Opinion ID: 1292234
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Did the Borough Assembly violate Balough's right to substantive due process when it refused to exempt her property from the rezoning?

Text: Balough notes that it is FNSB's frequent practice to exclude property on the periphery of the rezoning upon the owner's request. Therefore, Balough concludes, the Borough's arbitrary failure to exclude [her] property from the rezone effects a denial of due process. Balough cites State v. Enserch Alaska Construction, Inc. [75] in support of her contention. Balough's argument is not persuasive. First, as she acknowledges, there is no provision of the FNSB Code concerning rezoning exemptions. Second, this court's decision in Enserch addresses the necessary requirements for stating a claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the Alaska Constitution; it does not address due process. [76] Third, Balough's argument that the Borough Assembly acted arbitrarily in refusing to exclude her property from the rezoning, and thus denied her due process, is seemingly based on Nutter's affirmative response to the question: [Is Balough's property located in an area] where the decision-making body would tend to exempt the property from a rezone? Specifically, Nutter responded, [i]f any property were to be excluded, [Balough's property] would be the condition that they wouldthey would consider it. Balough fails to acknowledge that Nutter testified before the Borough Assembly in opposition to exempting Balough's property from the rezoning. Nutter stated that he believe[d] at least from the zoning department's position, [that] protection of our neighborhood should be [the Assembly's] top priority. And [he was] not inclined to want to see [Balough's] property excluded from the rezone. Nutter based his opinion on the notion that the seventy-five acres of land at issue was in a residential area and while certain types of commercial uses are not inappropriate, they detract from property values. In sum, no FNSB ordinance or state statute requires a zoning commission to exempt property from a rezoning upon a property owner's request. Nor did Balough offer any evidence that the Borough Assembly's actions were unreasonably arbitrary. Balough, therefore, failed to meet her burden of proving that the Borough Assembly's refusal to exempt her property had no reasonable relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. [77]