Court Opinion

ID: 9558456
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:10:00.30479+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:18.882460
License: Public Domain

*522BAKES, Justice,
dissenting:
I cannot agree with the majority that the zoning ordinance in this case was adopted pursuant to the statutory requirement that it “be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan.” For that reason, I would hold that the zoning ordinance in question was invalid and that the county may not restrict the use of the appellant’s land under that zoning ordinance. However, because legislation enacted after this suit was initiated (The Local Planning Act of 1975, I.C. §§ 67-6501 et seq.) may well have compelled the county to adopt a comprehensive plan which may validate Blaine County’s zoning ordinance, I would remand to the district court to determine whether a comprehensive plan has been adopted pursuant to I.C. 67-6510 since this dispute arose and whether a zoning ordinance enacted in accordance with that plan would establish legal grounds for denying the appellant his petition for rezoning.
I
At the time these proceedings were initiated, the zoning authority of the county was governed by I.C. § 50-1203.1 This section provided:
“50-1203. Regulations — Purposes in view. — [Zoning] regulations shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan, and shall be designed to lessen congestion in the streets, to safeguard from fire, panic and other damages, to promote public health, safety, morals and the general welfare, to provide adequate light and air, to prevent the overcrowding of land, to avoid undue concentration of population, to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks and other public requirements. Such regulations shall be made with reasonable consideration, among other things, as to the character of the district and its peculiar suitability for particular uses, and with a view to conserving the value of buildings and encouraging the most appropriate use of land throughout such city.”
This statute clearly requires that zoning regulations be enacted in accordance with a comprehensive plan and that they be designed to further the purposes listed in the statute. The record before this Court does not demonstrate that Blaine County’s general zoning ordinance was enacted in accordance with a comprehensive plan or show how it furthers the purposes listed in I.C. § 50-1203. Accordingly, I conclude that the zoning ordinance was invalid.
The majority opinion states, however, that the comprehensive plan required by statute “ ‘need not have a separate physical existence apart from the zoning ordinances, and it need not be in writing, but its design may be found in the scheme apparent in the zoning regulations themselves.’ ” Ante at 1261. However, even if that were the law, the zoning ordinance before us is not a comprehensive plan and no comprehensive plan is apparent from its zoning scheme. This ordinance merely defines the various zones and puts land into those zones; it gives no indication whether these zoning classifications are intended to be permanent or are designed to gradually expand or contract according to some plan, either in the short term or long term future; whether it is the intent of the zoning body to require the most rapid amortization constitutionally possible of non-conforming uses in certain zones or to routinely grant variances in those zones, see Gordon Paving Co. v. Blaine County Board of County Commissioners, 98 Idaho 730, 572 P.2d 164 (1977), and compare majority, concurring and dissenting opinions; see also Saviers v. Richey, 96 Idaho 413, 529 P.2d 1285 (1974); whether *523it is the intent of the zoning authority to encourage commercial or residential development in certain areas in one zone rather than others in the same zone in order to facilitate adequate transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks and the like, even though several areas may be zoned for eventual residential or commercial development, see Golden v. Planning Board of Town of Ramapo, 30 N.Y.2d 359, 334 N.Y.S.2d 138, 285 N.E.2d 291 (1972); or whether it is the intent of the plan to attempt to control the rate of further development, Golden v. Planning Board of Town of Ramapo, supra; nor does it give any other guidance to property owners or potential property owners wanting to make either short range or long range plans for the use of property in a given zone. This zoning ordinance is merely a statement of the present zoning map, but I believe an ordinance must contain a statement of future land use goals in order to qualify as a plan. See Baker v. City of Milwaukie, 271 Or. 500, 533 P.2d 772 (1975). Also, see the description of the zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan found in the case of Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County v. City of Petaluma, 522 F.2d 897 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied 424 U.S. 934, 96 S.Ct. 1148, 47 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976), for an example of an ordinance and plan which set forth a specific set of goals of the kind I believe are required by I.C. § 50-1203. For a clearer understanding of what the legislature had in mind in requiring a comprehensive plan, see the Local Planning Act of 1975, I.C. § 67-6508-10.
To say that the bare bones statement in Blaine County’s zoning ordinance of what uses are presently permitted in each zone constitutes a comprehensive plan is to reduce the statutory planning requirement to a nullity. I emphatically reject the majority’s position that a comprehensive plan may be found in this zoning ordinance itself; indeed, the majority has tacitly conceded this because nowhere in its opinion has it described the planning goals apparent in the zoning regulation itself.
I concede that the majority has found several decisions which have construed similar zoning statutes not to require that zoning be done in accordance with a separately stated comprehensive plan. However, simply because those courts have read the comprehensive plan requirement out of their zoning statutes, that does not mean that we should also reject the clear mandate of the legislature, which has been made even more clear by the enactment of the Local Planning Act of 1975, I.C. §§ 67-6501 et seq., especially §§ 67-6508, -10. The record shows that the zoning ordinance in question was not enacted in accordance with a comprehensive plan,2 and therefore the zoning ordinance is invalid.
*524II
Next, I think some general comments on Part II of the majority opinion are in order. If, as the majority states in Part I, the zoning ordinance is valid as being in accordance with a comprehensive plan, its analysis concerning the evidence introduced about the highest and best use for Dawson’s land, non-conforming commercial uses in the zone predating enactment of the ordinance, the price Dawson paid for the land and whether Dawson had knowledge of the zoning ordinance at the time it acquired the land, and other evidence concerning the peculiar characteristics of this property is unnecessary to establish the reasonableness of the zoning ordinance. That is because the reasonableness of an overall zoning scheme is not to be judged on its application to a particular piece of property in isolation from the overall zoning scheme; instead, reasonableness of the particular zoning scheme is to be judged on whether it serves the purposes set forth by I.C. § 50-1203. If the overall scheme is reasonable, then the owners of property must inevitably accept the zoning commission’s exercise of its discretion placing the property in one zoning category or the other. For the majority to pursue its lengthy analysis concerning this individual piece of property is to encourage litigants to think this Court will continue to act as a super zoning board as it did by spot-zoning the property involved in Cole-Collister Fire Protection Dist. v. City of Boise, 93 Idaho 558, 468 P.2d 290 (1970). The jurisprudence of this state is poorly served by keeping that expectation alive.
I also take exception to the standard of administrative review articulated by the majority, ante at 1263. The majority states that the burden of proving invalidity of an ordinance rests upon the party attacking the ordinance and that, “the burden is all the heavier when . . . the validity of the ordinance in question has been upheld by three strata of local government appeals as well as by the affirmance of the district court. Cooper v. Board of Ada County Commissioners, 96 Idaho 656, 534 P.2d 1096 (1975).” I emphatically disagree with this standard of administrative review. First, Cooper says no such thing with respect to increasing the burden of proof on the party attacking the ordinance whenever local governments have upheld the ordinance. Secondly, to say that because the strata of local government which has itself promulgated the ordinance later upholds the ordinance is indicative of the validity of the ordinance is to create what I think to be a wholly unwarranted rule of administrative law which, if followed in other areas, could have far reaching effects in review of administrative decisions. This Court should hardly be surprised that the strata of local government which promulgate and administer the ordinance should decline to rezone a parcel contrary to the ordinance, and should attach no significance to that fact when assigning burdens of persuasion. I daresay this Court would not conclude that a litigant attacking the validity of regulations promulgated by the Department of Employment or the State Tax Commission would face an additional burden of proof simply because the Department of Employment or State Tax Commission upheld its own regulation, see Ware v. Idaho State Tax Commission, 98 Idaho 477, 567 P.2d 423 (1977), so I can see no reason why a contrary rule should be invoked for the review of an administrative zoning decision.
Ill
Finally, although I dissent from the opinion of the majority, it cannot be said on this record that Dawson is entitled to the relief it seeks. The Local Planning Act of 1975, *525I.C. §§ 67-6501 et seq., has been enacted since this litigation began. That act requires local units of government engaged in zoning to develop comprehensive plans for zoning. I.C. §§ 67-6508-10. If a comprehensive plan has been developed under that act and if this zoning ordinance, or later zoning ordinances, put Dawson’s property in a non-commercial zone in conformity with that plan, then Dawson’s application for a change in zoning would be controlled by that ordinance, even if the board improperly denied his petition when it was initially before it. Accordingly, even though I have concluded that the ordinance in question is invalid, I would remand to the district court for further findings upon the present zoning ordinance and the present comprehensive plan, if any, to determine whether the present zoning ordinances are in conformity with a comprehensive plan as required by § 67-6510, and whether commercial development on Dawson’s property is precluded by any such ordinance and plan.

