Opinion ID: 3022613
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Merits of the Equal Protection Claim

Text: The District Court dismissed appellants’ Equal Protection challenge to the Ordinance, summarily holding that “Roxbury’s changes to the zoning ordinance do not present a basis for an equal protection claim.” (App. 15.) Appellants argue that the District Court erred because “[e]ven though the ordinance doesn’t classify by race, alienage or national origin, it is unreasonable, arbitrary and bears no rational relationship to a permissible state objective.” (Appellants’ Br. 23.) Unlike a substantive due process challenge, where the question is whether it was irrational for a Township to have passed a zoning law at all, in an equal protection challenge the question is whether “the Township has irrationally distinguished between similarly situated classes.” Rogin v. Bensalem Twp., 616 F.2d 680, 689 (3d Cir. 1980). Thus, the “first inquiry a court must make in an equal protection challenge to a zoning ordinance is to examine whether the complaining party is similarly situated to other uses that are either permitted as of right, or by special permit, in a certain zone.” Congregation Kol Ami v. Abington Twp., 309 F.3d 120, 137 (3d Cir. 2002). If “the entities are similarly situated, then the [Township] must justify its different treatment of the two,” id., by demonstrating that the ordinance is rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Rogin, 616 F.2d at 688. The complaint charges appellees with taking “discriminatory” actions, and with seeking “to deprive the plaintiffs of the use of their property, whereas other proximate and/or similarly situated properties were not rezoned in the manner of the plaintiffs’ property; nor were they accorded the treatment suffered by the plaintiffs and complained of herein.” (App. 73.) These conclusory allegations do not suggest what “similarly situated property” was not rezoned in the same manner, nor do they offer any facts demonstrating how those 16 properties were similarly situated. See Ventura Mobilehome Cmtys. Owners Ass’n v. City of San Buenaventura, 371 F.3d 1046, 1054-55 (9th Cir. 2004) (dismissing facial EPC claim against zoning ordinance, in part, because the plaintiff’s “conclusory allegations” of being “singled out, from all property owners in Defendant City” did “not identif[y] other similarly situated property owners or alleged[] how they are treated differently.”). To state a claim, the complaint must allege facts supporting a finding of irrational or arbitrary legislative action by the Township. See Pace, 808 F.2d at 1035. Without any facts, we have no way of determining whether the Ordinance discriminated against appellants’ properties, and if so, whether there was a possible rational basis for that discrimination. See, e.g., Congregation Kol Ami, 309 F.3d at 140-43 (analyzing whether country clubs, which were exempted from a zoning ordinance, are similarly situated to plaintiff’s synagogue, which was denied an exemption). The complaint is similarly bereft of any indication of how appellees’ “other conduct” violated appellants’ equal protection rights. We will affirm the District Court’s dismissal of Count Two. At least as currently pled, it does not state a claim.