Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Yes, but not without some reason, some justification. Cities cannot be totally arbitrary. For example, the city can require me to have a twelve-foot wide sidewalk in front of my store, while only requiring an eight-foot wide sidewalk in front of my competitor's store down the street a block or so. Any number of reasons could justify this apparent "advantage" given my competitor. Maybe I'm 500 feet from the hospital, so there might be more wheelchairs, whereas he's 750 feet away. There have been lots of court cases about discriminatory ordinances, and the courts have generally held that they must be supported by some justification, but in truth it can be rather flimsy.

I'm not sure what you are specifically referring to, but I can think of the example of zoning. Some municipalities have zoning laws that state that certain parcels of property can be used for certain purposes and others cannot.