for other defendants attempting estoppel arguments under the Map Act.

Conclusion

This case should serve as a cautionary note to property owners and developers who have obtained approval of either tentative maps or vesting tentative maps (the statutory provisions at issue in the case apply to both types of maps). The Ailanto decision makes it clear that there is a five-year limit on the extension of tentative maps due to development moratoria even if the moratoria extend longer than five years. Potential purchasers of entitled property should also be aware of this rule when conducting due diligence. It is important to note, however, that the Ailanto opinion suggests that there may be an exception to this rule if a city and a property owner agree to waive the time limits on the life of the tentative map.

Additionally, the Ailanto decision clarifies that “filing” a final map that does not conform to the tentative map due to a “significant deficiency” in meeting conditions of approval will not extend the life of the tentative map. On the other hand, the decision leaves some room to argue that a final map that may not strictly satisfy all of the conditions attached to a tentative map nevertheless could extend the life of a final map, if the unfulfilled conditions are not as significant or as clearly unfulfilled as the requirement for a coastal development permit was in this particular case. Subsequent court decisions may provide additional clarity as to what else might constitute a “significant deficiency” in a final map that would similarly result in failure to extend the life of the map.

Citations:

Ailanto Prop., Inc. v. City of Half Moon Bay, 142 Cal. App. 4th 572 (2006)

Cal. Gov’t Code § 66452.6