Opinion ID: 2450547
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Issue 4: Was the County's decision to disapprove the proposed rezoning lawful and reasonable?

Text: Having determined the appropriate standard of review and the application of the presumption of reasonableness, the parties urge us to apply the standard. The City and the landowners contend that the County's decision to disapprove the proposed rezoning was unlawful and unreasonable. The County also urges us to review its decision, although it suggests we find the County's decision to disapprove the zoning change was lawful, reasonable, and supported by substantial competent evidence. The landowners contend we can easily affirm the district court's decision by applying a negative finding standard of review. Generally, this court's standard of review following a negative finding is that the party challenging the finding must prove the factfinder arbitrarily disregarded undisputed evidence or was affected by some extrinsic consideration such as bias, passion, or prejudice. Nance v. Harvey County, 263 Kan. 542, 550, 952 P.2d 411 (1997). The landowners argue this is the appropriate standard because the district court found that the County failed to meet its burden of overcoming the City's presumption of reasonableness. We reject this as our standard of review, however, because the district court erroneously imposed the burden of production on the County by requiring the County to overcome the City's presumption of reasonableness. Consequently, the district court's finding cannot serve as the starting point for our analysis and the negative finding standard of review cannot be applied. Instead, as previously discussed, our role should be to review the district court's application of the Golden/Combined Investments Co. standard of review to the County's decision. However, the closest the district court came to examining the County's decision in light of the Golden/Combined Investments Co. principles was in stating: [T]he resolution of the County and the County resolution is in conclusory language. The Court finds [the proposed county resolution] does not meet the requirement of Golden, and its following case law in the sense that case law somewhat softens the effect of Golden and permits the Court to refer to the record to provide details to support a governing body's resolution or ordinance approving or denying zoning. The district court did not conclude that the record was inadequate or that review of the factors could not occur, however. Rather, the district court's focus was on whether the County had overcome the presumption that the City's decision to approve the proposed rezoning was reasonable. Because we depart from the district court's analysis at this point, we essentially begin anew. In doing so, we not only apply a different standard of review but, in contrast to the district court's imposition of the burden of production on the County, we impose the burden of production on the landowners. Despite this change in standard and burden, the parties argue we can resolve the issue of reasonableness because, in zoning cases, that question is one of law. Combined Investment Co., 227 Kan. at 28, 605 P.2d 533. We do not quarrel with this general principle and recognize that there may be some judicial efficiency involved if we were to merely resolve the issue of reasonableness, especially since that question has been briefed as an alternative argument. Yet, we decline to do so because, as stated, our rulings in this case mean that we would impose a different burden of proof, apply a different test, and employ a different scope of judicial review than did the district court. In other words, we would be conducting a trial de novo, a task that is statutorily assigned to the district court. If we were to assume that role, we would not only alter the statutory scheme, but we would also preempt any right to meaningful appellate review of a resulting judgment. Consequently, we conclude that this matter must be remanded to the district court for findings regarding the reasonableness of the County's decision, including a finding of whether the landowners satisfied the burden of overcoming the County's presumption of reasonableness.