Case Name: FRANKLIN VILLAGE SQUARE CORPORATION v. VILLAGE OF FRANKLIN
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1969-12-09
Citations: 20 Mich. App. 671
Docket Number: Docket No. 6,251
Parties: FRANKLIN VILLAGE SQUARE CORPORATION v. VILLAGE OF FRANKLIN
Judges: Before: J. H. Gtllis, P. J., and McGregor and V. J. Brennan, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 20
Pages: 671–673

Head Matter:
FRANKLIN VILLAGE SQUARE CORPORATION v. VILLAGE OF FRANKLIN
1. Zoning — Municipal Corporations — Single Use — Validity.
A zoning plan must permit more than one use to comply with the enabling aet of the city or village zoning statute and a plan permitting only single residential use is invalid on its face (MCLA § 125.581).
2. Zoning — Municipal Corporations — Multiple Uses — Validity.
A municipal zoning plan permitting single residential and commercial uses is valid because it complies with the enabling aet of the eity zoning statute (MCLA § 125.581 et seq.).
3. Zoning — Municipal Corporations — Restricted Uses — Reasonableness.
A court order directing defendant municipality to issue plaintiff-corporation a multiple-residential use building permit was improper where the trial judge, without considering whether defendant’s single-residential use restriction was reasonable as applied to plaintiff’s land, accepted plaintiff’s contention that defendant’s zoning plan violated the enabling act of the city-village zoning statute because only one kind of residential use, plus a commercial use, was allowed.
Reference for Points in Headnotes
[1-3] 58 Am Jur, Zoning § 27.
Appeal from Oakland, William J. Beer, J.
Submitted Division 2 November 6, 1969, at Lansing.
(Docket No. 6,251.)
Decided December 9, 1969.
Complaint by Franklin Village Square Corporation, a Michigan corporation, against the Village of Franklin, a municipal corporation, for the issuance of a building permit. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals.
Reversed and remanded with instructions.
Hartman, Beier, Howlett, Howlett dk McConnell, for defendant.
Before: J. H. Gtllis, P. J., and McGregor and V. J. Brennan, JJ.

Opinion:
V. J. Brennan, J.
The zoning plan for the village of Franklin allows for two, but only two, land uses — single-residential and commercial. Plaintiff landowner applied for the rezoning of its 3.18 acres to multiple-residential use, but the village denied its application. The plaintiff then commenced the present action to compel the issuance of a building permit, contending that the zoning restriction is unreasonable as applied to its land and that the zoning plan does not comply with the enabling act since the plan allows for only one kind of residential use. The trial, court accepted the latter contention without considering the former and issued a writ of superintending control directing the issuance of a permit. The village of Franklin appeals.
The trial court based its ruling on its reading of Gundersen v. Village of Bingham Farms (1964), 372 Mich 352. In Gundersen, the Supreme Court struck down a zoning ordinance restricting the entire community of Bingham Farms to a single-residential use. However, the ordinance was held to he invalid not because of some supposed, predetermined requirement that a plan permitting single-residential use also permits multiple-residential use, but because the enabling act, as'construed by the Court, does not authorize zoning plans that restrict the entire community to one use. Since a zoning plan must permit more than one use to comply with the enabling act, a plan permitting only single-residential use is invalid on' its face. The Franklin plan, on the other hand, permits a use other than single-residential, namely, a commercial use, and therefore cannot be faulted under Gundersen.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings to determine whether the zoning restriction is unreasonable as applied to the plaintiff's land. See Hammond v. Bloomfield Hills Building Inspector (1951), 331 Mich 551.
All concurred.
MCLA § 325.581 (Stat Ann 1969 Rev § 5.2931).