2
Following the Ordinance’s enactment, the San Francisco Apartment Association
and the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, two nonprofit organizations
representing San Francisco property owners (collectively, Property Owners), filed a
petition for writ of mandate alleging the Ordinance “is facially invalid because it is
preempted by State laws governing landlord-tenant notification procedures and
timetables governing the parties’ respective rights and obligations, including the timing
of the right to terminate tenancies where the landlord has otherwise complied with all
state and local substantive requirements necessary to terminate the tenancy.” The trial
court agreed the Ordinance was preempted and issued a writ of mandate commanding the
City not to enforce or apply it.
DISCUSSION
“ ‘ “The issue of preemption of a municipal ordinance by state law presents a
question of law, subject to de novo review.” ’ ” (Coyne v. City and County of San
Francisco (2017) 9 Cal.App.5th 1215, 1224 (Coyne).) “ ‘ “Under article XI, section 7 of
the California Constitution, ‘[a] county or city may make and enforce within its limits all
local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general
[state] laws.’ [¶] ‘If otherwise valid local legislation conflicts with state law, it is
preempted by such law and is void.’ [Citations.]” ’ [Citation.] [¶] ‘ “ ‘The first step in a
preemption analysis is to determine whether the local regulation explicitly conflicts with
any provision of state law. [Citation.]’ ” ’ [Citation.] ‘ “A conflict exists if the local
legislation ‘ “duplicates, contradicts, or enters an area fully occupied by general law,
either expressly or by legislative implication.” ’ ” ’ ” (Ibid.)
“ ‘[W]hen local government regulates in an area over which it traditionally has
exercised control . . . California courts will presume, absent a clear indication of
preemptive intent from the Legislature, that such regulation is not preempted by state
statute. [Citation.] The presumption against preemption accords with our more general
understanding that “it is not to be presumed that the legislature in the enactment of
statutes intends to overthrow long-established principles of law unless such intention is
made clearly to appear either by express declaration or by necessary implication.”