Opinion ID: 2009711
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Zoning principles

Text: ¶ 15 Zoning ordinances and land use regulations have a useful, valid purpose, and the government has broad authority to enact such classifications for the purpose of promoting health, safety, morals or the general welfare of the community. State ex rel. American Oil Co. v. Bessent, 27 Wis.2d 537, 544-46, 135 N.W.2d 317 (1965). ¶ 16 The Town of Rhine has adopted village powers pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 61.35, which states that the powers and duties conferred and imposed by Wis. Stat. § 62.23, City Planning, applies to village officials. Zoning of municipalities is, therefore, accomplished pursuant to § 62.23(7) and its subsections. ¶ 17 Zoning ordinances comprehensively assign compatible land uses to zoning districts throughout the community. Daniel R. Mandelker, Land Use Law § 1.04, at 1-4 (5th ed.2003). The municipality is generally divided into different districts, such as residential, commercial, and industrial. [6] Id. The use of comprehensive zoning arose in the early twentieth century, and the United States Department of Commerce encouraged the use of comprehensive zoning by publishing the model state enabling act. [7] 1 Kenneth H. Young, Anderson's American Law of Zoning § 1.14, at 21 (4th ed.1996). Comprehensive zoning earned the approval of this court as early as 1923. State ex rel. Carter v. Harper, 182 Wis. 148, 196 N.W. 451 (1923); see also Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926) (upholding a comprehensive zoning ordinance). Wisconsin's enabling act is found in Chapter 62 of the Wisconsin Statutes. See Wis. Stat. § 62.23. ¶ 18 In American Oil Co., this court stated that a comprehensive zoning ordinance was a justified exercise of the police power not only in the interest of public health, morals, and safety, but particularly for the promotion of public welfare, convenience and general prosperity. 27 Wis.2d at 544, 135 N.W.2d 317. A comprehensive zoning ordinance, enacted pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 62.23, is presumed valid and must be liberally construed in favor of the municipality. American Oil Co., 27 Wis.2d at 546, 135 N.W.2d 317. ¶ 19 In general, zoning ordinances provide landowners with permitted uses, which allow a landowner to use his or her land, in said manner, as of right. Mandelker, supra, § 6.39, at 6-44. Most ordinances impose a broad division of land uses, and, in addition, provide that specified uses may be established or maintained in named districts, only pursuant to a special permit. . . . 3 Young, supra, § 21.01, at 693-94. Uses are permitted in designated districts because they are thought to be compatible with other uses permitted in such district. 2 Young, supra, § 9.20, at 169. ¶ 20 In addition to permitted uses, ordinances may also provide for conditional uses by virtue of a special use or conditional use permit. [8] A conditional use, however, is different than a permitted use. See S. Mark White, Classifying and Defining Uses and Building Forms: Land-Use Coding for Zoning Regulations, American Planning Association Zoning Practice, Sept. 2005, at 8. While a permitted use is as of right, a conditional use does not provide that certainty with respect to land use. See id. Conditional uses are for those particular uses that a community recognizes as desirable or necessary but which the community will sanction only in a controlled manner. State ex rel. Skelly Oil Co. v. Common Council, City of Delafield, 58 Wis.2d 695, 701, 207 N.W.2d 585 (1973); 3 Young, supra, § 21.06 (discussing uses commonly subject to special permit requirements). ¶ 21 A conditional use permit allows a property owner to put his property to a use which the ordinance expressly permits when certain conditions [or standards] have been met. Skelly Oil Co., 58 Wis.2d at 701, 207 N.W.2d 585. The degree of specificity of these standards may vary from ordinance to ordinance. [9] 3 E.C. Yokley, Zoning Law and Practice § 21-1, at 21-4 (4th ed.2002) (2002 revision by Douglas Scott MacGregor). ¶ 22 A zone that provides for use of property only when a landowner obtains a conditional use permit may face scrutiny. See Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer & Thomas E. Roberts, Land Use Planning and Development Regulation Law 283-84 (2d ed.2007). [10] Conditional use permits, however, remain a widely accepted tool of municipal planning. [11] Skelly Oil Co., 58 Wis.2d at 700-01, 207 N.W.2d 585. ¶ 23 Allowing for conditional uses, in addition to permitted uses as of right, makes sense when one considers the purpose of the conditional use permit. First, conditional uses are flexibility devices, which are designed to cope with situations where a particular use, although not inherently inconsistent with the use classification of a particular zone, may well create special problems and hazards if allowed to develop and locate as a matter of right in [a] particular zone. Id. at 701, 207 N.W.2d 585; see also Gail Easley, Conditional Uses: Using Discretion, Hoping for Certainty, American Planning Association Zoning Practice, May 2006, at 2 (identifying conditional uses as flexibility devices). ¶ 24 Second, conditional use permits are appropriate for certain uses, considered by the local legislative body to be essential or desirable for the welfare of the community . . ., but not at every or any location . . . or without conditions being imposed. . . . Mandelker, supra, § 6.54, at 6-61 (citation omitted). Thus, those uses subject to a conditional use permit are necessary to the community, but because they often represent uses that may be problematic, their development is best governed more closely rather than as of right. ¶ 25 Conditional use permits  also referred to as conditional uses  however, should not be confused with conditional-use district zoning [12] or conditional zoning. In conditional-use district zoning, a landowner requests that some property be placed in a new zoning district that has no permitted uses, only special or conditional uses. David W. Owens, Legislative Zoning Decisions 93 (2d ed.1999). In such zoning: [T]he ordinance text is amended to create a set of conditional-use districts. These conditional-use districts have no permitted uses as of right: no new use of land may be undertaken unless a special- or conditional-use permit is first secured. Often there is one conditional-use district to correspond with each regular or general zoning district. These conditional-use districts are floating zones; that is, they are not applied to any property until a petition to apply them is made by the landowner. . . . Id. (footnote omitted). Conditional zoning, on the other hand, is rezoning that is made subject to the owner's acceptance of additional requirements that otherwise are not applied in the new zoning district. Id. at 97; see also Mandelker, supra, § 6.62 (discussing conditional zoning).