Opinion ID: 2364266
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Defendants' Zoning Violations

Text: The defendants next argue that the hearing justice improperly issued a permanent injunction requiring defendants to comply with the town zoning ordinance. In doing so, the trial justice found that defendants impermissibly expanded their legal nonconforming campground use without obtaining special-use permits. We will reverse a permanent injunction only if the hearing justice misapplied the law, misconceived or overlooked material evidence, or was clearly wrong. Renaissance Development Corp. v. Universal Properties Group, Inc., 821 A.2d 233, 236 (R.I.2003). Injunctive relief can be an appropriate remedy for violations of zoning ordinances. See City of Woonsocket v. Forte Brothers, Inc., 642 A.2d 1158, 1159 (R.I.1994) (per curiam). We discern no error in the trial justice's grant of injunctive relief. In this case, defendants' campground became a legal nonconforming use on September 4, 1990, when the town amended its ordinance to outlaw overnight and family camping in the town. Municipal zoning ordinances apply to recreational vehicle campgrounds. See G.L.1956 § 32-7-3(3), (5)(iv); § 32-7-5(a), (c), (d). The Zoning Enabling Act defines nonconformance as: A building, structure, or parcel of land, or use thereof, lawfully existing at the time of the adoption or amendment of a zoning ordinance and not in conformity with the provisions of that ordinance or amendment. Section 45-24-31(49). Section 18.48.030(A) of the town zoning ordinance further provides, in pertinent part, that a [n]onconforming use of a building, structure or land may be enlarged, expanded, or intensified with the grant of a special use permit by the zoning board of review. See also § 45-24-40(a)(i) (vesting municipalities with authority to require a special-use permit for enlargement of nonconforming use). Here, it is undisputed that defendants altered the campground without first obtaining a special-use permit from the zoning board of review. Moreover, for the additional reasons stated below, we hold that the hearing justice properly determined that defendants illegally altered and expanded their nonconforming use and that he properly issued injunctive relief to remedy this illegal alteration of the campground.
On appeal, defendants argue that the hearing justice erred in finding that both the Pavilion addition and the road were enlargements of defendants' nonconforming use. But before addressing the merits of these contentions, we hold that res judicata precludes defendants from relitigating the propriety of the Pavilion addition. When defendants failed to appeal to the Superior Court from the decision of the zoning board of review (finding that the Pavilion addition violated the zoning ordinance), that decision became final for the purpose of foreclosing relitigation of claims and defenses that were raised or that could have been raised in that proceeding. Because we can affirm a judgment for reasons other than those relied upon by the trial court, we invoke the doctrine of res judicata in this case to preclude repetitive litigation of claims and defenses previously decided in a final adjudicative proceeding. See Merrilees v. Treasurer, State of Vermont, 159 Vt. 623, 618 A.2d 1314, 1315 (1992) (Allowing an appellate court to raise res judicata is consistent with policies of avoiding unnecessary judicial waste    and fostering reliance on judicial decisions by precluding relitigation   .). The policy underlying res judicata is to economize the court system's time and lessen its financial burden. `This doctrine ensures that judicial resources are not wasted on multiple and possibly inconsistent resolutions of the same lawsuit.' ElGabri v. Lekas, 681 A.2d 271, 275 (R.I.1996). [R]es judicata operates as an absolute bar to a cause of action [when] there exists `(1) identity of parties, (2) identity of issues and (3) finality of judgment.' Rhode Island Student Loan Authority v. NELS, Inc., 600 A.2d 717, 720 (R.I.1991). When invoked, res judicata, also known as claim or defense preclusion, renders a previous judgment conclusive with respect to any claims or defenses that a party raised or could have raised in the previous proceeding. See id. Furthermore, a plaintiff bringing successive actions against the same defendant can invoke res judicata to preclude the defendant from asserting defenses that were raised or that could have been raised in the first proceeding. 