Court Opinion

ID: 9756189
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:12:59.015523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:15.510973
License: Public Domain

Daly, J.
(dissenting). It is stated in the opinion, of the majority that the record of the hearing before the defendant commission contains testimony that the land for which the change in zone was-sought was unsuitable for residential use and “entirely unfit for any other use but business”; that this testimony was uncontradicted; that it was supported by incontrovertible physical facts, as was-disclosed by the numerous exhibits in the commission’s record; that the court viewed the premises; and that the “rationale of the court’s decision is-essentially that the denial of the plaintiff’s application for a reclassification of its land prevented it. from making any reasonable use of that land.” Although the court viewed the premises, as shown by the memorandum of decision, its decision was based’ upon the record. The record shows that the plaintiff owned two adjacent parcels of land which were-*431zoned for business, rented to other parties and used exclusively for residential purposes. The plaintiff does not intend to use this available property for business but desires to use the land in question for business. In addition, the record indicates that the plaintiff purchased the land in question with full knowledge that it was in a residence A zone. These facts presented weighty considerations why the commission should not grant the application and thereby cause substantial injury to nearby residential properties, located in the same residence A zone on the three streets near the property in question and owned by a large number of people, including many who appeared at the hearings before the commission and stated that injury would be done to their residential properties by the granting of the application. When the plaintiff bought the property, it voluntarily took the chance that it would not be permitted to use it for a purpose expressly prohibited by the zoning regulations. Devaney v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 132 Conn. 537, 544, 45 A.2d 828; Greenwich Gas Co. v. Tuthill, 113 Conn. 684, 694, 155 A. 850. The trial court took the view that the commission acted illegally in denying the plaintiff’s application for this expressly prohibited use, and the majority hold that the court was not in error.
Zoning authorities are endowed with a wide and liberal discretion. The court is powerless to replace the discretion of the commission with its own. The modification of zone boundaries and regulations by a zoning commission partakes of the nature of legislative proceedings. The court cannot substitute its judgment, especially in a legislative matter, for the judgment of the commission when the considerations are fairly debatable. Kutcher v. Town Planning Commission, 138 Conn. 705, 709, *43288 A.2d 538. “Regulations may result to some extent, practically in the taking of property, or the restricting [of] its uses, and yet not be deemed confiscatory or unreasonable. Courts will not substitute their judgment for the legislative judgment when these considerations are fairly debatable.” State v. Hillman, 110 Conn. 92, 105, 147 A. 294; Poneleit v. Dudas, 141 Conn. 413, 418, 106 A.2d 479. In addition, the defendant commission was by no means confined to a consideration of only such evidence as was presented to it at the public hearings, the evidence upon which the trial court based its contrary conclusion. The commission was not required to disclose at the public hearing the information upon which it acted. It is entitled to take into consideration facts which may have been learned through personal observation. DeMars v. Zoning Commission, 142 Conn. 580, 584, 115 A.2d 653. The members of the commission could take into consideration personal knowledge which they had properly acquired. Jennings v. Connecticut Light & Power Co., 140 Conn. 650, 675, 103 A.2d 535. They were entitled to regard those facts to the same extent as though they were offered in evidence before them. Mrowka v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 134 Conn. 149, 154, 55 A.2d 909. It is clear, therefore, that the decision of the commission may well have been reached after its members took into consideration facts which were not brought to the attention of the court by the record, which consisted only of the testimony and exhibits offered in evidence at the hearings before the commission.
I am unable to agree with the majority opinion, which holds that the court did not err in reversing the decision of the commission. It is my belief that the majority have annulled well-established law *433which, we have frequently asserted and which I have briefly discussed. In summarizing' the grounds for my dissent, I adopt the language used by this court 129 years ago in Palmer v. Mead, 7 Conn. 149, 158: “There is not in the common law a maxim more eminently just, and promotive of the public convenience, than that of stare decisis. . . . Besides, if law well established may be annulled, by opinion, a foundation is laid for the most restless instability. The decisions of one court may be overruled by another court; and those of the latter will only have a transient efficacy, until some future court, dissatisfied with them, shall substitute new principles in their place. No system of inflexible adherence to established law can be as pernicious as such ceaseless and interminable fluctuations.”