Court Opinion

ID: 9588187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:31:19.145792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:38.588051
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE DAY
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
I hasten to add my fears that the precedent of the majority decision could curtail the effective gains which have been made in creating legislative awareness of good long-range land use planning. When the legislative authority has validly declared that a given activity is lawfully permitted in a particular zone, and the activity is lawfully conducted, to permit the courts to enjoin the use provides a judicial veto of proper, valid legislative functions.
Borrowing from the research evident in “The Effect of Land Use Legislation on the Common Law of Nuisance in Urban Areas,” 36 Dicta 414, it would appear there is a split in authority on the question presented herein. Colorado is listed with New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and California as states that would refuse injunctive relief against an authorized activity lawfully conducted, citing Robinson Brick v. Luthi, 115 Colo. 106, 169 P.2d 171. I believe that the re-examination of Robinson by the majority is straining somewhat to change the analysis given it in 166 A.L.R. 655, Colorado Bar Association, Environmental Law Handbook ¶ ¶ 129.30 (1971), and in 58 Am. Jur. 2d Nuisances, § § 230. I believe that the majority has overruled Robinson, and, in my opinion ill-advisedly.
*305I submit the better reasoned position to take is that land use regulations are best conceived by the legislative branch under its constitutional exercise of police power whereby there is afforded broad application for the public good. The court should not act to set aside or prevent that which the legislative branch has determined to be permitted. This will seriously affect long-range land use planning.
Such planning has salutory two-fold aspects. One provides for orderly growth; the other provides for the possibility of citizens finding a place in which to live and enjoy their own particular tastes. For the courts to step in and deprive these people of the kind of life they wish to live is a sort of anarchy where aid and comfort is given to others, who, because of their taste, seek to prevent on a case-by-case basis that which the legislature has declared can be enjoyed in a particular area. There have been conceived in many states equine country clubs for persons who enjoy horseback riding, jumping, polo, etc. In such developments citizens can build and live and indulge in their recreational hobby. People who do not have similar tastes should not and probably would not establish a home in such an environment. We take judicial notice of the fact that there have been wide-spread developments of housing along the fairways of some of the most prominent golf clubs in the United States. I think it is a fair statement to say that those who have established homes adjacent to such fairways run the risk of having a golf ball land on their patio and in their swimming pool, or even through their windows. Would a single homeowner be entitled to enjoin the playing of golf along the fairway which may be a part of the “back yard”? I think not.
“An aggrieved owner may not abate a legalized use of another’s property. But it does not necessarily follow that the former is not entitled to recover compensation for any damage which he may be able to establish as resulting from that use.” Fairfax Oil Co. v. Bolinger (Oklahoma) 97 P.2d 574.
I would reverse the trial court injunction.
*306MR. CHIEF JUSTICE PRINGLE and MR. JUSTICE KELLEY authorize me to state that they join in this dissent.