ELR Citation: 50 ELR 20144
No(s). 18-cv-05857-YGR (N.D. Cal. Jun 8, 2020) (Rogers, J.)

A district court denied partial summary judgment in a challenge to a county board's decision not to renew two conditional use permits (CUPs) for continued operation of an oil extraction and production facility in Livermore, California. The facility operator argued it had a fundamental vested right in continuing operations there because the county had approved such operations since 1966, and the operator relied on those approvals to make significant investments in the land. The court found that a CUP did not bestow on the permit holder a fundamental vested right and that the operator could not claim that past permit renewals were equivalent to a guarantee that the permits would be renewed in perpetuity. It further found the operator failed to demonstrate that denial of the CUPs would result in anything more than economic loss. The court therefore denied the operator's motion for partial summary judgment.