Opinion ID: 2548438
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Contract Zoning

Text: PH also urges that the city council's suggestion that it would consider rezoning the property to Planned Use Development (PUD) as an alternative residential designation indicates that it intended to force improper contract zoning on PH. Contract zoning occurs when there is an agreement between a property owner and a local government in which the owner agrees to certain conditions in return for the government's rezoning or enforceable promise to rezone. See Murphy v. City of West Memphis, 352 Ark. 315, 322, 101 S.W.3d 221, 226 (2003). The City of West Memphis case indicates that some jurisdictions hold that contract zoning is prohibited and others hold that it is permissible. Id. However, this court did not determine whether contract zoning would be permitted in Arkansas in City of West Memphis and has not done so since. Id. We likewise decline to do so in the instant case. PH has not shown this court that there was an agreement to rezone the property or that it agreed to any conditions proposed by the city council. Furthermore, despite the citation to authority from other jurisdictions regarding contract zoning, PH has not cited this court to any case in which a court found improper contract zoning where a city council considered a different, more suitable, zone designation in determining whether to approve a petition to rezone. Instead, PH makes the conclusory statement that the only purpose for requiring PH to go through the PUD in this instance is to allow the City to have subjective control over the development and to exact promises from PH as a quid pro quo for rezoning. As already discussed, however, that is not the only reason the city council might prefer the PUD. The record reflects that the PUD, unlike the R-1 designation, could accommodate the city council's legitimate concerns about traffic and safety.