Court Opinion

ID: 9663213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:31:55.786221+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:46.818375
License: Public Domain

FOSHEIM, Justice.
Deanna and Norgrin Sanderson, appel-lees, own a house in Mobridge, South Dakota, which they wish to move to their current place of residence, Aberdeen, South Dakota. Mobridge City Ordinance ch. 9.04 requires that the Sandersons obtain a permit from the City of Mobridge (City), appellant, before their house can be moved over the streets of Mobridge. The Sandersons applied to the City for a moving permit but it was denied. The Sandersons brought an action in circuit court to compel the City to issue the moving permit. A trial to the court was held, subsequent to which the circuit court granted the Sandersons a moving permit. The City appeals from the Judgment of the circuit court. We reverse.
*829The City’s denial of appellees’ permit application was not an ultra vires act as “moving buildings across or along a city street is not an ordinary use of the street, and the privilege of so using the streets cannot be claimed as a matter of right .... [S]uch use of the streets not being a matter of right, the governing body has some discretion in regard to when a permit shall be issued.” Evans v. King, 57 S.D. 109, 230 N.W. 848, 849 (1930). The circuit court’s scope of review is thus limited to whether the City’s refusal to grant the permit “was unreasonable and arbitrary or was justified in the exercise of reasonable discretion.” Id. Such a standard is mandated by the separation of powers doctrine which this court has long recognized governs judicial review of municipal actions. City of Mobridge v. Brown, 39 S.D. 270, 164 N.W. 94 (1917); See Foss v. Spitznagel, 77 S.D. 633, 97 N.W.2d 856 (1959); Ericksen v. City of Sioux Falls, 70 S.D. 40, 14 N.W.2d 89 (1944).
The trial court’s findings list the seven grounds relied on by the City to support their decision not to grant the permit. The City’s reasons for denial focus on the destruction of the aesthetic value of the area occasioned by the removal or disfigurement of trees along the moving route. We believe such refusal grounds are reasonable and reflect a real and commendable concern for the aesthetic preservation of Mobridge. The trial court obviously did not agree with the City concerning the number of trees which would have to be removed and the extent of harm the trimming would cause. But such disagreement does not suffice to condemn the City’s decision as arbitrary.
The trial court’s conclusion that the City abused its discretion and arbitrarily refused to grant the permit is therefore not supported by its findings which list the reasons relied on by the City to deny the permit. The decision of the trial court is accordingly reversed.
Other issues raised are unnecessary to decide in view of the decision reached.
WOLLMAN, C. J., and MORGAN, J., concur.
DUNN and HENDERSON, JJ., dissent.