Opinion ID: 848766
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: absence of reference to zoning

Text: It is noteworthy that M.C.L. § 380.1263(3) is not a zoning or land-use statute at all and nowhere does it refer to zoning or land-use authority. Rather, this provision is located within Part 16 of the Revised School Code, which concerns the general powers and duties of boards of education. As discussed in the preceding subsection, the statute grants the superintendent sole and exclusive jurisdiction to review and approve site plans for school buildings, but nowhere empowers the superintendent to make final zoning or land-use decisions, even as they relate to school site plans. This omission is particularly significant in light of the level of specificity with which the provision otherwise describes the superintendent's jurisdiction. Under M.C.L. § 380.1263(3), the superintendent possesses jurisdiction over plans and specifications for the construction, the reconstruction, and the remodeling of schools, as well as for the site plans, of certain school buildings. However, nowhere in this provision is there any mention of jurisdiction concerning zoning or land-use planning, both of which are subject to regulation under entirely separate statutes. This is hardly surprising, considering that subsection 1263(3) is part of a school code and not a part of a zoning or land-use statute. [5] Despite the lack of any statutory reference to zoning or land-use authority, the lead opinion construes subsection 1263(3) as replacing the authority of local officials in this realm with that of the superintendent. It reaches this conclusion with little substantive analysis, instead simply assuming that the Legislature, by granting the superintendent certain enumerated powers, intended to grant him unenumerated powers as well. [6] Yet, in my judgment, it is difficult to conceive that the Legislature would have conferred zoning and land-use authority upon the superintendent by implication, and that it would have set forth with specificity an enumeration of lesser authorities and yet intended to grant a greater authority despite failing to specify that greater authority. Further, it is difficult to conceive that the Legislature would have intended to deprive communities throughout the state of one of their most fundamental powers, the power to zone and regulate land use, through such indirection. [7] In the absence of any indication in M.C.L. § 380.1263(3), clear or otherwise, that the superintendent is not required to comply with local zoning and land-use regulations, I believe that such compliance is required. There is nothing in that statute that authorizes the superintendent to act in disregard of the zoning and land-use decisions made by local communities throughout this state.