Opinion ID: 1182164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: defendants' violations of the p.u.d. ordinance

Text: Section 53.330 of the PUD ordinance requires, inter alia, a developer to submit architectural sketches showing the type of buildings to be constructed, their prospective locations in the development, and their general height and bulk characteristics. Implicit in this requirement is that the developer build in accordance with these sketches so that the City's approval of the sketches acts as a device to control development. Thus, if a developer fails to comply with the sketches he has submitted, he is in noncompliance with the final plan and the zoning ordinance which was passed to implement that final plan. In this case the totality of the information submitted, which was apparently directed at compliance with Section 53.330, was two sketches of apartment buildings, a generalized development map showing that the area in question was to contain 246 garden apartments, and a brochure which contained the following statement relating to garden apartments: Phase four contains 246 garden apartments on two sites containing 12.3 acres just above McNary Parkway. The design of these units will be similar to those in Phase one. The unit will vary in size from 900 square feet to 1500 square feet with the average rent approximately $225.00 per month. The sketches submitted to the Planning Commission and the City Council, Exhibits 3 and 5, bear no resemblance, either generally or specifically, to the apartment building constructed. Exhibit 5 is a sketch showing a portion of a three-story apartment building on the right, a smaller portion of a similar building on the left, and in the center a two-story apartment building consisting of three apartments on each floor, the buildings having been separated by open space and a pool. Exhibit 3 shows an apartment building apparently five stories high at one end which resembles a tower, with the remainder of the apartments being substantially lower and more elongated, with only two levels. The apartment actually constructed is a monolithic, large, gray rectangular building 375 feet long and 75 feet wide, with five stories at one end and four stories at the other. The witnesses agreed that the apartment constructed was a departure from the sketches submitted. The Chairman of the Oswego Planning Commission, while he did not vote at the hearing of the Commission in November, 1969, testified that the apartment did not conform to the sketches presented because of its difference in size, height, and bulk. The Lake Oswego City Planning Director testified that the building was a departure from the drawings submitted, but that in relation to its height and bulk there was room for definition. Mr. Nelson, a representative of Mountain Park Corp., admitted that the exhibits shown the Planning Commission were not a direct portrayal of what the actual structure turned out to be. The map which depicts what Phase IV will contain shows only that garden apartments will be built in the area where the apartment in question was to be built, but does not show any height or bulk characteristics. The record is not entirely clear as to whether any garden apartments had been constructed in Phase I, although the brochure had described the garden apartments in Phase IV to be similar to those in Phase I. However, it is clear from the evidence that nothing resembling the apartment constructed was built elsewhere in the development. The brochure states that 246 garden apartments are planned on two sites in 12.3 acres of Phase IV. Eighty of these 246 apartments are located in the building constructed. No information was given as to whether the other 166 apartments will consist of one building 10 stories high, or several buildings of two stories, or where they will be located in the area. The same uncertainty still existed at the time of trial. Christensen, who built the present apartment building and intended to construct at least one more, testified that he did not know what the height of the second apartment building would be, and that he had merely squared off an area similar to the first building as a preliminary step to construction of that apartment. The record also discloses that after the City Council had approved the final plans, enacted the PUD ordinance, and allowed the zone change, Mountain Park and Christensen were still negotiating between themselves as to the type of apartment building to be constructed. We conclude that the defendants Mountain Park and Christensen failed to build the apartment in accordance with the final plan submitted pursuant to Section 53.330 of the ordinance. [6] A requirement in a PUD ordinance that a developer submit final plans showing with some particularity the various features involved in his planned unit development, and that thereafter he is bound to these plans, serves at least two desirable purposes. First, it gives the planning authorities and the City Council full knowledge of what they are asked to approve before they grant a zone change. Secondly, it gives any opponent complete information about the project. It serves no worthwhile purpose for an ordinance to allow a full public hearing on a proposed planned unit development and zone change if the facts are not available. There is nothing to debate. Neither the opponents nor the proponents would know the issues, and the governing body charged with making a decision would be doing so in a vacuum. In so holding, we are aware of the need for flexibility in planning, but flexible planning does not, in our view, justify delegation of the planning function to a private developer, nor does it allow a developer to build without regard to plans as presented to the appropriate planning authorities. In this case the defendants Mountain Park and Christensen presented Exhibits 3 and 5 and used the term garden apartment as definitional and descriptive vehicles to comply with Section 53.330. The term garden apartment is without any definitive meaning as shown by the various definitions presented at trial, and thus cannot be used as a tool for control of development. Exhibits 3 and 5, then, are the only bases from which a comparison with what was actually constructed can be made. Even assuming that these sketches alone would comply with the requirements of Section 53.330, as above described, there simply is no resemblance between those sketches and the Christensen apartment. While it might be said that the term sketches in the ordinance should not be read so expansively, [7] we note that this is the only tool which the City can use to oversee the type, height, and bulk of structures to be built in advance of construction and thus has enhanced importance under the scheme of development envisaged by the general Lake Oswego PUD ordinance. [8] Therefore, because the Christensen apartment did not comply with the sketches submitted, that structure violated the final plan and the zoning ordinance which implemented that plan. Defendants contend that the apartment constructed was in accordance with the plans submitted and that it was so declared by the Planning Commission. In June, 1969, the City Council gave its approval to the final plans. Defendant Christensen then began excavation. When plaintiffs saw the extent of the excavation and the large fill, they filed remonstrating petitions with the City Council. The City Council referred them to the Planning Commission. A courtesy public hearing was given to plaintiffs on November 4, 1969, and the Planning Commission decided that the apartment complied with the final development plan and gave its approval. Defendants argue that the decision of the Planning Commission should be given a presumption of validity. Compare Murphy v. S.A. Hutchins & Assoc., 263 Or. 245, 501 P.2d 1273 (1972) with Fasano v. Washington Co. Comm., supra. The defendants' argument must fail because the Planning Commission's action on November 4, when they first saw and approved the plans of the apartment to be constructed, is without legal effect. That hearing was called only after objections arose from the plaintiffs concerning the height and bulk of the proposed apartment and was deemed merely a courtesy hearing for their benefit. It was not part of the planning process, but only an ad hoc after-the-fact adjudication of the issue of whether the apartment complied with the architectural sketches submitted. Moreover, under the ordinance, it is the City Council and not the Planning Commission which must, as part of the approval of the final plan, review the types of buildings to be constructed. This approval is given after a public hearing where affected or interested individuals may inform the City Council of their concerns. To allow the Planning Commission to unilaterally alter the final plan when the developer subsequently prepares the actual plans for construction circumvents the ordinance's requirement of vesting final review in the City Council. See generally Millbrae Ass'n for Residential Survival v. City of Millbrae, 262 Cal. App.2d 222, 69 Cal. Rptr. 251 (1968). The effect of the defendant Christensen's testimony is that he did not know what form future apartments would take, but whatever it may be, the form had already been approved by the Planning Commission. Approval of this procedure would render meaningless the requirement that final approval must come from the City Council after notice and a hearing have been afforded to interested parties. We find, therefore, that under the ordinance a developer must submit sketches of actual structures to be built, and that he is thereafter bound by these plans and may later change them only by complying with the appropriate procedures delineated by the ordinance. [9]