Ben J. v. City of Salina

235 P.3d 1211, 290 Kan. 869, 2010 Kan. LEXIS 432
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 9, 2010
Docket101,335
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 235 P.3d 1211 (Ben J. v. City of Salina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ben J. v. City of Salina, 235 P.3d 1211, 290 Kan. 869, 2010 Kan. LEXIS 432 (kan 2010).

Opinion

*873 The opinion of the court was delivered by

Luckert, J.:

Our resolution of this appeal emphasizes the requirement that a party opposing summary judgment must come forward with evidence to establish a dispute as to a material fact and must support the dispute by precisely citing to transcripts, depositions, interrogatories, admissions, affidavits, exhibits, or other supporting documents in the record. In this case, Ben and Lavelle Frick (Fricks) failed to meet these requirements when responding to the City of Salina’s (City) motion for summary judgment. Consequently, we hold that the district court properly granted the City summary judgment on the Fricks’ claims that the City inversely condemned their property by denying them the ability to construct driveways or otherwise access their property, improperly refusing to grant them a building permit, and damaging their property.

Facts and Procedural rackground

This is the second time the Fricks have raised an appeal before this court. In the previous case, Frick v. City of Salina, 289 Kan. 1, 208 P.3d 739 (2009) (Frick I), the Fricks appealed the calculation of relocation benefits awarded under the Kansas Relocation Assistance for Persons Displaced by Acquisition of Real Property Act, K.S.A. 58-3501 et seq., after the City acquired, through the power of eminent domain, see K.S.A. 26-501 et seq., the Fricks’ real property at 1056 E. Pacific Avenue, on which the Fricks operated a large retail complex. The City acquired the property as part of a public improvement project, generally referred to as the North Ohio Street Improvement Project (the Project), which involved the reconstruction of North Ohio Street, the construction of a bridge over the Union Pacific railway lines, and the redesign and reconstruction of appurtenant side roads. In Frick I, we held that, under K.S.A. 58-3509(a), the district court applied an incorrect standard of review to the hearing examiner’s administrative findings. Consequently, we reversed and remanded to the district court for independent findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the question of relocation benefits based on the record of *874 proceedings before the hearing examiner. Frick I, 289 Kan. at 3, 23-24.

This case is an outgrowth of the same Project and is tied to the Project in two ways. First, the Project included improvements to Pacific Avenue, the street that abuts the subject property located at 830 E. Pacific Avenue. Second, the subject property is located adjacent to the Project and is the location to which the Fricks attempted to relocate some of their businesses that were dislocated by the Project. (For ease of reference we will refer to 830 E. Pacific Avenue as the “relocation site”).

According to the Fricks, their attempt to move their businesses to the relocation site was thwarted by the “inappropriate regulatory” actions of the City. They brought six counts alleging inverse condemnation claims based on the City’s: (1) denial of reasonable access to the relocation site during the Project; (2) construction activities that caused damages to the relocation site; (3) requirement that driveway entrances built by the Fricks be removed; (4) adoption of a moratorium ordinance restricting the installation of driveways, culverts, or other improvements within the right-of-way encompassed by the Project zone; (5) failure to issue a building permit to the Fricks; and (6) construction activities that altered drainage, caused water to be retained, and resulted in flooding of and damages to the relocation site.

The relocation site is comprised of approximately 10 acres located within the Fricks’ 21 acres of real property platted as the “Replat of Marysdale Addition.” (Only the relocation site, not the entire 21 acres, is the focus of the Fricks’ inverse condemnation claim.) As described by the Fricks, the relocation site consists of Lots 1, 2, and 3 in the northeastern comer of the replat of Mar-ysdale Addition, bordered on the north by Pacific Avenue. Although the relocation site is zoned “1-3 Industrial,” the past and current use of the property has been for agricultural purposes. The Fricks intended to obtain a building permit for Lot 3, the parcel on the east end of the relocation site.

Before the City’s Project, the Fricks’ property in the replat of Maiysdale Addition was served by one access point — a field entrance, i.e., dirt driveway — from Pacific Avenue at Lot 1, which is *875 located at the west end of the relocation site. As part of the Project, the Kansas Department of Transportation installed a concrete driveway apron from the realigned Pacific Avenue to the Fricks’ property in roughly the same location as the previous field entrance to Lot 1.

At the time construction was beginning for the Project in late April or early May 2005, the Fricks constructed two dirt-fill driveway approaches (with reinforced concrete pipe drainage culverts) to Lot 3 from Pacific Avenue without first requesting or receiving a permit. These dirt driveways were installed in the construction zone and within the City’s right-of-way.

On May 2, 2005, the City enacted Ordinance 05-6962 as part of the Salina City Code. The Ordinance imposed a moratorium prohibiting the construction or installation (or the granting of any permits for the construction or installation) of any driveway crossings, culverts, or other improvements within the public right-of-way located within the Project and on Pacific Avenue, west to Front Street. The Fricks’ relocation site was located within the area covered by the moratorium. The City cited the following reasons for imposing the moratorium:

“1. The granting of permits for such driveway crossing cannot be properly administered until traffic safety studies have been completed in order to identify safe locations for such driveway crossings.
“2. Construction activity in the public right-of-way within the confines of the project may result in anticipated cost to the public due to either delays or the need to remove such improvements in conflict with the public project construction.
“3. Construction activity in the public right-of-way within the confines of the project could result in avoidable economic loss to private parties in the event such improvements must be removed in order to complete the public project.”

The moratorium remained in effect until February 25, 2008, when the Project was completed. It was lifted by Resolution OS-6596 upon the advice of the city engineer that the construction of the Project and the reconfiguration of the affected public streets within the confines of the Project had been completed and in use for a sufficient period of time that the traffic volumes and traffic patterns appeared to be established.

*876

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
235 P.3d 1211, 290 Kan. 869, 2010 Kan. LEXIS 432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ben-j-v-city-of-salina-kan-2010.