Opinion ID: 1822350
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Does the Industrial Character of the Surrounding Area Matter?

Text: The majority opinion suggests that the conclusion that the golf course is a business area can only be supported by relying on the business uses of the area surrounding the golf course. This misconstrues the City and Eller's argument, as I understand it. The argument, first and foremost, is that the golf course, viewed in isolation, is a business area that is only zoned PF because it is owned by the City. This argument turns not on the zoning or use of the surrounding area but on the activity of operating a public golf coursein this case a course that was created to generate revenue and is operated like a business for profit. The references by the City and Eller to the surrounding area are largely in response to MNDOT's allegation that the City engaged in spot zoning, which occurs when a zoning authority establishes a classification that is inconsistent with the surrounding uses and becomes an island of nonconforming use. See, e.g., State v. City of Rochester, 268 N.W.2d 885, 889-90 (Minn.1978). Thus, when MNDOT challenged the motives of the City in taking certain actions to permit billboards, and MNDOT alleged that those actions were inconsistent with the City's comprehensive zoning, the City and Eller responded that the treatment of The Bridges as a business area is completely consistent with the comprehensive zoning because all of the areas surrounding The Bridges, north of Highway 10, are zoned for business activity. In fact, the zoning history of the parcels that make up The Bridges suggests that the only reason they do not have commercial or industrial zoning labels, similar to the surrounding area, is because they are owned by the City. Although the record does not lay out that history with precision, it appears that the most westerly parcels of The Bridges were zoned industrial as part of the 1982 comprehensive zoning plan that zoned all property north of Highway 10 as industrial. These parcels retained that zoning label until the City adopted a comprehensive rezoning ordinance in 1984, when it rezoned them to Public Facilities as part of a move to group all city-owned land in that classification. The most easterly parcels of The Bridges were not zoned industrial in 1982 only because they were then owned by the state. This was undeveloped land that had been zoned as a Conservancy, Recreation and Preservation District. Those parcels were conveyed to the City in 1988 and eventually were rezoned to Public Facilities, again only because they were owned by the City. A middle parcel had been zoned industrial while it was owned by Sysco Foods. When Sysco transferred it to the City in 1989, it was rezoned Public Facilities. As a consequence, all zoning actions taken by the City with respect to The Bridges were either part of a comprehensive plan or were taken to conform to a comprehensive plan. MNDOT's allegation of spot or piecemeal zoning is unfounded, and the City and Eller's references to the zoning classifications of the surrounding area, as a defense to that allegation, was well taken. Moreover, while it is true that the proper focus for determining business areas is the specific zoning district (in our case, the PF district), the business character of the surrounding area has some relevance to the public policy concerns that underlie the federal and state billboard laws. The broad goals of those laws are to permit billboards where they are compatible with the surrounding land use and preclude them where they are not. Essentially, they allow billboards in commercial and industrial areas, where utility is valued higher than beauty, and preclude them in residential and agricultural areas, where beauty is more highly valued than utility. Just as the goals of beautification in residential and agricultural areas would be violated by creating a commercial island in their midst (i.e. spot zoning), the goals of utility in commercial and industrial areas would be violated by creating a governmental island in their midst, where billboards are precluded on commercial property solely because it is owned by a municipality. In that connection, MNDOT has permitted two billboards on the Sysco property on the north side of Highway 10, immediately west of The Bridges. Thus, a motorist who leaves I-35W to go west on Highway 10 will encounter billboards immediately after passing The Bridges. I fail to see how the policy of beautification is served by denying billboards in the small island of municipally owned land that lies boxed in between those billboards and I-35W.