Opinion ID: 853289
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Duty to Inform Applicant of Deficiencies and Estoppel

Text: Equicor argues that the Plan Commission's decision must be reversed because the Commission failed to raise the claimed deficiency at its first known opportunity and gave Equicor no opportunity to correct it. Given this failure, Equicor contends that the Commission is estopped from denying approval. Although the Commission asserts that Equicor did not raise this argument in the trial court and has therefore waived it on appeal, it appears that Equicor raised this contention at least twice in the trial court. As a general matter, government entities are not subject to equitable estoppel. State ex rel. Agan v. Hendricks Superior Court, 250 Ind. 675, 678, 235 N.E.2d 458, 460 (1968). However, this Court has held that in certain situations application of estoppel of government entities is appropriate. See id.; see also Cablevision of Chicago v. Colby Cable Corp., 417 N.E.2d 348, 356 (Ind.Ct.App.1981); Tippecanoe County Area Plan Comm'n v. Sheffield Developers, Inc., 181 Ind.App. 586, 599-600, 394 N.E.2d 176, 185 (1979), trans. denied. Specifically, estoppel may be appropriate where the party asserting estoppel has detrimentally relied on the governmental entity's affirmative assertion or on its silence where there was a duty to speak. See Hendricks, 250 Ind. at 678, 235 N.E.2d at 460 (applying estoppel to the State where the State failed to raise its objections in prior proceedings); Sheffield, 181 Ind.App. at 599-600, 394 N.E.2d at 185 (holding that estoppel was applicable where the County had a duty to speak and did not, and developer relied on the County's silence to its detriment); cf. Ind. Dep't of Envtl. Mgt. v. Conard, 614 N.E.2d 916, 921 (Ind.1993) (denying estoppel in the absence of any detrimental reliance on statements made by the government agency); City of Crown Point v. Lake County, 510 N.E.2d 684, 688 (Ind.1987) (same). Although the Plan Commission suggested other changes in the plat, it was silent as to any parking issue. In response to the suggestions that were made, Equicor added green space and made minor changes to the streets, but made no changes in the apparently acceptable parking. Equicor thus relied on the Plan Commission's silence by proceeding in the reasonable belief that the plat would be approved and failing to make changes in the easily correctable flaws in the parking designation. We are dealing here with a formal defectfailure to designate the spaces. There is no claim that the project is substantively flawed, and the Commission does not assert that the project in fact has less parking than required. As Equicor points out, the plat itself reveals driveways (on-site) and curbside spaces (off-site) that are apparently in compliance with the requirement of two on-site and one-half off-site spaces per unit. Raising a formal defect such as failure to designate these visible, if undesignated, spaces at the last moment permits agencies to fumble endlessly with proposals that are entirely lawful. Under these circumstances, the Plan Commission's failure to object to the undesignated spaces resulted in Equicor's detrimental reliance thereon and, therefore, estoppel is appropriate in this case. See Middleton Motors v. Ind. Dep't of State Revenue, 269 Ind. 282, 286, 380 N.E.2d 79, 81-82 (1978) (DeBruler, J., dissenting). In Sheffield, the Court of Appeals relied on our conclusion in Knutson v. State ex rel. Seberger, 239 Ind. 656, 662-64, 157 N.E.2d 469, 472-73 (1959), that once a town board has determined that a plat complies with the statutory requirements, review is a ministerial act and approval is mandatory. See also 83 Am.Jur.2d Zoning and Planning § 556, at 445-46 ([W]here the applicant has met the statutory and local regulatory standards, approval of the plat is a ministerial act, and it is arbitrary as a matter of law to deny approval of a plat that meets those standards.). This holding has been reaffirmed on several occasions by the Court of Appeals. See Hickory Hills Dev. Co. v. Coffman, 699 N.E.2d 1214, 1216 (Ind.Ct.App.1998), trans. denied [2] ; Dosmann v. Area Plan Comm'n, 160 Ind.App. 605, 312 N.E.2d 880, 884 (1974); Suburban Homes Corp. v. Anderson, 147 Ind.App. 419, 261 N.E.2d 376 (1970). Here, Equicor submitted documents to and appeared before the Commission on several occasions. In February of 1998, Equicor first submitted its proposed primary plat application to the Plan Commission. The Technical Advisory Committee reviewed the application in March, and concluded that no changes to the plat were necessary. The Plan Commission staff then determined that approval should be granted. That same month, the Commission took the first step toward suspension of the section of the Local Zoning Ordinance dealing with cluster housing. At a public hearing on March 23, it was determined that the amendment would be prospective only, and Equicor's application would be unaffected. More detailed review of the plat was conducted by the Subdivision Committee, which recommended three changes to Equicor's primary plat, none of which related to the parking designation. On April 23, the Subdivision Committee reviewed Equicor's changes and referred the plat to the Commission for final review. On May 26, the Plan Commission reviewed the plat and denied approval, for the first time citing the failure to designate the number and location of parking spaces as a primary reason for its disapproval. In sum, the Plan Commission had ample opportunity to point out any deficiency in the designation of parking, and Equicor reasonably relied on the absence of any parking issue in processing its proposal. Under these circumstances, the Commission was estopped from asserting this deficiency as the reason for its disapproval of Equicor's plat.