Court Opinion

ID: 9770009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:10:42.120725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:09.847024
License: Public Domain

FINCH, Acting Presiding Judge
(dissenting) .
I respectfully dissent from the principal opinion herein. I have concluded that this case is governed by the opinion of this court en banc in Hoffmann v. Kinealy, Mo., 389 S.W.2d 745.
Defendant is prosecuted herein for maintaining advertising signs which do not conform to a University City zoning ordinance. The signs in question were erected in 1954 and were in place on the property when it was purchased by defendant in 1958. The zoning ordinance under which defendant is prosecuted was enacted April 6, 1959. That ordinance was made applicable to existing as well as future advertising signs. Section 2010.7 of the ordinance provided that within three years from the date of the ordinance, all nonconforming signs existing on the effective date of the ordinance should be made to conform or should be removed. The defendant is charged with having an excessive number of signs under the ordinance. Presently, there are ten signs on his propery, and under the ordinance he would be required to reduce the number from ten to two signs. There also was a complaint that the signs were of improper height under the zoning ordinance. It appears that there was no complaint as to any structural defect or that the signs were not safe and sound.
In the Hoffmann case this court held that lawful nonconforming use of land or buildings constituted a vested property right which a city may not take under a zoning ordinance by the amortization technique. The court held that to permit such a procedure would constitute the taking of property without just compensation and without due process.
In Hoffmann the lots were being used for open storage of lumber, building materials and construction equipment and had been so used prior to the adoption of the zoning ordinance. When the zoning ordinance was adopted, it provided that use of land within any dwelling district for purposes of open storage not conforming to the provisions of the ordinance should be discontinued within six years from the effective date of the ordinance. The court held that there was no basis for distinguishing between use of vacant lots or buildings and that in either event a preexisting lawful nonconforming use of the property constituted a vested right which could not be taken by the amortization process.
I can see no difference between an ordinance which undertakes to amortize the right to store lumber, for example, on a vacant lot and one which attempts to amortize the right to have billboard signs on a lot. It is true that in the St. Louis ordinance the right to open storage was to be completely eliminated at the end of the amortization period, whereas here the ef-*112feet is to eliminate the right to use eight of the ten signs rather than to completely eliminate the right to have billboards. This, however, is not any valid basis for distinction between the two cases. In oral argument counsel for the City conceded that if in Hoffmann the ordinance of the City of St. Louis had provided that after the amortization period the owner could only have two stacks of lumber, whereas before he had more, the result would and should have been the same. He concedes that under those circumstances the ordinance would be unconstitutional. Consequently, we are faced with the question of whether there is any valid basis for establishing a different rule with respect to amortization of the right to have pre-exist-ing nonconforming billboards and the right to have pre-existing nonconforming stacks of lumber. It should be kept in mind that this is not a proceeding in which the City sought to abate these billboards as a nuisance. No evidence was offered that garbage was dumped behind the billboards, or that they constituted a health hazard, or that criminals lurked behind them. Instead, this proceeding is on the basis that the right to maintain these billboards expired after the amortization period, and the fundamental issue therefore is identically the same as it was in the Hoffmann case, i. e., may the City, by the amortization technique, eliminate pre-existing lawful nonconforming use of vacant property.
The principal opinion relies on the case of Kansas City Gunning Advertising Co. v. Kansas City, 240 Mo. 659, 144 S.W. 1099. In that case there were pleadings and proof that the billboards were defective, that they were a menace to safety, that they were hiding places for criminals, that they constituted fire hazards, that some had fallen down and injured people, and that they were a public nuisance. The court did, however, say that the ordinance was enforceable in praesenti as well as in futuro, and that such ordinances did not take property of persons but simply regulated its use. I am not certain that when the Kansas City Gunning case is analyzed it necessarily is in conflict with Hoffmann, but to the extent that it holds or infers that billboards which are not shown to be a nuisance and therefore constitute a preexisting lawful nonconforming use of the property may be eliminated merely by the amortization technique, I would hold that the Gunning case was overruled by Hoff-mann.
The Hoffmann opinion recognized that municipalities have employed various approved methods of diminishing and eliminating nonconforming uses by prohibiting resumption after abandonment, or by restricting a change from one nonconforming use to another, or by preventing rebuilding or alteration of nonconforming structures, but held that nonconforming uses may not be eliminated by simply allowing a period of time during which the owner may continue the nonconforming use.
Clearly, the ordinance involved here employs the amortization method of eliminating nonconforming use of property which was condemned in the Hoffmann case. Consequently, I would reverse the judgments.
The defendant also asserts that the ordinance is discriminatory and unconstitutional in that it permits 600 square feet of signs to advertise products not sold on the premises, whereas it permits only 450 square feet for products sold on the premises. I would not reach the determination of that question because, in my judgment, the case is ruled by Hoffmann.