18 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 2d § 4414 at 344-51 (2002). Here, the zoning board of review found that defendants' addition to the Pavilion building impermissibly expanded defendants' nonconforming campground use. When the defendants failed to appeal that decision to the Superior Court, it became final. Res judicata, therefore, bars defendants from reasserting this defense on appeal from the Superior Court judgment that required defendants to remove the Pavilion addition or to seek a special-use permit. Both the town and defendants were parties to the previous administrative proceeding, and defendants actually defended the propriety of the Pavilion addition before the zoning board of review. In addition, the zoning board of review's decision was tantamount to a final judgment for defense-preclusion purposes because the defendants did not appeal it. See Department of Corrections v. Tucker, 657 A.2d 546, 550 (R.I.1995) (Since the decision of the board was not appealed, it became a final decision and was binding on both [parties].); Town of Lincoln v. Cournoyer, 118 R.I. 644, 649, 375 A.2d 410, 413 (1977) (holding that unappealed decree constituted a final judgment for res judicata purposes). Finally, because the identical issue  namely, the propriety of the Pavilion addition under applicable zoning laws  was addressed in both proceedings, res judicata bars defendants from reasserting defenses that they raised or that they could have raised before the zoning board of review. [D]irect enforcement of a judgment cannot be resisted merely by raising defenses that might have been raised before the judgment was entered. 18 Wright, § 4414 at 344. See also Campbell v. Superior Court in and for the County of Maricopa, 18 Ariz.App. 287, 501 P.2d 463, 465-67 (1972) (holding that res judicata precluded delinquent taxpayer from relitigating validity of assessment in suit brought by state to enforce collection of tax following prior administrative decision upholding assessment). In addition, we hold that, in circumstances such as these, res judicata may attach to decisions of zoning boards of review. Previously, this Court has given preclusive effect to administrative agency decisions, as long as the tribunal acted in a quasi-judicial capacity. See, e.g., Tucker, 657 A.2d at 549-50 (granting res judicata effect to decisions of Personnel Appeal Board citing Restatement (Second) Judgments ch. 6, § 83 at 266 (1982)). [3] An administrative tribunal acts in a quasi-judicial capacity when it affords the parties substantially the same rights as those available in a court of law, such as the opportunity to present evidence, to assert legal claims and defenses, and to appeal from an adverse decision. See id. at 549. Here, the zoning board allowed the parties to present evidence and testimony in support of their legal arguments. Moreover, although the defendants had an opportunity to appeal the zoning board of review's adverse decision to the Superior Court under § 45-24-69, the defendants failed to prosecute such an appeal. Because the proceeding before the zoning board of review involved an administrative agency acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, we hold that res judicata precludes defendants from relitigating issues or reasserting defenses that were or could have been argued before and decided by that board. The propriety of the Pavilion addition was one such issue. Hence, defendants are precluded from relitigating the merits of that zoning violation in this case.
