Opinion ID: 2364266
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Facts Pertinent to the Zoning Violations

Text: The campground was originally situated in an R-80 zoning district that permitted overnight and family camping. In 1990, however, the town rezoned the property to an R-2 district and amended its zoning ordinance to prohibit overnight and family camping in all town zoning districts. At that time, the campground became a legal nonconforming use. In 1991, the town again revised its zoning ordinance to allow camping in an R-2 district, but only by special exception. Under the current zoning ordinance, the property is located in an R-2 zone, where the town permits Outdoor Private Land Recreation    Camps & Campgrounds by special-use permit. Richmond Municipal Code, Title 18 Zoning § 18.16.010 at 146. The town issued a license to the campground for the 1991-1992 season on a month-to-month basis. The town issued defendants a license to operate a campground with a maximum of 300 campsites for the year ending May 31, 1993. On April 2, 1991, the town granted defendants a building permit to construct a forty-foot by eighty-foot recreation building on the campground. The defendants used this building, known as the Pavilion, to serve food to campers who were staying on the property in their recreational vehicles. The defendants, however, did not seek or obtain a special-use permit before constructing this building. In 1994, defendants applied for a building permit to construct an addition to the Pavilion. The town denied this application. Nevertheless, between 1994 and 1995, defendants built a sixteen-foot by twenty-one-foot addition to the Pavilion to add restrooms, so that the building would comply with Department of Health regulations. In January 1996, the deputy zoning enforcement officer for the town issued a zoning-violation notice, ordering defendants to remove the addition to the Pavilion or to obtain a special-use permit for the alteration of a nonconforming development. The officer issued the citation under § 18.48.030(A) of the Town of Richmond's Zoning Ordinance, which provides that a [n]onconforming use of a building, structure or land may be enlarged, expanded, or intensified with the grant of a special use permit by the zoning board of review. The defendants appealed this violation notice to the Richmond Zoning Board of Review (zoning board). In August 1998, the zoning board denied this appeal. Although the zoning board gave defendants leave to apply for a special-use permit, defendants failed to submit such an application. Furthermore, defendants decided not to appeal the zoning board of review's decision to the Superior Court, as they were entitled to do under G.L.1956 § 45-24-69. Thereafter, in April 1999, the town sued defendants in Superior Court (WC 99-180), seeking a permanent injunction that would require defendants to correct or abate the addition by obtaining appropriate relief from the board or by removing the addition from the Pavilion. The town argued that, as the zoning board previously had concluded, the addition constituted an illegal alteration of the defendants' nonconforming campground use. In June 2001, the town's deputy zoning enforcement officer, Russell W. Brown, inspected the property. During this inspection, he observed that the addition to the Pavilion remained intact and that defendants had begun building a new road on a lot adjacent to the campground. Based on these observations, the town filed another action (WC 01-313) against defendants, seeking injunctive relief to prevent defendants from constructing and completing the road. The town argued that, like the addition to the Pavilion, the new road illegally altered and expanded the nonconforming campground use. The Superior Court consolidated these actions. In 2002, the trial justice issued a bench decision, ruling that both the restroom addition to the Pavilion and the new road serving the campground illegally expanded defendants' nonconforming use. Because defendants did not obtain special-use permits before constructing these alterations, the trial justice granted the town's request for permanent injunctive relief and ordered defendants to obtain the permits or to remove the offending structures. This appeal ensued.