.In addition to the zoning ordinance in question, which defines the zones by the uses to be allowed in each zone and which places land in one zone or another, the record also contains a document entitled, “Blaine County Planning and Zoning Objectives, February 1971.” Among the objectives set forth are the following:

"AGRICULTURAL-RECREATIONAL ZONES:

Purpose:

1. To protect and preserve prime agricultural and recreational lands from random and haphazard development.
2. To restrict development of lands of 25% slope or greater due to problems of access, erosion, etc.

"LOW DENSITY RESIDENTIAL ZONES:

Purpose:

1. To delineate those areas suitable for residential development due to access, soil characteristics, slope and drainage, orientation and other geographic features.
2. To promote low density development outside existing urban areas so as to maintain the open and rural character of the County and Wood River Valley.
3. To prevent pollution of water tables, streams, rivers and lakes in areas not serviced by public water and sewer facilities.
4. To establish use definitions and dimensional standards to insure the safety and value of individual and adjoining properties.

"COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONES:

Purpose:

1. To establish land use zones restricting commercial and industrial development to areas which are geographically suitable and compatible with adjacent land uses.
2. To promote the concentration of C-l development to areas in and adjacent to existing urban areas.
*5243. To establish a rural center zone allowing for a variety of farm-oriented, ‘cross-road’ type commercial services in suitable outlying rural areas.
4. To establish recreational service areas to be zoned agricultural, allowing for a variety of conditional uses as relate to the specific recreational activity.” Ex. 4.
These goals give no indication how the zoning board intends to zone land in the future; where, when or if it will allow more development, whether the board intends to restrict land use because of existing or anticipated difficulties in providing government services, or the like. Thus, this statement of zoning objectives is certainly not a comprehensive pla-