Opinion ID: 1185623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The City's Ordinances and Resolutions Comply with Section 11546

Text: On this topic a few additional matters require brief elaboration. Associated argues that the city has enacted no definite principles for park and recreational facilities, as required by subdivision (d) of section 11546. The city's general plan indicates the location of various types of parks and recreational facilities and there is a sufficiently detailed set of principles and standards for the development of these facilities to satisfy the requirements of the section. [18] (7) Associated complains that although subdivision (b) of section 11546 requires that a city's ordinance set forth the standard for determining the amount of land to be dedicated or fee to be paid by a subdivider, ordinance 10-1.516 contains no such standard. It provides instead that the standards shall be set forth by resolution; it is resolution 2225 rather than the ordinance which specifies these matters. There is no showing in the record as to the circumstances under which the resolution was adopted. It has been held that even where a statute requires the municipality to act by ordinance if a resolution is passed in the manner and with the statutory formality required in the enactment of an ordinance, it will be binding and effective as an ordinance. ( Central Manufacturing District, Inc. v. Board of Supervisors (1960) 176 Cal. App.2d 850, 860 [1 Cal. Rptr. 733].) Since there is no showing in the record as to the circumstances under which the resolution was adopted, we presume its validity. It may come to pass, as Associated states, that subdividers will transfer the cost of the land dedicated or the in-lieu fee to the consumers who ultimately purchase homes in the subdivision, thereby to some extent increasing the price of houses to newcomers. While we recognize the ominous possibility that the contributions required by a city can be deliberately set unreasonably high in order to prevent the influx of economically depressed persons into the community, a circumstance which would present serious social and legal problems, there is nothing to indicate that the enactments of Walnut Creek in the present case raise such a spectre. The desirability of encouraging subdividers to build low-cost housing cannot be denied and unreasonable exactions could defeat this object, but these considerations must be balanced against the phenomenon of the appallingly rapid disappearance of open areas in and around our cities. We believe section 11546 constitutes a valiant attempt to solve this urgent problem, and we cannot say that its provisions or the city's enactments pursuant to the section are constitutionally deficient. The judgment is affirmed.