Title: METRO. BD. OF ZA OF MARION CTY., 2d D. v. Rumple
Citation: 301 N.E.2d 359
Docket Number: 973S192
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: September 27, 1973

301 N.E.2d 359 (1973)
METROPOLITAN BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS OF MARION COUNTY, Second Division, et al., Appellants,
v.
Paul V. RUMPLE, Appellee.
No. 973S192.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
September 27, 1973.
Harold H. Kohlmeyer, Jr., Corp. Counsel, Arthur H. Northrup, City-County Legal Division, Indianapolis, for appellants.
*360 Paul V. Rumple, Max Rynearson, Rynearson &amp; Rumple, Indianapolis, for appellee.
DeBRULER, Justice.
This case first originated by a petition, filed by appellee with the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals, which requested a use variance to permit a residentially zoned house and lot to be used for "professional offices and business use". The Board unanimously denied the requested use variance. The appellee sought review of this decision pursuant to the then existing I.C. XX-X-X-XX, being Burns § 53-974, in the Marion Superior Court, Room 6, the Honorable Rufus C. Kuykendall, Judge, presiding; and that proceeding resulted in a judgment reversing the decision of the Board. The Board appealed to the then existing Appellate Court of Indiana which first issued an order and opinion at 274 N.E.2d 727, remanding the cause to the trial court for special findings of fact and conclusion of law pursuant to TR. 52(A)(2), I.C. 1971, 34-5-1-1, and upon receipt of those findings turned to the merits of the appeal and unanimously affirmed by opinion at 276 N.E.2d 220. The Appellate Court denied rehearing with one judge dissenting with opinion at 277 N.E.2d 921. The petition of the Board to transfer is now granted.
Appellee was seeking, by his petition, a variance of "use", to permit him to use a private residence and lot for a law and business office with off-street parking and a sign in the yard. The house and lot are located on Parker Avenue, one-half block South of the intersection of Parker and 38th Streets in the City of Indianapolis. The city block in which the property is located is bisected by an alley which parallels 38th Street and which forms the North boundary of the said property. This alley runs behind the lots which front on 38th Street and forms a natural boundary between those 38th Street lots which are used and zoned for business and commercial purposes and the lots South of the alley along Parker Avenue including the subject property, which are used and zoned for private residential purposes. The maps and other evidence before the Board showed that this entire area including 38th Street was formerly a residential area, but that more recently 38th Street had become a highly commercialized and volatile street for development carrying an enormous traffic load.
At the hearing before the Board, the petitioner sought to persuade the Board in his favor by showing the proximity of the subject property to the commercial lots to the North and by showing that his specific use proposals would be minimally disruptive of the existing zoning scheme and would in several respects enhance the neighborhood. No residential neighbors appeared against the petition, and in fact many were shown to support it. The Executive Director of the Metropolitan Plan Division strongly opposed the petition, and appeared by counsel at the hearing and presented a written report and made argument against the petition. That report was received by the Board and at the hearing the following exchange occurred between the Chairman of the Board and the petitioner about the report:
*361 The Staff Report contained the following description of the history of the subject property and the grounds upon which the staff recommended denial of the variance:
The attorney for the Executive Director added the following explanation of the opposition of the Planning Division in the following statement made orally to the Board at the hearing:
The petitioner attempted to rebut the adverse report of the staff and the statements of counsel with his own statement to the effect that the grant of his variance would not necessarily cause future erosion of the boundary line between the commercial and residential neighborhoods, since the Board had the power to deny future use variances having that effect. Apparently the Board, upon consideration of this contention along with the rest of the data before it, was not persuaded that this use variance should be granted.
Pursuant to the command of the trial court writ of certiorari, the Board filed its return. Indiana Code 1971, XX-X-X-XX, being Burns § 53-978, sets out the content of such returns as follows:
The above report of the staff and the statements of counsel in support of a negative determination by the Board on this petition were included in the return made by the Board to the Superior Court of Marion County, Room 6. It was clearly "facts and data ... pertinent ... to show the grounds of the decision appealed from." As such, it should have been considered along with the maps, drawings, and evidence supplied by the petitioner by the trial court and by the Appellate Court in reviewing this case. It appears to have been ignored by both.
In this case, the court functions to review an administrative decision. The decision, like that in the recent zoning cases cited below, was against the party seeking a use variance. The Board denied the requested variance since the party seeking the remedy had failed to persuade the Board by its presentation of the facts, that:
*363 In Kunz et al. v. Waterman et al. (1972), Ind., 283 N.E.2d 371, we affirmatively adopted the test as articulated in the case of Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals v. Standard Life Insurance Co. (1969) Ind. App., 251 N.E.2d 60, to be applied when reviewing cases of this type. There we said:
The record before the Board is identical to the record before the trial court, in that no additional evidence was received by the trial court. Applying the above test to the total evidence before the Board, including as it does, the report of the staff of the Metropolitan Planning Commission set out above, and the statements given by the counsel for the Planning Commission, no court could possibly say that any of the five statutory determinations were established unequivocally as a matter of law. The Board's denial of this variance was not illegal. The judgment of the trial court is reversed and the Board's decision is ordered affirmed.
ARTERBURN, C.J., and GIVAN, and PRENTICE, JJ., concur.
HUNTER, J., dissents without opinion.