Court Opinion

ID: 9775409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:57:28.236005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:25.824677
License: Public Domain

Bradley D. Jesson, Chief Justice, dissenting. I am mindful of the deference to be accorded the legislative decisions of municipalities. I agree with every word the majority says about separation of powers. However, the judiciary should not be completely hamstrung in its review of a city’s action. Judicial review exists to protect landowners such as the appellee from unreasoned decisions. This is a case in which the chancellor carefully and thoughtfully exercised his power of review, accorded the city its due deference, and reached a reasonable, supportable conclusion. I would affirm his decision. Supposedly, the city had two rational bases for its refusal to rezone the subject property: the lack of street frontage and the concerns expressed by citizens who lived near the proposed mobile home park district. Regarding the frontage requirement, the city’s zoning ordinance requires that a mobile home park district have one hundred feet of frontage on a public street. If the appellee’s five acres were rezoned to the MHP classification, the result would be a 7.19 acre mobile home park district since what M & N seeks to do here is simply extend its existing mobile home park to include the contiguous, otherwise land-locked parcel owned by it. According to Patsie Christie, the city’s Deputy Recorder, who also has a background of education and experience in public administration and city planning, there is a one hundred and fifty foot access along the street into the currently existing park. Therefore, the requirement would be met as it pertains to the overall mobile home park district. As the majority states, zoning is by district. The problem with the majority’s argument on the frontage requirement can be seen by the following example. Suppose M & N wished to use the property as single-family or multi-family residential. The city’s zoning ordinance requires two hundred feet of frontage for single-family and one hundred feet of frontage for multi-family districts respectively. The parcel of land which is the subject of this case can meet neither of those requirements because it has no street frontage except through the existing mobile home park. For what residential purpose can M & N use its property? It should be remembered that the city’s own zoning plan created this land-locked parcel. The only way the parcel can comply with the zoning ordinance is to combine it with the existing mobile home park district. There are a number of facts which do not appear in the majority opinion. I will set them out here because I believe they constitute overwhelming evidence in support of the chancellor’s finding. The five or so acres which are the subject of this case sit landlocked in an area just off McClure Avenue in Lowell. The property is contiguous to the appellee’s remaining acreage which is in use as a mobile home park and is properly zoned as MHP. The existing mobile home park fronts McClure Avenue and juts, penninsula-like, into the five acre tract. The 7.19 acres as a whole is surrounded by a variety of uses. To the southwest are duplexes. To the west and northwest are homes on lots with large open areas. To the north is a residential housing addition containing two lots with mobile homes. To the east is an open area and a stand of trees used as part of a pine tree nursery. To the southeast are single family dwellings. Directly across the street is a parcel of land which is not suitable for development. Across the street and further east is a church. When the appellee petitioned the Planning Commission to rezone the remainder of his parcel to MHP, the matter was taken upsat the Commission’s February 7, 1994, meeting. The minutes of the meeting reflect that eighteen citizens spoke in opposition to the rezoning. Their objections ranged from simply not wanting mobile homes or considering them an “eyesore” to fear of decrease in property values, increase in noise, traffic and crime, and the concern that there would be too many mobile homes placed on the 7.19 acres. After the citizens’ objections were heard, one commissioner commented that he had once lived next to a mobile home park and it was the primary reason he had moved. Another commissioner said he had once lived next to a mobile home park and the only disturbances he experienced were from the park. Without further reason or comment, the appellee’s petition was denied. The appellee fared no better at the City Council, to which he appealed the Commission’s decision. His petition was denied without reason or comment. The appellee then filed suit in chancery court alleging that the city’s denial was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. At trial, strong evidence was presented that the city had no reasonable basis whatsoever for its action. In fact, the evidence was striking. The appellee put three city officials on the stand. Not one city official could testify as to why the appellee’s application had been denied. In fact, the city’s mayor, Glen