Opinion ID: 538430
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 In January of 1981, the Fort Wayne Plan Commission presented a zoning petition to the Fort Wayne Common Council seeking to reclassify the Himelsteins' property from a residential agricultural zone to a regional shopping center zone. The Common Council accepted the petition as sponsored by the Plan Commission and referred the petition back to the Plan Commission for a more formal recommendation. The Plan Commission held a public hearing and recommended to the Common Council that the petition be approved. In February of 1981, the Common Council voted 5 to 4 against the rezoning petition. The presiding officer of the Common Council returned the ordinance to the Plan Commission for reconsideration, as required by the Indiana Code. Later, the Common Council attempted to block reconsideration of the petition by ordering the city clerk to retrieve the relevant documents from the Plan Commission. The documents were never retrieved. 3 In February of 1981, the Plan Commission again voted in favor of the rezoning petition, and resubmitted the petition to the Common Council. In March, the Common Council tabled the petition and took no further action on the matter. Apparently, the Plan Commission and the Common Council were stalemated on how the Himelsteins' property should be zoned and developed and on who had the final authority with respect to zoning decisions. The relevant Indiana zoning laws had recently undergone significant revision. This dispute prompted the Common Council to file suit in the Indiana courts against the Plan Commission, asking for a declaratory judgment that its rejection of the zoning petition constituted a final rejection of the proposed rezoning. In addition, the Common Council sought to enjoin the Plan Commission from approving any final development plans for the disputed property. 4 An Indiana circuit court held that the proposed rezoning petition became final 120 days after it was first rejected by the Common Council. Thus, the Himelsteins' property became rezoned, by operation of law, as of June 13, 1981. The Common Council appealed this decision, which was affirmed by the Indiana Court of Appeals. 1 The Indiana Supreme Court denied the Common Council's petition to transfer the case. The Himelsteins maintain that, even after the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the rezoning of their property, the Fort Wayne Common Council refused to issue building permits for the development of the property as a regional shopping center. As a result, a developer who had held an option on the property allegedly abandoned a plan for its development, thereby causing the Himelsteins significant financial loss. 5 The Himelsteins sued the City of Fort Wayne and the members of its Common Council (in both their official and individual capacities) [collectively, the Common Council] for the deprivation of their constitutional rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The complaint alleges three constitutional violations. First, the Himelsteins claim that the Common Council's failure to acknowledge the rezoning of their property and its refusal to issue building permits constitutes a temporary, regulatory taking of their property without just compensation in contravention of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution (and Article I of the Indiana Constitution). The Himelsteins also allege that their property was taken without due process and that their right to equal protection was violated by the Common Council. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss which was heard and granted by a United States magistrate on ripeness and legal sufficiency grounds. We affirm.