Title: Kunz v. Waterman

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

283 N.E.2d 371 (1972)
Halbert W. KUNZ et al., Appellants,
v.
Gerald C. WATERMAN and Edna Wuensch Waterman, Appellees.
No. 671S152.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
June 2, 1972.
Rehearing Denied August 25, 1972.
Kent S. Arvin, Eugene W. Lausch, Indianapolis, for appellants.
Gil I. Berry, Jr., Indianapolis, for appellees.
*372 DeBRULER, Justice.
This is an appeal from a judgment of the Marion County Superior Court which reversed a decision of the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals of Marion County, Indiana. The appellees originally petitioned the Board for a variance to allow them to use their residentially zoned real estate for commercial purposes (i.e., the construction of a gasoline service station.) The Board, after proper notice and hearing, denied the requested variance. The owners of the real estate appealed this denial to the Marion County Superior Court, pursuant to I.C. 1971, XX-X-X-XX, being Burns § 53-974, and that court reversed the Zoning Board and ordered the variance granted. The trial court, in ordering the variance granted, found that the Board acted illegally in denying the variance based on the evidence before it, and also injected a constitutional issue by holding:
This appeal is from that decision, and is before this Court on direct appeal because one of the issue involves a question of rights guaranteed by the State and Federal Constitutions. Indiana Code, 1971, 33-3-2-7, being Burns § 4-214; Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals v. Gateway Corp. (1971), Ind., 268 N.E.2d 736.
The real estate in question lies in a D-S zoning district which limits construction in the area to residential dwellings of a certain size and height, and further specifies a minimum lot size (one acre) and minimum setback for any structure. It has long been recognized that this kind of restrictive zoning is valid under the police power of the State, so long as it is carried out in a constitutionally authorized manner. Town of Homecroft v. Macbeth (1958), 238 Ind. 57, 148 N.E.2d 563; Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926), 272 U.S. 365, 47 S. Ct. 114, 71 L. Ed. 303, 54 A.L.R. 1016. In order to escape restrictions on the use of property which a property owner might find particularly onerous because of his particular situation, the property owner can petition the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals to request a use variance as to his piece of property. In order to successfully petition for such a variance, the property owner must convince the Board that:
Under the statute applicable at the time this petition for variance was filed, the Board could grant the variance only if they made the above determinations, "together with ... detailed written findings of face [sic] sufficient to support *373 such determinations." Burns § 53-969, supra.
The appellees in this case attempted to obtain a substantial use variance from a one acre minimum residential area to a gas station, but failed to convince the Board that all of these requirements were fulfilled, and as a result, the Board denied the petition for variance. Thereupon the appellees filed a petition in the Superior Court of Marion County alleging that the decision of the Board in denying the variance was illegal in that there was neither substantial nor sufficient evidence to support the finding of said Board in that:
Pursuant to the receipt of this writ, the Superior Court ordered the zoning administrator of the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals, Marion County, Indiana, to produce a full and complete transcript of the proceedings before the Board so that the court could make a complete determination of the issues involved. According to I.C. 1971, XX-X-X-XX, being Burns § 53-978:
The Board in this case did produce a complete record of the originals of all papers, pleadings and documents filed with or introduced before it at its meeting on this issue, but did not include their own findings of fact nor the grounds upon which their decision was based. We re-affirm the position here, recently reiterated in Carlton v. Board of Zoning Appeals (1969), 252 Ind. 56, 245 N.E.2d 337, that the Board must in all cases set out written findings of fact in support of their decision so that this Court may intelligently review that specific decision without speculating as to the Board's reasoning. Written findings of fact help to maintain the integrity of the Board's decision by insuring that our review is strictly limited to those findings.
However, this lapse was not raised below, and the posture of this case is such that we can review the trial court's findings without remanding this case to the Board for their written determinations. *374 Again, we emphasize that in the future the Board must prepare written findings of fact including their grounds therefor in every case, so that the appellate process in this area may function in an orderly, albeit limited, manner.
The Court's role in reviewing the findings of the zoning board was succinctly and correctly stated by the Appellate Court in Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals v. Standard Life Insurance Co. (1969), Ind. App., 251 N.E.2d 60, in the following words:
We have previously adopted this approach in Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals v. Gateway Corp., supra, and Kessler-Allisonville C.L. v. Marion County Board of Zoning Appeals (1965), 137 Ind. App. 610, 209 N.E.2d 43.
Applying this test to the case before us, we have no difficulty in reversing the trial court's determination that the variance must be granted. We are unable to say on the record before us that any one of the five determinations required to support the granting of the variance has been unequivocally established as a matter of law, and certainly not all five have been so established.
The petitioners presented evidence to show that the land in question was a four and one-half acre plot at the intersection of two roads. Evidence was received which indicated that there was a service station directly north across the street from the plot and beyond that a small fire station. In addition, there was a restaurant, in a converted home, across the street to the west of the plot, and a stop light at the intersection. The landowner argued to the Board that these facts required the findings that (1) there was no possibility that this proposal would be injurious to the public health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community, (2) the value of adjacent areas would not be affected adversely because such an effect would have already happened because of the presence of the four items listed above, (3) these same four items constituted conditions peculiar to this property as opposed to other property in the same zone, and (4) the variance would not interfere with the comprehensive plan since two corners were already in commercial use. We cannot say that any of these four conclusions are required in the sense that no reasonable man could fail to accept them as proved. In fact, each of these arguments would apply with equal force to any property near a zoning boundary line. If such arguments were accepted it is difficult to see how any zoning boundary could be maintained.
The appellees further presented evidence that the sale of the property had been hampered by the lack of adequate sewage facilities in the area, and that the commercial developer interested in the area had agreed to build a sewage treatment plant on the premises at a cost of $24,000. However, evidence presented later by the oil *375 company's engineer indicated that the company had decided to tie into a city sewer and had obtained permission to do so from the city. Further, a resident of the area pointed out that most of the homes in the area were adequately served by septic tanks, so that the hardship engendered by the lack of sewage facilities is unclear on the record.
This petition for a variance was met with spirited opposition at the hearing. The remonstrators began by turning over to the Board letters of opposition to the variance from several sources, including the President of Butler University, the President of the Christian Theological Seminary, the Board of Directors of the Indiana Interchurch Center, and the Dean of the Herron School of Art, who effectively summed-up the opposition in the following paragraph:
In addition, the remonstrators presented the Board with petitions opposing the variance signed by over one hundred area residents, and introduced into evidence the Metropolitan Planning Commission's staff report on the proposed variance, which reads as follows:
The attorney for the Metropolitan Planning Commission also testified orally that the variance would substantially interfere with the Comprehensive Plan. The appellees made no attempt to refute this statement. We hold that the Board's denial of this variance was neither illegal nor unconstitutional and thus the order of the trial court granting the variance is reversed.
ARTERBURN, C.J., and GIVAN and HUNTER, JJ., concur.
PRENTICE, J., not participating.