LOS ANGELES—A Long Beach property owner who along with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is challenging the constitutionality of a municipal ordinance that charges landowners a monthly fee for letting their property sit vacant says his lot hasn’t hurt the property values of others and that the city has made it too costly to develop.
The tax-fighting organization and Frederic Sparrevohn brought the suit last April in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking a declaration that the ordinance is void “unless and until it is properly noticed, properly substantiated, and properly approved.”
Sparrevohn also is seeking a $780 refund of the fee he paid for 2022 under protest. The city has filed a motion to dismiss the suit and the plaintiffs have filed a separate motion seeking a judgment in their favor without the case going to trial….