Opinion ID: 2786684
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Delegation of Authority to the City Planner

Text: [¶11] Fitanides contends that the Planning Board erred in issuing a conditional use permit with a condition that allowed the City Planner to approve minor changes to the project plans. He argues that no provision of the Ordinance or any statute authorizes the City Planner to make decisions regarding minor changes to conditional use plans. [¶12] Title 30-A M.R.S. § 4352 (2014) gives municipalities the authority to “provide for any form of zoning” consistent with the statute. State law, embodied in section 4352 and elsewhere, does not directly control delegation of zoning decisions among municipal boards, departments, or officers, leaving those matters to individual town ordinances.3 Consequently, the Planning Board erred only if the condition delegating authority to the City Planner violated the Saco Zoning Ordinance. 3 We have held that it is unconstitutional for a zoning ordinance to delegate decision-making to a Planning Board or other entity “without a sufficiently detailed statement of policy to[] furnish a guide which will enable those to whom the law is to be applied to reasonably determine their rights thereunder, and so that the determination of those rights will not be left to the purely arbitrary discretion of the administrator.” Cope v. Inhabitants of Town of Brunswick, 464 A.2d 223, 225 (Me. 1983) (quotation marks omitted). We have recognized, however, that a specific conditional use contained in an ordinance provides such a guide, see id. at 226-27, and here the City of Saco goes further by providing a comprehensive list of standards for determining whether a conditional use should be approved, see Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 901-4 (April 30, 2007). Thus, constitutional concerns regarding the delegation of legislative authority are not implicated in this case. 8 [¶13] Interpretation of the Ordinance is a question of law that we review de novo. See Wister v. Town of Mount Desert, 2009 ME 66, ¶ 17, 974 A.2d 903. “We examine an ordinance for its plain meaning” and “construe undefined or ambiguous terms reasonably with regard to both the objects sought to be obtained and to the general structure of the ordinance as a whole.” Friends of Congress Square Park v. City of Portland, 2014 ME 63, ¶ 9, 91 A.3d 601 (quotation marks omitted). [¶14] Fitanides concedes that the Ordinance does not contain any provision that prohibits the Planning Board from delegating some tasks to the City Planner. He argues, however, that the Ordinance does not affirmatively grant the Planning Board power to authorize the City Planner to approve minor deviations from conditional use plans, and that it is thus prohibited from doing so. That argument is not supported by the plain language of the Ordinance, which provides that “[t]he Planning Board may attach such conditions, in addition to those required elsewhere in this Ordinance, that it finds necessary to further the purposes of this Ordinance.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 901-6 (June 18, 1987). The condition delegating decision-making to the City Planner furthers the purposes of the Ordinance by ensuring that even minor deviations from the approved plans will be subject to municipal review for compliance with zoning and building laws, without unduly burdening the Planning Board. 9 [¶15] Furthermore, authorizing the City Planner to approve minor changes is consistent with other provisions of the Ordinance that delegate similar tasks to that official. For example, the City Planner is responsible in the first instance for approving “minor conditional uses,” see Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 901-12 (June 18, 1987), as well as “minor site plan[s],” see Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1103(7) (Feb. 19, 2002). In addition, the permit condition at issue here is almost identical to the provision governing changes to site plans, which states that “[a]ny changes in the plan after approval must be approved by the Planning Board,” but that “[m]inor changes during construction can be approved by the City Planner.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1109 (1985). Therefore, the condition delegating authority for approval of minor changes to the City Planner is consistent with the Ordinance, and the Planning Board did not err in including it in the permit issued to the McClellans.4