Court Opinion

ID: 9578146
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:42:09.020409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:23:32.309367
License: Public Domain

Currie, J.
{dissenting). The 140 acres of land owned by petitioners is located within the area described as the “Johnson annexation” to the village of Brown Deer in Brown Deer v. Milwaukee (1956), 274 Wis. 50, 54, 79 N. W. (2d) 340. As pointed out at pages 58 and 59 of the opinion in that case, the posting for such annexation took place October 5, 1955, and gave it priority over the consolidation proceedings, although the ordinance of annexation was not adopted until April 16, 1956. The validity of the city of Milwaukee’s prior annexation ordinance of February 21, 1956, is seriously challenged by the sixth cause of action of Brown Deer’s amended complaint which was before this court in Brown Deer v. Milwaukee, supra. These additional facts are mentioned in order to point out that it is not improbable that petitioners’ 140-acre tract may finally be determined to be within the boundaries of the village of Brown Deer. Therefore, Brown Deer has a substantial interest in seeking to uphold the validity of its platting ordinance, ordinance No. 69.
As of the trial of the instant proceeding, and the hearing of this appeal, it is uncertain whether the 140-acre tract in question lies within the boundaries of the village of Brown Deer or the city of Milwaukee. Litigation is pending to settle such issues. As pointed out in the majority opinion, the legislature has provided entirely different treatment for handling plat subdividing than that provided for zoning in such a disputed area. In case of plat subdividing, the plat must be approved by both of such municipalities. Secs. 236.10 (1) (a) and 236.13 (4), Stats. On the other hand, *101the zoning power of the two municipalities is temporarily suspended over the disputed area during the litigation and the county zoning ordinance controls. Sec. 59.97 (4a), Stats.
The legislature has clearly recognized that platting and zoning are two different powers, as the former is covered by ch. 236, Stats., and the latter by portions of secs. 59.97, 60.74, and 62.23 (7), Stats., among others. Subdivision-platting control is most of all concerned with the size of the lots or parcels into which the land is to be-divided. No plat of a subdivision can be approved under sec. 236.20 (2) (a), which does not show the exterior boundaries of each lot or parcel of the proposed subdivision. On the other hand, zoning ordinances are mostly concerned with land use. While many zoning ordinances do contain minimum lot-size requirements, such a provision is not an essential component of a zoning ordinance. Many other zoning ordinances do not have minimum lot-size requirements but only provide restrictions in the nature of building setbacks and side-yard requirements.
Merely because the Milwaukee county zoning ordinance does contain a minimum lot-size requirement of 10,000 square feet should not be held to preclude Brown Deer from exercising the power conferred on it by secs. 236.45 (2) (a), Stats., to adopt a proper platting ordinance. Ordinance No. 69 is such a proper ordinance. Robert D. Sundby, counsel for the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, in an article entitled, “The Elimination and Prevention of Urban Blight” in 1959 Wisconsin Law Review, 73, 92, 93, advocates municipalities adopting such platting ordinances in order to prevent land being chopped up into undesirable small parcels through the process of division and redivision.
Not only do I deem the result of the majority opinion as to statutory construction to be contrary to the legislative intent in enacting sec. 236.10 (1) (a), Stats., but it is op*102posed to sound public policy. Such public policy is always a proper consideration in statutory interpretation in resolving an ambiguity as to which of two statutes controls. The village of Brown Deer has determined in the proper exercise of its police power that a minimum lot size of 15,000 square feet is desirable to preserve the character of the community as an attractive suburban area. The effect of the majority opinion is to stay such power during the period of protracted litigation over large areas recently annexed to Brown Deer. During such period real-estate operators, motivated solely by the desire of making profits, will be subject to no restraint as to the size of the lots into which such large areas of the village can be divided, except the county zoning-ordinance requirement. The result is that the present desirable suburban character of a large part of Brown Deer may be forever destroyed before such annexation litigation terminates.
I would hold ordinance No. 69 valid and reverse the judgment.