Rehfeld v. City & County of San Francisco

LANGDON, J.

This is an appeal by defendant City and County of San Francisco, from a judgment of the superior court granting declaratory relief and an injunction. The

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plaintiffs are owners of a piece of land at the corner of Filbert and Baker Streets, now used as a grocery-store. They sought to enlarge the store by extending it twenty-two feet backward into a lot now vacant. The district in which all this land is situated is zoned for residences. The store of plaintiffs had been erected many years before the zoning ordinance was passed, and by the terms of said ordinance, existing nonconforming uses were' permitted to remain. Plaintiffs filed their application with the city planning commission to rezone the twenty-two feet in the rear of the store, so as to permit the proposed enlargement. The commission denied the request, and plaintiffs then commenced this action. The lower court found that the deepening of the store would not adversely affect the public health, safety, comfort, morals, convenience or welfare, and therefore declared the right of plaintiffs to carry out their plans, and enjoined the defendant city from preventing such action.

It is at once obvious that the plaintiffs and the lower court have proceeded upon an erroneous theory. Plaintiffs’ brief takes the position that the court has power to review any decision of the city planning commission, and determine whether, in each case, the prohibited act is sufficiently dangerous to the public welfare to justify the exercise of police power. They cite cases dealing with judicial review of the constitutionality of

zoning ordinances,

none of which is in point. The zoning ordinance of the City and County of San Francisco is not attacked, and the constitutional power of a municipality to establish residential districts, and to exclude therefrom such structures as stores and apartment houses, is well settled. (See

Miller

v.

Board of Public Works,

195 Cal. 477 [234 Pac. 381, 38 A. L. R 1479];

Jones