Court Opinion

ID: 9850668
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:01:13.094702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:41.277207
License: Public Domain

*240Robert W. Hansen, J.
(dissenting). Three challenges are made to the validity of the action taken by the voters of the city of Monroe by referendum directing the city council to “desist from any further action” in regard to a redevelopment project then in its planning stage.
The trial judge held the referendum to be advisory only, holding that, if mandatory, it would constitute an invasion of the responsibility of the city council to make expenditures and levy taxes. The court majority rejects this approach, and I agree. Actually, it is clear that, upon termination of the project in its planning stage, the city would have only to return to the federal government the unused portion of the federal “planning advance.”
The city attorney for Monroe argues that the statutory provision for the liquidation of projects should be interpreted as applying to public housing projects only, not to redevelopment projects. The court majority rejects this argument, and I agree. As the majority opinion points out, “. . . the statute plainly and on its face refers to, and authorizes, the liquidation of urban blight projects,” as authorized by sec. 66.43, Stats.
Intervening defendants, certain property owners in Monroe, contend that the legislature was concerned only with providing for the liquidation and disposal of “. . . a completed project, being operated by the city” and that sec. 66.43 (17), Stats., does not permit the electorate to prohibit the council from planning, undertaking or proceeding with a redevelopment project. The court majority accepts this contention and interpretation of the statute. I disagree with both the reasoning and result.
In the first place, this interpretation is based upon an incorrect understanding of what a redevelopment project under sec. 66.43, Stats., really is. It confuses such redevelopment project with a public housing project under sec. 66.40. The end result of a housing project is a *241building or set of buildings that are to be “operated.” Usually, the end result of a redevelopment project is the sale of acquired property and cleared areas to private developers. The public housing project always is created to be “operated.” The redevelopment project usually is created to be liquidated.
When the plan has been prepared, the land has been acquired, the area has been cleared, existing buildings and structures have been demolished or removed, and where the leveled land has been sold or leased for industrial or commercial use, the redevelopment project has liquidated itself. There is less left to be “held” or “held and operated” than there was when the project was in its planning stage. Are those who oppose the clearance of an area for subsequent development to wait to object until the present character of the area has been destroyed and the project completed by sale of the leveled land to developers? Must they wait until their battle has been lost to begin it? It is difficult to believe that the legislature intended that they may act to liquidate the project only after the project has liquidated itself.1
Giving the statute involved so sharply limited an interpretation creates a new kind of flypaper. This interpretation holds fast only the local community during the planning phase of a redevelopment project. The statute authorizing liquidation of such projects provides that “. . . the city council or village board by resolution or ordinance, or the electors by referendum under s. 9.20, may provide that the authority shall liquidate and dis*242pose of a particular project or projects . . .” (sec. 66.40 (25) (a), Stats.). So, at least as far as this statutory authorization for discontinuance or liquidation of a project is concerned, the local community, once involved, cannot liquidate or discontinue the project until it has been completed. This is sticky flypaper indeed. At the same time, the federal government can discontinue its participation and effectively liquidate the project, at least during the planning stage, by simply not approving the plan submitted and not making available federal funds. It is impossible to believe that the legislature intended such result.
This strained interpretation of the legislative intent is not required by sec. 66.43, Stats., the “Blighted Area Law,” which is here involved. In fact, it goes contrary to the meaning and intent of sec. 66.43 (17), providing: “Liquidation And Disposal. Projects held under this section may be liquidated and disposed of under s. 66.40 (25).” The key question is whether a redevelopment project in its planning stage is a “project” within the meaning of this section. We need not turn to Funk and Wagnalls for the answer. The legislature has clearly stated exactly what the word “project” in the redevelopment project statute is to mean. Here is that statutory definition:
Sec. 66.43 (3) (j) 2. “ ‘Redevelopment project’ means any work or undertaking to acquire blighted areas or portions thereof, and lands, structures, or improvements, the acquisition of which is necessary or incidental to the proper clearance or redevelopment of such areas or to the prevention of the spread or recurrence of slum conditions or conditions of blight in such areas; to clear any such areas by demolition or removal of existing buildings, structures, streets, utilities, or other improvements thereon and to install, construct, or reconstruct streets, utilities, and site improvements essential to the preparation of sites for uses in accordance with a redevelopment *243plan; or to sell, lease or otherwise make available land in such areas for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial or other use or for public use, or to retain such land for public use, in accordance with a redevelopment plan. The term ‘redevelopment project’ may also include the preparation of a redevelopment plan, the planning, surveying, and other work incident to a redevelopment project, and the preparation of all plans and arrangements for carrying out a redevelopment project. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)
This is the legislature’s definition of the meaning of the word “project,” as referred to in sec. 66.43, Stats. Does it separate a redevelopment project into a planning stage, an acquisition stage, a demolition stage, a sale or lease stage, a stage of completion? Does it imply that a redevelopment project becomes a project, subject to the liquidation and disposal section, only after it has been completed? I think not. From its beginning with the preparation of the redevelopment plan to its termination by sale of acquired land, the project is just that, a “project” within the meaning of the statute. Where the legislature is saying that the preparation of a redevelopment plan may be included in the term “project,” the majority opinion is holding that it may not be. Where the legislature is linking all steps from “the planning” to the final sale of the land acquired and cleared, the majority opinion excludes all except the final “completed” stage from the definition of the term “project.” What the legislature joined together, the court rends asunder. This does violence to the clear meaning of the statute and clear intent of the legislature.
The more reasonable interpretation of what the legislature intended and what the legislation does is that it grants to city councils and village boards by resolution, or electors by referendum, the authority to terminate, dispose of and liquidate a redevelopment plan or project with which they are dissatisfied at any stage of the *244project’s development, including1 the planning stage. Such interpretation would require that the judgment of the circuit court in this case be reversed and judgment entered for the plaintiffs in accordance with their complaint.

 If this redevelopment project statute (sec. 66.43) instead of the condemnation laws (ch. 32, Stats.) were to be used to acquire property to be retained “for public use,” as for park, schoolhouse or new city hall, as the majority opinion suggests it could be, it remains a more reasonable interpretation to permit liquidation of such project in the planning stage rather than only after such park, schoolhouse or new city hall has been completed.