Court Opinion

ID: 9731669
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:54:10.406518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:20.320151
License: Public Domain

Currie, J.
(dissenting). We do not construe the majority opinion as holding that a zoning ordinance which zones an entire town or municipality in a single-residence-use district is per se unconstitutional and void. However, we are fearful that it may be so construed in the future. An instance, in which an entire municipality was apparently validly zoned in a single-residence district, is afforded by the *192case of State ex rel. Saveland P. H. Corp. v. Wieland (1955), 269 Wis. 262, 69 N. W. (2d) 217. As we interpret the majority opinion, a zoning ordinance which creates a single-use district is only unconstitutional if there are lands situated therein which are unfitted for any of the uses permitted under the ordinance.
The case of State ex rel. Ford Hopkins Co. v. Mayor (1937), 226 Wis. 215, 276 N. W. 311, cited in the majority opinion, is not authority for the proposition that a zoning ordinance which zones a municipality in a single-use district is unconstitutional. The city ordinance before the court in that case was not a zoning ordinance but one regulating and licensing restaurants. Such ordinance provided that no license should be issued to operate a restaurant in connection with any other business unless the restaurant was separated from such other business with a solid partition wall without any openings in such wall. It further was only to apply to restaurants commencing business after the effective date of the ordinance. The relator Ford Hopkins Company, who wished to secure a license to operate a restaurant in connection with a drugstore, attacked the ordinance as discriminatory and violating the equal-protection-of-the-laws clause of the Fourteenth amendment. This court held the ordinance unconstitutional on such ground. The opinion does not even imply that, if the ordinance had classified all restaurants the same, it would have been void, but only that the classifications which were set up must be based upon substantial distinctions, and all members of each class must be treated equally.
The testimony in the instant case discloses that the town of Hobart is largely an agricultural area, but in recent years there has been a growing residential development in that portion of the town closest to the city of Green Bay. Sec. VI of its ordinance under attack contains the following nonconforming-use clause:
*193“The lawful use of land existing at the time of the adoption of this ordinance may be continued in the same use although such use does not conform to the provisions hereof, but if such nonconforming use is discontinued at any time for a period of one year thereafter, any future use of such premises shall be in conformity with the provisions of this ordinance.”
Thus, under this nonconforming-use clause, all of the area of the town devoted to agricultural purposes at the time of the enactment can be continued to be used for such purpose. The effect, therefore, of the ordinance is to preserve the agricultural use of the greater portion of the town until such time as it gradually becomes converted into a residential area. If this is what the citizens of the town desire, we can see no legal impediment to them doing so by means of a zoning ordinance. There is nothing in our zoning statutes which makes it mandatory that provision be included for permitting industrial or commercial business in certain areas.
Unfortunately, the record is silent as to whether the lands purchased by the defendants Collier and Challe were devoted to agricultural purposes at the time of such purchase, or whether they were unused. However, assuming that they were unused so as to make inapplicable the nonconforming-use clause of sec. VI of the ordinance, let us examine the other material sections of the ordinance in the light of such circumstance.
Sec. I is entitled, “Boundaries,” and establishes the boundaries of “the residential district,” and such boundaries coincide with those of the town. Nothing is said in such section about permissible or prohibited uses of the land situated therein. Therefore, in so far as the defendants are concerned such section is innocuous.
Sec. II is entitled, “Use Regulations,” and sub. (a) thereof provides that no buildings are to be erected in the residence district except dwelling houses and accessory buildings. *194Sub. (b) thereof is quoted in the majority opinion and grants the power to the town board to grant approval to nonob-jectionable and nonobnoxious industries.
Sec. IV is entitled, “Regulation of Size of Buildings,” and the defendants do not complain that the requirements thereof place any undue burden upon them.
Sec. V is entitled, “Express Exclusion Clause,” and excludes certain objectionable businesses which probably lie within the power of any municipality to exclude from its limits under sec. 66.052, Stats. In any event all could be excluded under the zoning power conferred by sec. 60.74. Sub. (d) of such sec. V of the ordinance expressly prohibits the use which defendants are attempting to make of their property, viz., a salvage yard for junked automobiles.
The remaining sections of the ordinance are not material to this appeal except sec. XII entitled, “Validity,” reading as follows:
“If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The town board hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, sentences, clauses, or phrases be declared invalid.”
We. can perceive no reason whatever for this court not giving full effect to the above-quoted severability clause. .If such severability clause is given effect, and viewing the facts most favorably from the standpoint of the defendants, the only section of the ordinance which is invalid as applied to defendants’ lands is sec. II. If sec. II were to be eliminated entirely from the ordinance as being void as to defendants’ lands, the valid restrictions contained in sec. V would prevent the defendants from using their lands for an automobile junk and salvage yard. The town is, therefore, entitled to *195a judgment enjoining the defendants from making such use of their premises.
The majority opinion’s conclusion, that the entire ordinance is void, is partly grounded on the wording of the preamble. This is because the preamble states the objective of providing several use districts while the ordinance zones the entire town as one district. However, this was not the case with respect to the original ordinance adopted February 5, 1952, prior to the amendment of April 15, 1952. As originally enacted there were in effect two use districts, a residence district comprising but a portion of the town, and the remainder of the town in which no use restrictions were imposed. Surely, the fact, that because the April 15, 1952, amendment did not also amend the preamble when it changed the boundaries of the residence district to include the entire town, should not be a factor to be considered in passing on the constitutionality of the ordinance. The subject of ordinance preambles was thoroughly treated in the majority and dissenting opinions in Smith v. Brookfield (1956), 272 Wis. 1, 74 N. W. (2d) 770. There is nothing in the rules there considered which would authorize invalidating the instant ordinance on the basis of the innocuous objective stated in the preamble.
The fact, that the motive of the town board in enacting the ordinance was to head off the objectionable use of defendants’ property proposed to be made by them, is also immaterial. This was so held by the California supreme court in Miller v. Board of Public Works (1925), 195 Cal. 477, 234 Pac. 381, 38 A. L. R. 1479 (appeal dismissed, 273 U. S. 781, 47 Sup. Ct. 460, 71 L. Ed. 889).
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Fairchild joins in this dissenting opinion.