Court Opinion

ID: 9688804
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:06:26.456461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:06:55.158674
License: Public Domain

LARSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent from Division III and the result.
Ely is a small town with limited financial resources, trying to maintain the aesthetic quality of a rural Iowa community. This ruling unnecessarily frustrates that effort.
Our cases hold, and the majority concedes, that no formal plan is required to satisfy the requirement of a comprehensive plan as a prerequisite to zoning.
Ely’s zoning ordinance is a part of a “comprehensive” plan. Despite the informality of the plan, any reasonable reading of the town’s ordinances, maps, and resolutions (which our cases say may constitute a comprehensive plan) should make it clear: a junkyard in the middle of town was not to be a part of its future development.
I would reverse and remand.
HARRIS, J., joins this dissent.