Case Title: Combined Investment Co. v. BOARD OF BUTLER CTY. COMM'RS

Citation: 227 Kan. 17, 605 P.2d 533

Docket Number: 49,972

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1980-01-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
227 Kan. 17 (1980)
605 P.2d 533
THE COMBINED INVESTMENT COMPANY, a Partnership, Appellee and Cross-Appellant,
v.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF BUTLER COUNTY, KANSAS, et al., Appellants and Cross-Appellees.
No. 49,972

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed January 19, 1980.
Phillip Mellor, James R. Schaefer, Arden P. Miller, and Kim A Roberts, of Mellor, Schaefer & Miller, P.A. of Wichita, were on the brief for the appellants and cross-appellees.
Robert M. Siefkin, of Foulston, Siefkin, Powers & Eberhardt, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Jerry G. Elliott and William R. Sampson, of the same firm, and James B. McKay, Jr., of McKay, McKay & Hargrove, of El Dorado, were with him on the brief for appellee and cross-appellant.
Geary N. Gorup, county attorney, was on the brief amicus curiae and for cross-appellees.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
MILLER, J.:
This is an appeal by intervenors from a judgment finding the action of the Board of County Commissioners of Butler County denying an application for a zoning change to be arbitrary and unreasonable, and ordering the approval of the application.
The Combined Investment Company, a partnership consisting *18 of G. Marc Myers and others, owns the land. It commenced this action against the Board of County Commissioners after its request for a change of zoning was denied. Charles Rombold and several other residents of the county who opposed the change intervened. We will refer to the parties as the plaintiff or the landowner; the Board; and the intervenors.
The first issue is whether the findings of the trial court are supported by the evidence. Additionally, appellants contend that the trial court erred in its conclusions as a matter of law. A somewhat detailed statement of the background facts is necessary.
The plaintiff has owned a quarry in Butler County since 1969; the quarry was in existence prior to that time, and has been in operation since 1952. The quarry is operated by the George M. Myers Construction Company, and is known as the Myers Quarry. This quarry is the only source of state approved concrete aggregate in Butler County; it mines what is known as Cresswell rock. The supply of suitable rock appeared to be dwindling, so in 1969 plaintiff purchased a quarter section of land immediately east of the present quarry as a reserve, and in 1976 it sought to have the zoning on about 137 acres of that quarter section changed from agricultural to quarry. The Butler County Planning Board held two hearings, then recommended approval. A protest by the owners of 20% of the land within 1000 feet of the boundaries of the 137-acre tract was filed in the office of the county clerk; therefore a unanimous vote of the Board of County Commissioners was required to grant the requested zoning change. K.S.A. 19-2920. The Board, without hearing further evidence, denied the change, two members of the Board voting in favor of plaintiff's application and one member, Commissioner Mauk, voting against it. This action followed.
The petition set forth two causes of action. By the first, plaintiff seeks a decree granting rezoning on the basis that Commissioner Mauk's vote was arbitrary and capricious; by the second, plaintiff seeks a determination that K.S.A. 19-2920 is unconstitutional. The trial court upheld the constitutionality of the statute, and that ruling is not challenged on appeal.
At a pretrial conference held immediately before trial, the trial court ruled that it would limit plaintiff's evidence to those matters and evidence presented to Commissioner Mauk or available to *19 him from the Planning Board minutes and to any other evidence relevant to the conflict of interest question raised by plaintiff on the day of trial. The court further ruled that any other evidence that the parties wished to present would not be considered, but would be permitted to be proffered to preserve the record in the event of an appeal. Trial was completed in two days; some evidence was not admitted but was proffered, and as to the latter the trial court did not permit cross-examination.
The trial judge made extensive and detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The findings were attacked by the intervenors; the judge then reviewed all of the findings and modified many of them. The resulting amended findings of fact, and the conclusions of law, are as follows:
....
....
b. The best use of the property;
"CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
Intervenors claim that seven of the court's findings of fact are either erroneously based upon proffered evidence, or upon no evidence at all, and that there is no evidence supportive of those findings. We shall consider each of the challenged findings.
The first is finding 8(a). We find support for that statement in the summary of the testimony of Professor Lynn Woodward, included in the minutes of the Planning Board meeting of August 2.
