Opinion ID: 1189801
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Merger Provisions' Substantive Requirements

Text: Section 66451.11 prescribes the specific conditions under which local parcel-merger ordinances may make parcels eligible or ineligible for merger. An ordinance may provide for merger of commonly owned contiguous parcels only if (1) one of the parcels is below the minimum size that a local zoning ordinance requires for development, and (2) one of the parcels is essentially undeveloped. (§ 66451.11; id., subd. (a).) The local agency may then merge the parcels if any one of them is on land that was set aside on or before July 1, 1981, as open-space land (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 421), timberland (§ 51104, subd. (f)), agricultural land (§ 51201, subd. (b)), or land within 2,000 feet of commercial mineral resource extraction, or if the parcel had been identified or designated prior to July 1, 1981, under the California Coastal Act of 1976, as being of insufficient size to support residential development. (§ 66451.11, subd. (b)(A)-(b)(E).) [23] Otherwise, merger is permitted only if one of the parcels comprises less than 5,000 square feet, or was not created in compliance with applicable law, or fails to meet current standards for sewage disposal, water supply, slope stability, or vehicular access, or [i]s inconsistent with the applicable general plan and any applicable specific plan, other than minimum lot size or density standards (§ 66451.11, subd. (b)(7), italics added). (§ 66451.11, subd. (b).) [24] These conditions provide local agencies with broad authority to impose a merger of parcels that fail to meet any of numerous qualitative standards as building sites. The statute does not, however, authorize imposition of merger simply because a parcel is undersized by local zoning standards unless one of the parcels to be merged is less than 5,000 square feet. (§ 66451.11, subd. (b).) Here, plaintiffs' block 132, and all of the parcels contiguous to block 132, each exceeds three acres, far more than five thousand square feet. There is no contention that either plaintiffs' parcel or any of the contiguous parcels was eligible for merger under any of the standards laid down by section 66451.11. The question is whether the paramount state concern reflected by the statutory scheme impliedly preempts a zoning ordinance's requirement that parcels not eligible for merger under section 66451.11 be nonetheless merged as a condition to issuance of a development permit. We think that the statute does impliedly preempt any such local zoning requirement. The legislative history we have recounted indicates a primary legislative concern over parcel merger as a means of enforcing zoning ordinance requirements of minimum lot size for construction, and not simply as a means of regulating the sale, lease, or financing of unimproved lots. The original parcel merger legislation (former § 66424.2) appears to have been prompted by the interpretation in an Attorney General's Opinion (56 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 509, supra ) of Hill v. City of Manhattan Beach, supra, 6 Cal.3d 279, which resolved a dispute over application of the defendant city's requirement of a minimum parcel size for development. As originally enacted in 1976, former section 66424.2 provided for automatic merger of contiguous parcels (if one was undeveloped) whenever any one of them did not conform to standards for minimum parcel size to permit use or development under a zoning, subdivision or other ordinance of the local agency. The following year, the section was amended to authorize local ordinances to provide for merger under those conditions. But so long as any of the commonly owned contiguous parcels was undeveloped and was less than the minimum size required for development by the local zoning or other ordinance, the section placed virtually no limit on the type or size of the parcels that could be merged. Section 66451.11, on the other hand, imposes numerous alternative conditions that may make parcels eligible for compulsory merger under a local ordinance. (See fn. 24, ante. ) Most of those conditions pertain to qualitative unsuitability for development. In the absence of all those conditions of qualitative unsuitability, parcels may not be merged unless one of them was illegally created or is less than 5,000 square feet. Legal parcels that are not unsuitable for development under the other standards and are 5,000 or more square feet in area may not be merged even though they fall short of the standards for minimum parcel size, under the zoning ordinance of the local agency. (§ 66451.11.) These provisions clearly reflect a paramount state concern that uniform statewide standards govern local agencies' use of compulsory parcel merger as a means of enforcing zoning restrictions on development. The development-oriented nature of practically all the statutory merger standards requires rejection of the county's contention that the statutory merger provisions are merely intended to restrict imposition of merger as a means of controlling the separate sale, lease, or financing of parcels without regard to their prospective development. As already explained, the merger provisions (§§ 66451.10-66451.21) do not expressly preempt the county ordinances because those ordinances require merger only if and when the owner applies for a development permit, whereas the merger provisions apply literally only to local initiation and imposition of the merger of an undeveloped parcel with a contiguous parcel for purposes of restricting the separate sale, lease, or financing of either parcel regardless of whether the owner seeks permission for future development. Nonetheless, the effect of the county ordinances upon owners such as plaintiffs who do apply for a development permit is to require a merger even though none of the parcels to be merged meets any of the prerequisites for local agency initiated merger under section 66451.11. The obvious purpose of the ordinances is to enforce a local zoning requirement of minimum parcel size that could not be enforced by means of a merger ordinance under that section. Section 66451.11 reflects a paramount state concern that statewide uniform standards govern the use of compulsory merger as a means of controlling development. That paramount concern impliedly preempts any merger requirements of local ordinances that fail to comply with the standards of section 66451.11, and accordingly preempts the county zoning ordinance provisions in question here. In light of the county's expressed concerns about its power to regulate development in antiquated subdivisions, we emphasize the narrow scope of our holding. The Act's merger provisions do not preempt zoning ordinances that require, as a condition to development, the merger of parcels that could be merged by ordinance under section 66451.11. Nor do the merger provisions affect the applicability of zoning ordinances requiring minimum parcel size for development so long as the requirements are not conditioned upon parcel merger.