Court Opinion

ID: 9705744
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:18:39.495224+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:36.087564
License: Public Domain

NETTESHEIM, J.
(concurring). I fully agree with the majority opinion. The circuit court's ruling in this case was made without the benefit of the supreme court's recent decision in State v. Kenosha County Board of Adjustment, 218 Wis. 2d 396, 577 N.W.2d 813 (1998). Were it not for that decision, I would readily affirm the circuit court's ruling.
However, Kenosha County Board of Adjustment clarified that the standard for the granting of a variance is the "no reasonable use" test, not the "unnecessarily burdensome" test. See id. at 410-14, 577 N.W.2d at 820-22.1 The court also clarified its holding in Snyder v. Waukesha County Zoning Board of Adjustment, 74 Wis. 2d 468, 247 N.W.2d 98 (1976):
[W]e did not mean that a variance could be granted when strict compliance would prevent the property owner from undertaking any of a number o/permitted purposes. Rather, when the record before the Board demonstrates that the property owner would have a reasonable use of his or her property without the variance, the purpose of the statute takes precedence and the variance request should be denied.
*110Kenosha County Bd. of Adjustment, 218 Wis. 2d at 414, 577 N.W.2d at 822.
In this case, the circuit court's decision accurately recites all of the legal principles enunciated in Kenosha County Board of Adjustment. However, it is the result — not the law — of Kenosha County Board of Adjustment which compels our reversal in this case. Here, the Board determined that Wronowski's property is unique (1) because it accommodates two bodies of water — the lake which it abuts and the creek which intersects it, and (2) because the parcel has an irregular shape. In order to comply with the existing zoning, the Board correctly determined that Wronowski must construct an oddly configured residence, presumably accompanied by increased cost both as to design and construction. As a result, the Board concluded that some "architectural flexibility" was required. Prior to Kenosha County Board of Adjustment, I would have viewed Wronowski's predicament as a "hardship."
Nonetheless, the supreme court's decision demonstrates that if any feasible use of the property is available, a hardship cannot exist. Although the supreme court acknowledged, in the same breath, that a board of adjustment's decision is presumptively correct, is committed to the board's discretion and is conclusive if any reasonable view of the evidence sustains the board's finding, see id. at 415-16, 577 N.W.2d at 822, these deferential phrases ring hollow in light of the court's ultimate holding. The real effect of the court's decision is to significantly curtail a board of adjustment's discretion in such matters. It will be a rare case in which a landowner will be able to meet the "no feasible use" test.

 This court had used the "unnecessarily burdensome" test in upholding the board of adjustment's grant of the variance in State v. Kenosha County Board of Adjustment, 212 Wis. 2d 310, 315-20, 569 N.W.2d 54, 57-59 (Ct. App. 1997), rev'd, 218 Wis. 2d 396, 577 N.W.2d 813 (1998).