The next finding challenged is 8(f). That the quarry is located in a sparsely populated area is shown by the photographs, and presumably is a fact of general knowledge in the area which could well be judicially noticed by the trial judge. K.S.A. 60-409(b)(3). Testimony at the planning board hearings included estimates of the thickness of the rock formation, the amount and type of explosives used, and the times blasting occurred. The aerial photographs disclosed the location of homes and the distance *26 from both the existing and the proposed quarry area. We conclude that finding 8(f) is supported by the record.
Finding 8(g) is challenged. It was modified by the trial judge; the version finally adopted is taken almost verbatim from the minutes of the Planning Board meeting, and is amply supported by the record.
Finding 8(h)(3) deals with the loss of jobs for quarry employees and loss of support for their dependents. The minutes of Professor Woodward's testimony show that he stated in substance that every quarry employee supports three other persons and that 120 to 180 people are supported by the quarry. The minutes of Mr. Myers' testimony show that he said in substance that the present site would be quarried out in six months to two years; if the new site could not be used, the quarry would have to shut down. The record thus supports this finding.
Finding 8(n), concerning the testimony of Ralph Dawson, is next on appellants' list. The information that Dawson toured the area surrounding the quarry and was familiar with structures in that area is not specifically included in the minutes of the August 2 meeting of the Planning Board, at which meeting Dawson testified. The minutes do, however, support the balance of this finding of fact, and indicate that Dawson knew the size of the rock ledge being quarried, and in his opinion Myers was using only 10% of the amount of explosive needed to cause damage. It might be inferred that Dawson would need to be familiar with the area in order to be able to form the opinions expressed; in his proffered testimony, he indicated that he was very familiar with the operation, and that he had so testified before the Planning Board.
Finding 12 relates to the brand of explosive used, "Tovex," manufactured by Du Pont. The written reports of seismographic tests, submitted at the Planning Board hearing, list the explosive as Type: "ANFO Detaprimes." Type of Delay Employed: "MSEBC Du Pont." We find no other information about the specific explosive used in the minutes, in the exhibits, or on the taped record of the September 7 meeting. The information contained in this finding is included in the proffer of Mr. Dawson's testimony; he testified that these facts were presented to the Planning Board during his testimony on August 2.
The last finding attacked is the last sentence of finding 15. The *27 minutes of Professor Woodward's testimony at the August 2 meeting indicate that he proposed a residential area be developed around the old quarry after the excavated area is filled with water, similar to "Briarcliff Lake Estates." He showed slides demonstrating how the area could be developed. The minutes support finding 15.
After a careful review we conclude that the findings challenged are substantially supported by the original minutes and record. The few deviations are not critical factual findings, and although erroneous are not of sufficient substance to constitute prejudicial or reversible error.
A district court reviewing a zoning decision of an administrative agency "may take additional evidence that is relevant to the limited issues of reasonableness and legality of the order appealed from." International Villages, Inc., of Amer. v. Board of Comm'rs of Jefferson County, 224 Kan. 654, 660, 585 P.2d 999 (1978). The rules of evidence contained in the code of civil procedure apply to district court review of a zoning ordinance. Records of prior proceedings and also relevant evidence not presented to the commission are admissible, subject to judicial discretion. Keeney v. City of Overland Park, 203 Kan. 389, 394, 454 P.2d 456 (1969). See also Rydd v. State Board of Health, 202 Kan. 721, 451 P.2d 239 (1969). Evidence repeating testimony given before the Planning Board which has been condensed into minutes presented to the county commissioners would be admissible both on the issue of reasonableness and because it was considered by the commissioners or was available to them.
Because the proffered evidence was admissible, appellant's claim of error is reduced to being precluded from cross-examining witnesses giving the proffered testimony. Control of the scope of cross-examination is subject to reasonable control by the trial court, and exercise of such control will not constitute reversible error, absent a showing of abuse resulting in prejudice. Manley v. Rings, 222 Kan. 258, 564 P.2d 482 (1977). Here appellant makes no claim of prejudice.
The primary issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in its ultimate conclusion that Commissioner Mauk's vote was arbitrary and unreasonable and should be set aside, and that plaintiff's application for rezoning be approved.
