Blacklidge v. City of Gulfport

223 So. 2d 530
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 2, 1969
Docket45510
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 223 So. 2d 530 (Blacklidge v. City of Gulfport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blacklidge v. City of Gulfport, 223 So. 2d 530 (Mich. 1969).

Opinion

223 So.2d 530 (1969)

Ray BLACKLIDGE, Mrs. Ray Blacklidge, W.C. Dobbs and Mrs. W.C. Dobbs
v.
CITY OF GULFPORT, Mississippi.

No. 45510.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 2, 1969.

*531 Hurlbert & O'Barr, Biloxi, for appellant.

White & White, Gulfport, for appellee.

RODGERS, Justice:

This is an appeal from an order rezoning a certain area from a residential classification to a "residential-business" classification. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Blacklidge and certain other property owners appealed from the judgment of the Circuit Court of Harrison County, Mississippi, which affirmed an ordinance of the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the City of Gulfport, Mississippi, adopted August 9, 1968.

Ordinance No. 1121 is an amendment to a large-scale comprehensive zoning act or ordinance of the City of Gulfport, Ordinance No. 611. Ordinance No. 1121 created a new zoning classification called a "residential-business" classification. The order of the Mayor and Board of Commissioners also placed a two-block section, fronting East Beach Boulevard (Highway 90) in the City of Gulfport, within the new classification. The proceedings were instituted by some of the property owners within the area who sought to have the area rezoned from residential to "Commercial B", a zoning classification which permits almost all types of commercial activity. The Zoning Board recommended that the area, described in the petition for rezoning, be rezoned in a limited way so as to limit the commercial buildings to hotels, motels and apartment houses. After the report of the Zoning Board, the City Council instigated and enacted the amendment to the comprehensive zoning ordinance previously enacted, in which it *532 created the new "residential-business" zoning classification.

The appellants, objectors, complain on appeal to this Court that the Circuit Court erred in affirming the order of the Mayor and Board of Commissioners in adopting Ordinance No. 1121 by order of August 9, 1968, because it is said that the ordinance was arbitrary, unreasonable and capricious; that the ordinance constituted spot zoning; and that the ordinance is void because it contains two subject matters in violation of law (Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 3374-74 (1956)).

There is no contention that the amended ordinance was erroneous because of any procedural defects, except as to the contention that the ordinance contains two subjects. The original zoning ordinance for the City of Gulfport, Ordinance No. 611, was adopted in 1940. Since that time the original ordinance has been amended 174 times.

The testimony for proponents upon the ordinance as to the changes that have taken place in the City of Gulfport since the original ordinance of 1940 shows that the downtown business area of the City of Gulfport was a flourishing shopping center in 1940. The Markam Hotel was relatively new and provided adequate accommodations for visitors at that time. There was relatively little tourist trade. Only one hotel had adequate convention facilities. There were no modern motels. Gulfport had a population of 15,195, and Harrison County had a population of 50,799. There was very little automobile traffic along the Coast road, and there was very little industry in Gulfport in 1940. Since that time, however, the overall spectrum of the City of Gulfport and the Coast has undergone an explosive growth. In 1960 Gulfport had a population of 32,204, and the population of Harrison County had increased to 119,489. The road running along the Gulf Coast has now become one of the most traveled highway arteries of Mississippi. A 300-foot wide sand beach was constructed along the entire Coast in 1952. Gulfport's modern airport permits jet airplane service from all parts of the nation. In all of this expansion, however, Gulfport has not kept pace with the rapidly growing tourist trade along the Coast. There are very few accommodations for conventions in Gulfport, so that other cities along the Coast are drawing this trade away from Gulfport. The beach and waterfront along the Coast has become an outstanding attraction to tourists, but the beach along the Coast in Gulfport is largely owned by persons who live in homes of a past decade; and Gulfport has not enjoyed the attraction of public accommodations for tourists on the waterfront.

The first issue to consider is: Did the Mayor and Board of Commissioners act arbitrarily and unreasonably by enacting an ordinance amending the original zoning ordinance, Ordinance 611, so as to create a new classification, "residential-business", and placing the land area in question in this new classification?

The zoning or rezoning of areas in a municipality is controlled by the zoning laws of this state, beginning with Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 3590 (1956), and is a matter vested largely in the discretion of a municipality by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi. This Code section delegates zoning regulations to the municipal legislative bodies, "[f]or the purpose of promoting health, safety, morals, or the general welfare of the community." After the city has adopted a comprehensive zoning ordinance, an amendment to such an ordinance depends primarily upon a reevaluation of the change to the general welfare of the municipality as a whole. It is stated in W.L. Holcomb, Inc. v. City of Clarksdale, 217 Miss. 892, 65 So.2d 281 (1953), that a change in zoning involving a very few properties would only be made where new or additional facts materially affecting the merits intervene since the adoption of the original regulations, and whether to permit such change depends on whether it is reasonably related to the public *533 welfare. In the Holcomb case, supra, the property owner sought to have his property reclassified from "A" Residence District to "B" Commercial District. The property in question was part of the large residential section separated from the main business district by the Sunflower River. This Court disallowed the change in zoning. The Court pointed out that the question is whether rezoning of the property will be in the best interest and general welfare of the municipality as a whole, and not solely whether the property of the objector will be damaged or property of the proponents will be enhanced. See also Adams v. Reed, 239 Miss. 437, 123 So.2d 606 (1960).

In 58 Am.Jur. Zoning § 26 (1948), at 956-57, the textwriter points out:

"On the other hand, it is considered sufficient if the legislative body could reasonably have had considerations of public health, safety, morals, or general welfare in mind. The matter is largely within the discretion of legislative authority, which is presumed to have investigated and found conditions such that the legislation which it enacted was appropriate, so that if the facts do not clearly show that the bounds of that discretion have been exceeded, the courts must hold that the action of the legislative body is valid. In this respect, it has been declared that the municipal governing bodies are better qualified because of their knowledge of the situation to act upon these matters than are the courts, which will not substitute their judgment for that of the legislative body."

Substantially the same rule as cited above is found in our Mississippi cases. Adams v. Reed, 239 Miss. 437, 123 So.2d 606 (1960), stated that zoning is a legislative matter and the courts will not interfere or substitute their judgment, but will limit their reviews as to whether the zoning was reasonable, arbitrary, discretionary, confiscatory, or an abuse of discretion. See also Ballard v.

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223 So. 2d 530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blacklidge-v-city-of-gulfport-miss-1969.