Opinion ID: 2038807
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Effect of Zoning Ordinance Upon the Will

Text: Joyce and Sandra maintain a testator does not have the power to devise real property in a manner which results in the violation of a zoning ordinance. For this reason, they claim the provision in Fay's will granting Roger an easement is null and void, because it offends a set-back provision of the Johnson County Zoning Ordinance. They contend their mother needed to obtain a variance if she wanted to make such a conveyance. Neither party cites a case with similar facts. The daughters cite cases which contain the general proposition that when an act is prohibited or penalized by a statute, the act is void and unenforceable. See, e.g., Pangborn v. Westlake, 36 Iowa 546, 548-49 (1873) (affirming general rule that a penalty implies a prohibition, but recognizing exception where manifest prohibition not intended). Roger, on the other hand, relies upon several cases which reiterate the familiar maxim that the intent of the testator is the polestar of our analysis when interpreting wills. See, e.g., In re Estate of Larson, 256 Iowa 1392, 1395, 131 N.W.2d 503, 504 (1964). These cases are all distinguishable, however, because they do not address the impact of zoning ordinances upon testamentary disposition. While this question appears to be one of first impression in this jurisdiction, several other courts have unanimously held zoning ordinances cannot prevent otherwise valid devises of real property. In re Estate of Sayewich, 120 N.H. 237, 413 A.2d 581, 583 (1980); Metzdorf v. Borough of Rumson, 67 N.J.Super. 121, 170 A.2d 249, 252-54 (1961); Estate of Williams by Lorgan v. Williams, 357 Pa.Super. 476, 516 A.2d 359, 362 (1986). Williams is particularly helpful in resolving the case at bar. Prior to his death, Gilbert Williams owned thirty-three acres of land. Williams, 516 A.2d at 360. In his will, he left one acre to each of his two sons. Id. The trial court voided the devises, because they resulted in the creation of tracts of land smaller than the minimum lot size mandated by a local zoning ordinance. Id. at 361. The Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed. The court reasoned as follows: We do not agree that the devises failed because they violated the zoning ordinances.... Zoning pertains to a permissible use of land, not to an individual's right to hold land .... Zoning law has no application to the resolution of disputes between private parties over real estate interests. A zoning board is empowered to enforce the use of property in a manner consistent with the provisions of a zoning ordinance. A zoning ordinance per se cannot prevent an otherwise valid devise .... However, a zoning board does have the authority to refuse to permit the holder of the land to use or improve a tract smaller than that mandated in the zoning ordinance or to refuse to permit a developer to improve land not subdivided according to the zoning ordinance. Nothing in the zoning ordinance can make illegal the devise .... A devisee who receives real estate not in conformity with the zoning ordinance can hold the land unimproved, can apply for a variance to the zoning ordinance so that he can improve the land or can sell the land. Id. at 362 (citations omitted, emphasis in original). Appellate courts in New Hampshire and New Jersey also upheld devises under analogous circumstances: both courts held a zoning ordinancewhich is directed at the use of land, not its alienabilitycannot prevent an otherwise valid devise of real property. See Sayewich, 413 A.2d at 583 (Zoning ordinances are not a means of controlling the alienability of land, but of promoting the orderly and planned growth of a community .... Although these controls may restrict certain [inter vivos] transfers of real property, their focus is on the use and development of land and not its alienability.); Metzdorf, 170 A.2d at 253 (The zoning power, in its proper exercise, is not operative upon the alienability of land, but is concerned solely with the manner in which its owner seeks to utilize it.). This distinction between alienability and use is important. We have repeatedly stated that a zoning ordinance is merely a restraint upon an owner's use of property for the protection of the general welfare, and nothing more. Brackett v. City of Des Moines, 246 Iowa 249, 258, 67 N.W.2d 542, 547 (1954); Boardman v. Davis, 231 Iowa 1227, 1231, 3 N.W.2d 608, 610 (1942). Such ordinances cannot invalidate an otherwise valid devise. Fay's will conveyed an easement to Roger; the provisions of the Johnson County Zoning Ordinance are irrelevant to the alienability of the challenged interest in land. Title simply passed as Fay intended at the moment of her death. Iowa Code § 633.350 (title to real property passes to beneficiary under terms of will when testator dies); see In re Estate of Austin, 236 Iowa 945, 949, 20 N.W.2d 445, 447 (1945) ([T]he primary concern of courts is to determine the intent of the testator and give it effect unless contrary to some rule of law or public policy.). Although our decision might appear, at first glance, to undermine the weighty public policy behind zoning laws and countenance the illegal, the passage of title to a devisee has no bearing on the use or development of that property .... Compliance with [a zoning ordinance] is neither excused nor obviated by the division of property under the terms of a will. Sayewich, 413 A.2d at 583. To the contrary, to accept the daughters' argument would result in the imposition of the rules of partial intestacy, a result which we have long disfavored. See id.; accord Estate of Austin, 236 Iowa at 948, 20 N.W.2d at 447 (partial intestacies disfavored). Assuming the ordinance applies on these facts, [2] Roger takes title to an interest in his sisters' land, subject to the existing county zoning laws and with the right to seek a variance.