Rogers, who presided over the city council meeting on the date that the appellee’s application was considered, testified as follows: Q.: Why was the rezoning request of M and N Mobile Home Park rejected? A.: Because the council turned it down. Q.: Why did the council turn it down? A.: I have no idea. Q.: Was any reason given? A.: There’s no one give [sic] me any reason. The mayor further testified that the rezoning request was consistent with the city’s land use plan and that the requirements of the zoning ordinance were met. Finally, he testified: Q.: Other than the fact that the Planning —, City Council just said no, can you think of any reason why the rezoning application of Mr. Nordsell was denied? A.: I can’t think of anything else. There was also undisputed testimony that the appellee’s proposed use of the land was consistent with the city’s overall land use plan. The majority’s implication otherwise is simply erroneous. The plan divided the city into broad-category zones such as residential, commercial or industrial. Patsie Christie testified that a mobile home park district falls within the residential category and therefore is consistent with the land use plan. The mayor likewise testified that M & N’s proposed rezoning was consistent with the land use plan in effect in Lowell since 1971. Finally, there was testimony that the minimum requirements of the zoning ordinance had been met, and that citizen opposition had not been used, in the past, as a basis for the Commission to deny a rezoning application. The city offered no testimonial evidence at the hearing before the chancellor. In the face of the evidence before him, the chancellor looked in vain for a rational basis for the city’s action. He found none and, in light of the city officials’ testimony and the personal comments made by the Commissioners, concluded that the city’s action was arbitrary. It is difficult to envision a stronger case for a finding of arbitrariness than this one. We have defined the term “arbitrary” as decisive but unreasoned action, City of Little Rock v. Pfeifer, 318 Ark. 679, 887 S.W.2d 296 (1994), and as an act arising from unrestrained exercise of will, caprice or personal preference, based on random or convenient choice rather than on reason or nature. Smith v. City of Little Rock, 279 Ark. 4, 648 S.W.2d 454 (1983). The absence of reason is common to both definitions. True, the city is not required by law to set forth the reasons for its actions. But the presumption of reasonableness does not extend to infinity. Here we have not only a lack of any stated reason, but affirmative statements by city officials that they knew of no basis for the city’s action. By focusing on the comments made by the citizens at the Planning Commission meeting, I fear we have given credence to the idea that neighborhood objections, no matter how lacking in factual support, may serve as a basis for a city’s zoning decisions. I disagree with the characterization of the citizens’ and Commissioners’ comments as “evidence.” As the majority correctly points out, neighborhood objections, standing alone, should not be considered as a basis for a zoning decision. However, that is exactly what is happening here. In truth, there is no objective reason for the city’s action, as shown by the testimony of the city officials at the trial. One Arkansas commentator has characterized the use of neighborhood protest (or lack thereof) to provide a basis for a city’s action as “an aberrant and unwholesome rationale” and “a distortion of the modern philosophy of zoning.” M. Gitelman The Role of the Neighbors in Zoning Cases, 28 Ark. L. Rev. 221 (1974). In the majority opinion, we have sanctioned the use of unproven fears, stereotypes and prejudices as providing a rational basis for zoning decisions. If a city is permitted to bootstrap neighborhood objections into a rational basis for the denial of a mobile home park, it can happen just as easily with apartments, duplexes, and low-cost housing. The same citizen objections voiced here, such as increased traffic, noise, and increased need for additional police could be argued equally in the case of those uses. This is a door we should not open. This brings me to the final point in this dissent. The majority implies that we should give no deference to the chancellor’s finding in this case. I strongly disagree. The chancellor was presented with testimonial and documentary evidence. From that evidence, he found that the city’s action was arbitrary. He applied the proper burden of proof and standard of review. We should uphold his finding unless it is clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. In City of Little Rock v. Breeding, 273 Ark. 437, 619 S.W.2d 664 (1981) and City of Little Rock v. Parker, 241 Ark. 381, 407 S.W.2d 921 (1966) we recognized that the sole question before this court in a rezoning case is whether the preponderance of the evidence before the chancellor showed that the city acted arbitrarily. Applying that standard, I believe the chancellor’s finding was well supported by a preponderance of the evidence. Glaze and Corbin, JJ., join in this dissent.