The defendants argue that their construction of a road to facilitate traffic flow in and around the campground did not amount to an enlargement of a nonconforming use. Instead, they suggest, the road was merely incidental to defendants' lawfully managing and maintaining their campground. Also, according to defendants, the hearing justice overlooked material evidence demonstrating that they had the right to expand their nonconforming use to 600 campsites without obtaining special-use permits. At trial, one of the defendants testified that in 1969  the year the town first issued a license to defendants to operate a campground  defendants filed a plan with the town showing a 600-site campground. [4] She further testified that the town approved this plan. Because this plan put the town on notice in 1969 of defendants' intent to create a 600-site campground, defendants argue, they may now increase the number of campsites to 600  and construct all the infrastructure needed to serve such a campground, including the road in question  without obtaining a special-use permit. We reject this argument. Even if the hearing justice had overlooked material evidence  and we have no basis to conclude that he did  defendants' 1969 expansion plans were irrelevant to the issue of whether they needed to obtain a special-use permit to enlarge their nonconforming use. No competent evidence showed that the town approved the alleged plan to expand the campground to 600 campsites. To determine the extent of a nonconforming use, we only look to the uses actually existing at the time the property became nonconforming, not to any plans or intended uses for the property. 7 Patrick J. Rohan, Zoning and Land Use Controls § 41.03[3][c] at 41-92 (2002). The defendants' campground became a legal nonconforming use in 1990. Generally, the right to continue a nonconforming use does not    include the right to expand or intensify that use, Town of West Greenwich v. A. Cardi Realty Associates, 786 A.2d 354, 362 (R.I. 2001)  even if the owners had plans to do so. A use of property does not obtain the protection afforded by its status as a legal nonconforming use unless the use actually existed at the time the ordinance prohibiting it took effect. See id. at 361-62. We strictly construe the scope of nonconforming uses because we view them `as detrimental to a zoning scheme, and the overriding public policy of zoning    is aimed at their reasonable restriction and eventual elimination.' RICO Corp., 787 A.2d at 1144-45. The defendants' legal nonconforming use, therefore, only protects those campground uses actually existing on their property in 1990. [5] Even assuming that defendants originally intended in good faith to increase the number of campsites to 600 and that they had filed plans with the town that so indicated, this intent has no bearing on whether defendants needed to obtain a special-use permit to actually construct and use such additional sites. See Misner v. Presdorf 421 N.E.2d 684, 685-86 (Ind.Ct.App.1981) (limiting nonconforming use of campsite to those uses actually existing when town rezoned campsite property, not uses campsite owners intended). Moreover, defendants could not expand the number of campsites  and also construct the necessary infrastructure  even if they had produced evidence showing that the town council approved a 600-site campground in 1969. See Llewellyn's Mobile Home Court, Inc. v. Springfield Township Zoning Hearing Board, 86 Pa. Cmwlth. 567, 485 A.2d 883, 885 (1984) (determining scope of nonconforming use by the number of mobile homes existing, not the number shown on the plans). Therefore, even if the hearing justice overlooked material evidence of defendants' intent, he did not err because this intent was irrelevant to the scope of defendants' nonconforming use. Citing a Superior Court decision, [6] defendants next assert that they did not need a special-use permit to construct a road because this alteration of the campground was merely the result of natural business growth. But we have never recognized a general natural business growth exception to the requirement of obtaining a special-use permit for a proposed expansion of a nonconforming use. In A. Cardi Realty Associates, 786 A.2d at 362, we held that, under the doctrine of diminishing assets, a court considering the expansion of a nonconforming use must look to the intent of the landowner, not the extent of excavation, at the time the zoning ordinance prohibiting the use took effect. In this case, however, defendants' nonconforming use and their proposed expansion involved campsites, not excavating natural resources. Accordingly, our reasoning in A. Cardi Realty Associates is totally inapposite. Moreover, there is no general natural business growth exception to the rule that nonconforming uses are to be strictly limited to those existing when the uses become nonconforming. Equally unpersuasive is defendants' attempt to distinguish between merely changing and expanding a nonconforming use. `A change of use eliminates the exemption of a nonconforming use from recently enacted zoning ordinances.' Harmel Corp. v. Zoning Board of Review of Tiverton, 603 A.2d 303, 306 (R.I.1992); see Santoro v. Zoning Board of Review of Warren, 93 R.I. 68, 71-72, 171 A.2d 75, 77-78 (1961). The town, however, never has alleged that the defendants changed their nonconforming use and thereby eliminated its exemption as a nonconforming campground use. Instead, the town argues only that defendants needed to obtain a special-use permit before altering or enlarging their legal nonconforming use. We agree. For these reasons, we hold that the trial justice properly issued an injunction in the zoning-enforcement case requiring defendants either to obtain special-use permits to enlarge their nonconforming campground use or to remove the new road and the Pavilion addition to the campground.