Everyone knows that California has some of the hardest laws in the country to understand. As it looks at ways of not only handling the economy, but environmental issues as well, one of the hardest areas for people without a lot of expertise to understand are the zoning laws.
The zoning laws can seem like some of the strangest laws to the rest of the country, but in California, the law is the law. For instance, one strange law states that you can't have a home based business in a residential neighborhood. Therefore, even if you're a consultant or you're a writer, you're not allowed to set yourself up as a business and still work from home.
Another instance of the strangeness of California zoning laws can be seen in the example of Marriott Residence Inn. In most states, it's categorized as a hotel. In California, most specifically Los Angeles, it couldn't be categorized as a hotel because the facility provided guests with a full kitchen for more than 30 days in some instances, which meant there was no real category for them, and they wouldn't have been allowed. The mayor at the time worked with the city to change the zoning laws to add a category for extended stay properties so that Marriott could build their hotel.
Zoning laws in California have stood the test of both time and the law. A few cases have made it as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, and the state has won more often than not.
A relatively new zoning law in Los Angeles requires new condominium builders to add units for people with less means than the norm so that they can have the opportunity to live in nicer neighborhoods. It's known as the "inclusionary zoning law," and its overall purpose was to make the city eligible for millions of dollars in state housing bond funds. Someone new coming into the city probably wouldn't know about this law, nor have made provisions for including these types of residences in their buildings. This means they would have found themselves at odds with the law and having to either scramble to change things up or back out of projects altogether.
Even restaurants that wish to grow some of their own produce have run afoul of zoning laws. In the summer of 2009, a restaurateur in Culver City learned that the tomatoes he was growing to use for meals could not be sold within the city limits because they were grown in the city limits. The restaurant owner could have saved himself a lot of time and money if he'd checked with an expert on the city's zoning laws.
In California, it pays to make sure to use the services of a zoning law expert. It will easily save you a lot of trouble, and it could save you a lot of money also.