PROHIBITION OF ISSUANCE OF PERMITAS BY RESOLUTION PENDING AMEDMENT TO MUNICIPAL CODE REGULATIONS

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OPINION N0. 74-14 PAGE TWO rights under the existing law with knowledge that it was in the process of change. The court concluded that this cannot be accomplished. The California Supreme Court granted a hearing. The case was later dismissed by agreement. The position that it is proper for a Charter .City to prohibit issuance of permits for construction by resolution pending amendment to regulations under its municipal code is strengthened by the fact that the refusal or revocation of a building permit. on the ground that a zon- ing ordinance was pending, without the enactment of an interim ordinance, has been held proper in many cases where the legal "pendency" of the zoning ordinance on the date of application for the permit was establish- ed or assumed. Where a city council expressly referred to a proposed rezoning ordinance as its reason for denying permission to divide a certain lot into two parcels, and where the rezoning ordinance was adopted before the entry of a lower court judgment granting a writ of mandate to compel permission for the division, the lower court was held to have erred in ordering the City Council to grant the application in violation of the ordinance in Slater v. City Council of Los Angeles (1965) 238 Cal App 2d 864, 47 Cal Rptr 847, reversing the judgment below. It is significant here that neither a resolution nor an interim ordinance had been adopted authorizing the City Council to deny the request made in this case. In Miller v. Board of Public Works (1925) 195 Cal 477, 234 P 381, 38 ALR 1479, error dismissed 273 US 781, 71 L Ed 889, 47 S Ct 460, supra § 7[a], the propriety of revoking a building permit before the enactment of an interim zoning ordinance was upheld. QUESTION 2: Does the equal dignity rule require that action taken by City Council prohibiting issuance of permits for construction pending amendment to regulations under the municipal code be taken in the form of an ordinance rather than a resolution? ANSWER: No ANALYSIS See authorities cited under analysis of the answer to Question No. 1. Said authorities indicate that in fact, neither a resolution nor an ordinance is required to prohibit issuance of permits for construction pending amendments to regulations under the municipal code. Furthermore, it should be noted that the equal dignity rule require- ment that an amendment to an ordinance be made consistent with the same procedure provided for enactment of the ordinance itself does not apply to an interim action like the one involved here. The resolution prohibiting issuance of permits for construction of off-premise adver- tising pending amendment to regulations under municipal code is not an -45-