Skalko v. City of Sunnyvale

California Supreme Court Aug 18, 1939 No. S. F. 16279Published

Before: Edmonds

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Holding. The court held that a zoning ordinance restricting the appellant's property to residential use was void as applied to his land because the surrounding industrial conditions rendered the property entirely unsuited for residential purposes.

Issues

Whether a zoning ordinance, valid in its general aspects, may be held void as applied to a specific property if it is arbitrary and unreasonable.
Whether the restriction of the appellant's property to residential use constitutes a reasonable exercise of the police power given the surrounding industrial conditions.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“In its application to the land owned by the appellant, the ordinance is void.”

“Legislatures may not, under the guise of the police power, impose restrictions that are unnecessary and unreasonable upon the use of private property or the pursuit of useful activities.”

“Also, the police power must be applied to existing conditions.”

EDMONDS, J.

The appellant, as owner of real property in the city of Sunnyvale, sought a declaratory judgment that a zoning ordinance restricting the use of his property is void as to him. Ruling adversely to his contentions, the trial court decided in favor of the city.

There is little dispute concerning the facts. It appears that by the challenged enactment, property within the city of Sunnyvale has been placed in either a residential, commercial or industrial zone. The appellant’s land is in a residential district, but its north line is also the boundary between that district and an industrial district. A cannery, said to be the largest in the world, employing about 3,000 workers during six months of the year and many hundreds for an additional three months, is located about 100 feet from the appellant’s property. This cannery works night and day, with three shifts of employees.

At one side of the appellant’s property but upon the land of the cannery are a warehouse and some huge piles of empty boxes. In front of the property there are also four piles of these boxes, each about a city block in length and apparently more than twenty feet high. During most of the year boxes are being placed in or taken from these piles at all hours of the day and night. The streets for about one-half mile from the plant are used to park the automobiles of the cannery workers and others. The area around the appellant’s property is sparsely settled, and devoted to agricultural use. The few dwellings in the neighborhood have a rather low value.

There is heavy automobile and truck traffic in front of the appellant’s property throughout the year, but principally during the operating season of nine months. For six months of the year this traffic continues during both day and night. At a distance of 450 feet, 80 trains a day pass over the main line of the Southern Pacific Company, and it maintains two

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spur tracks to the cannery upon which freight ears are hauled at all hours.

The machinery of the cannery can be heard for a long distance as a continuous hum. There is also, at irregular intervals, the noise of escaping steam from the popping off of safety valves and, twice a day, from the cleaning of boilers.

Skalko v. City of Sunnyvale

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EDMONDS, J.

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