75 Acres, LLC v. Miami-Dade County

338 F.3d 1288, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14873, 2003 WL 21715867
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 25, 2003
Docket02-15217
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 338 F.3d 1288 (75 Acres, LLC v. Miami-Dade County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
75 Acres, LLC v. Miami-Dade County, 338 F.3d 1288, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14873, 2003 WL 21715867 (11th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

COX, Circuit Judge:

■ 75 Acres, LLC, appeals the district court’s final judgment dismissing its action against Miami-Dade County. 75 Acres brought this action against Miami-Dade County (“the County”) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, contending that § 33-319(k) of the Miami-Dade County Code is facially unconstitutional because it requires the County Manager to impose a building moratorium on certain parcels of real property without affording the procedural due process protections guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States *1290 Constitution and by Article I, Section 9 of ■the Florida Constitution. Because we agree with the district court that the imposition of an administrative building moratorium pursuant to § 33 — 319(k) is a legislative act that does not implicate procedural due process protections, we affirm the district court’s final judgment granting the County’s motion to dismiss.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1999, Cosmos, Inc. applied to Miami-Dade County to rezone an 80-acre tract of real property. 1 The County’s Community Zoning Appeals Board 11 (“the Zoning Appeals Board”) conducted a public hearing to consider Cosmos’s request, and the Zoning Appeals Board approved the rezoning in October 1999. In March 2000, about five months after the rezoning was approved, 75 Acres purchased the property from Cosmos. Approximately one month later, 75 Acres agreed to sell a 26-acre tract of the property to Bean Family Investments, Ltd. (“Bean”), which planned to construct and operate an automobile dealership on the property. The sale agreement between 75 Acres and Bean was contingent upon 75 Acres’ success in obtaining approval to rezone the property to a classification acceptable to Bean, which in turn was contingent upon the rezoning approval first obtained by Cosmos in October 1999.

Before 75 Acres could obtain the rezoning that Bean desired, the County Manager imposed an administrative building moratorium on the property. A criminal information had been filed by the State Attorney charging Manuel Vera, a member of the Zoning Appeals Board, with accepting unlawful compensation as consideration for votes he cast to re-zone the property in October 1999 when the property was owned by Cosmos. Pursuant to § 38-319(k)(l) of the Miami-Dade County Code, 2 the County Manager was required to issue an administrative order prohibiting the issuance of budding permits on 75 Acres’ property as soon as the County Manager learned that an information had been returned charging Vera with accepting unlawful compensation in a zoning case related to that property.

On December 28, 2000, the County sent a memorandum to 75 Acres that informed 75 Acres of the charges against Vera and the imposition of the building moratorium. Prior to receiving that memorandum, 75 Acres had not been informed of the charges filed against Vera nor had 75 Acres been given an opportunity to challenge the imposition of the moratorium. Once the building moratorium was imposed, 75 Acres had two options: it could await the conclusion of Vera’s criminal proceeding, 3 or it could seek a reconsideration *1291 hearing under § 33-S19(k)(2) to obtain relief from the moratorium. 4 If 75 Acres asked for a reconsideration hearing, a hearing would be granted only if (1) a member of the Zoning Appeals Board made a motion to reconsider the zoning and (2) the motion was approved. If the Zoning Appeals Board approved the motion for reconsideration, a hearing would be conducted as provided by § 33-319(k)(3) 5 and, at its conclusion, the Zoning Appeals Board would either reaffirm the existing zoning classification or rezone the property, and the moratorium would automatically dissolve. 6

Because of the building moratorium, 75 Acres was unable to proceed with its anticipated development of the property and could not close the sale to Bean. 75 Acres already had expended over $4.65 million to develop the property. Bean, to whom 75 Acres was contractually obligated to sell the property after the requisite zoning changes were obtained, had expended or allocated in excess of $900,000 to develop the property. Furthermore, 75 Acres’ predecessor-in-interest, Cosmos, had expended $406,000 to make improvements on the property.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On April 4, 2002, 75 Acres filed suit against the County, asserting a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In Count One, 75 Acres alleges that § 33 — 319(k) of the Miami-Dade County Code is facially unconstitutional on Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process grounds. Specifically, *1292 75 Acres alleges that § 33-319(k) denies procedural due process in five ways: (1) it imposes a moratorium of indefinite duration that deprives owners of all meaningful use of their property without providing pre-deprivation notice and a pre-deprivation hearing; (2) it deprives owners of a property interest based solely on the alleged culpability of a member of the Zoning Appeals Board; (3) the purported post-deprivation remedy, a reconsideration hearing, does not permit property owners to challenge the initial validity of the moratorium; (4) the Zoning Appeals Board has unfettered discretion to deny a property owner’s request for a reconsideration hearing; and (5) the Zoning Appeals Board has unlimited authority to rezone the property at the reconsideration hearing, thus forcing property owners to choose between awaiting the conclusion of the criminal proceedings and seeking a reconsideration hearing at which the Zoning Appeals Board might rezone the property to a less desirable classification. In Count Two, 75 Acres reiterates the same procedural due process challenges and argues that § 33-319(k) violates Article 1, Section 9 of the Florida Constitution. Based on these allegations, 75 Acres seeks an injunction that would declare § 33 — 319(k) unconstitutional and would enjoin the County from invoking or enforcing that section.

The County filed a motion to dismiss which it asked the district court to consider, in the alternative, as a motion for summary judgment. In its motion, the County contended that the imposition of a building moratorium under § 33 — 319(k) is a legislative action, and as a consequence, procedural due process requirements do not apply (or, more accurately, the legislative process provides all the process that is constitutionally due). The County also argued that even if the moratorium provision were subject to procedural due process requirements, the reconsideration procedure established in § 33 — 319(k)(2) provides a constitutionally-adequate post-deprivation remedy.

75 Acres conceded that a legislative action does not implicate procedural due process, but argued in response that the imposition of a building moratorium under § 33 — 319(k) is not properly characterized as a legislative act.

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Bluebook (online)
338 F.3d 1288, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14873, 2003 WL 21715867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/75-acres-llc-v-miami-dade-county-ca11-2003.