This is not an appeal to the courts from the decision of an *28 administrative board; instead, it is a direct action challenging the reasonableness of the action taken by the local authority, the Board of County Commissioners. Such an action is specifically authorized by K.S.A. 19-2913, a part of the general county zoning law, which provides:
Highway Oil, Inc. v. City of Lenexa, 219 Kan. 129, 547 P.2d 330 (1976), was an action commenced under K.S.A. 12-712, an act authorizing the bringing of an action in the district court to determine the reasonableness of city zoning ordinances or regulations. We discussed the rules governing the scope of judicial review of zoning matters in Highway Oil, and more recently in Golden v. City of Overland Park, 224 Kan. 591, 595-596, 584 P.2d 130 (1978). Concisely stated, the rules are these:
*29 In the case at hand, unanimous commission action was imposed through the protest procedure provided in K.S.A. 19-2920, which states:
Does the unanimity requirement alter the scope of review? We hold that it does not. Whether zoning action is taken by one, three, or a dozen people sitting as a board, commission, or authority is immaterial; what is important and controlling under our law is that the action taken must not be arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable. Here the vote of one commissioner controlled the action of the commission; by the vote of Commissioner Mauk the motion to allow the change was defeated. The action of the commission as a whole  controlled by that single vote  was to deny the petition for change. The action of the commission must be reasonable, and is subject to review on that basis, whether the action resulted from a minority or a majority vote. Technically, the district court was reviewing the action of the commission, not the vote of a single commissioner; but the vote of that commissioner controlled the action of the commission; it was the action of the commission; and any error in terminology notwithstanding, it was the action of the commission which the court held to be arbitrary and unreasonable.
Was the action of the commission in denying the application unreasonable as a matter of law? Was it "so arbitrary that it can be said it was taken without regard to the benefit or harm involved to the community at large, including all interested parties"? Was it "so wide of the mark that its unreasonableness lies outside the realm of fair debate"? This is the critical issue.
The findings of the trial court disclose what evidence was considered and what evidence was not considered by the "commission" in denying the requested rezoning. These findings  20, 21, 22, 24, 30 and 31  are not challenged by appellants.
Considered were private and undisclosed ex parte statements of *30 three interested people, dust caused by traffic on a county road, loss of tax revenue, and loss of salaries. The minutes of the August 2 hearing were reviewed; there was no in-depth discussion of the evidence by the three commissioners, two of whom had attended the important August 2 hearing. Not considered were all of the exhibits introduced by the landowner, as well as all of the important matters deserving consideration listed in finding 30. The benefit or harm to a select few was considered; the benefit or harm to the people of Butler County, the "community at large," was ignored.
Appellants urge us to consider the criteria listed in Golden, in determining reasonableness of the commission's denial. The first two of these are the character of the neighborhood and the zoning and uses of nearby property. The property is located in the extreme southwest portion of Butler County. Surrounding properties are agricultural except for the existing quarry, which adjoins the proposed site. There are residences on some nearby properties; from the aerial photographs there appears to be an average of three or fewer homes on nearby sections. It would be impossible to locate a quarry anywhere in the state where all the surrounding properties were quarries. The surrounding land is not highly developed residential property; some of it is terraced, some farmed on the contour; obviously it is agricultural with a few scattered homes. The record indicates that one area has been platted; we are unable to find any concentration of building sites in the exhibits.
The third factor is suitability of the property for agricultural uses to which it is presently restricted. Testimony indicates it is unsuitable for some agricultural purposes due to outcroppings of rock. The highest and best use is undoubtedly for quarrying; the underlying rock is said to have an estimated value of $16,500,000.
Another important factor is the extent to which the requested zoning change will affect nearby property. This was considered only insofar as the ex parte complaints of three neighbors were concerned. The complaints were discredited by evidence at the hearing and were not found to be valid by the trial court. The requested zoning change will allow quarrying to continue; it will not cause any new or different impact upon properties nearby.
Another factor to be considered is the relative gain to the public health, safety and welfare accomplished by the denial of the *31 application, as compared to the hardship imposed on the landowner. If the application is denied, the quarry closes; the land will retain its agricultural value, and the value of the underlying rock will be lost. There is no evidence that public health, safety, and welfare will be promoted by denial of the application. On the other hand, there was an abundance of evidence as to the cost of importing approved aggregate into Butler County if this quarry is closed. This would also affect neighboring Sedgwick County, and state highway projects in the area. These matters affect the public welfare.
Further discussion would only belabor this opinion. It is apparent that only a few of the factors listed above were considered. The evidence supporting the granting of the application, as characterized by the trial judge, was overwhelming; the evidence in opposition to it was minimal. The trial court stated and properly applied the correct rules of law. We have carefully examined the entire record and we conclude that the able trial judge was correct in finding that the commission's action in denying rezoning was unreasonable as a matter of law. Other matters raised in the briefs have been considered, but discussion of them would not be of benefit.
The judgment is affirmed.
FROMME and HOLMES, JJ., not participating.