Court Opinion

ID: 9658697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:09:12.538621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:57.978850
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent.
The statute establishing the role of the board of adjustment provides that
[t]he council shall provide for the appointment of a board of adjustment and in the regulations and restrictions adopted pursuant to the authority of this chapter shall provide that the said board of adjustment may in appropriate cases and subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards make special exceptions to the terms of the ordinances....
Iowa Code § 414.7 (emphasis added). Wal-Mart’s request to place fill in the floodplain did not require any special exception to the local ordinance. That ordinance by its terms permitted that use sub*689ject to approval by the city council. In no way can the granting of that approval be considered to be a “special exception” to the terms of the local ordinance. Consequently, the board of adjustment has no role to play in this proceeding.
The issue in the Lohner case did involve an exception to a local ordinance and, consequently, unlike the present case, did call for action by the board of adjustment.
If there is some reason that the type of ordinance that the City of Decorah adopted in the present case is invalid, the appellants have certainly failed to point out that reason. I would affirm the judgment of the district court.