City of Argyle v. Pierce

258 S.W.3d 674, 2008 WL 2078620
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 17, 2008
Docket2-07-255-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 258 S.W.3d 674 (City of Argyle v. Pierce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Argyle v. Pierce, 258 S.W.3d 674, 2008 WL 2078620 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

BOB McCOY, Justice.

I. Introduction

This is the case of “Where’s the sign?” In four issues, Appellant City of Argyle (“the City”) appeals the denial of its plea to the jurisdiction and asserts that (1) David Pierce (“Pierce”) and Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. (“Clear Channel”) (collectively, “the Signers”) have no standing to bring constitutional property claims because they have no vested property rights; (2) if Pierce and Clear Channel had standing, their inverse condemnation claim is invalid and would not defeat sovereign immunity; (3) a civil court lacks jurisdiction over claims in equity that challenge a penal ordinance; and (4) the City cannot be estopped from enforcing its sign ordinance. Because we hold that the City has successfully challenged the trial court’s jurisdiction over some, but not all, of the Signers’ claims, we reverse and render in part and affirm in part.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

Pierce and Clear Channel erected an off-premises outdoor advertising sign and sued the City when the City attempted to enforce its sign ordinance preventing such signs from being erected in the City’s extra-territorial jurisdiction (“ETJ”) against Pierce and Clear Channel.

A. Ordinance Prohibits Signs in the ETJ

On August 24, 1993, the City adopted a “Sign Regulations” ordinance (“the Ordinance”), known as “Article 12.400.” The Ordinance, as amended in 1997, regulated and applied to signs within the City’s limits and within its ETJ. The Ordinance contained detailed descriptions of the City’s sign regulations, including a requirement to obtain a permit from the City and a list of prohibited signs. The Ordinance expressly prohibited “[sjigns advertising off-premise businesses, products or services” like the one that is the genesis of this suit and included a $500 penalty clause.

In 2003, the City adopted a very similar ordinance that raised the fine to a maximum of $2,000 and continued to prohibit off-premises signs within the City and its ETJ. As reflected in the city council meeting minutes for June 10, 1997, the City approved an ETJ Apportionment Agreement between the City and two nearby municipalities, the City of Northlake and Corral City, and that agreement has been on public file in the Denton County property records since July 21,1997. The ETJ agreement describes a dotted line that forms the southern and eastern boundaries of the City’s ETJ.

B. McCutchin Property

On January 26, 1999, the City annexed approximately 144 acres of land owned by the Ronald McCutchin Family Partnership, LTD., and Gene Paul McCutchin into its ETJ (“McCutchin Property”). The McCutchin Property mostly surrounded the property at issue in this ease. The City annexed the McCutchin Property by adopting Ordinance 99-01.

The City requested that David Gattis, the City’s cartographer, draw a map concerning the City’s boundaries and ETJ. The map in part designated the City’s ETJ by labeling such property “Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.” The map did not, however, designate the sign property as “Extraterri *678 torial Jurisdiction.” Labeled “Abstracts,” the Gattis map was displayed in the City offices.

C. Pierce

In 2000, prior to executing a Lease with Clear Channel, Pierce sought to have his property rezoned. According to Pierce, the City Secretary, Debbie Milligan, responded that whether he could accomplish rezoning was not an issue for the City but for Denton County because the sign property was not located within the City’s ETJ and that he could therefore do whatever he wanted to do with the property. To support this statement, Milligan referred Pierce to the Gattis map that designated the sign property as not within the City’s ETJ. Before the sign was constructed, Pierce did not tell Clear Channel about his conversation with Milligan, his interpretation of the Gattis map, or other information regarding whether the sign location was within the City’s ETJ. No one from Clear Channel ever asked Pierce whether the sign location on the Pierce property was in the City’s ETJ.

D. Clear Channel, TxDOT, and the City

Prior to entering into the lease with Pierce, and prior to applying for a permit, Clear Channel looked into whether the sign property was located within the City’s ETJ. Clear Channel began working with Texas Department of Transportation (“TxDOT”) in March 2002 to determine the location of the property and whether an outdoor advertising sign could be erected on the property. Clear Channel was seeking to obtain a rural-road sign permit. The property was located on a rural road, and Texas law required Clear Channel to obtain a permit from TxDOT to operate its sign unless the property was located in the ETJ of a municipality.

According to Judy Jamison, Clear Channel’s Assistant Real Estate Manager, 1 whenever Clear Channel applied to TxDOT for a sign permit, it included maps of the location of the sign so that TxDOT knew where to go to inspect the sign location. One map that Clear Channel submitted to TxDOT showed the sign in question as a “Centermount monopole,” with the center pole of the sign twenty-seven feet south of the southern edge of F.M. 407 and about .8 miles east of Interstate Highway 35.

Jamison went to the City’s offices in late 2001 or early 2002 to find out if the sign property was in the City’s ETJ. The City referred Jamison to the Gattis map, hanging on the wall of the City’s permit clerk’s office, which did not show the property to be in the City’s ETJ. The Gattis map indicated that the sign property was separate from the City, located in an “island” surrounded by the City. According to Ja-mison, the city secretary, Codi Delcambre, told her that the property had possibly been disannexed by the City some time ago because the City and the former owner of the property “had a falling out.” The sign location was south of and adjacent to F.M. 407 (a two-lane rural road) in Denton County and was adjacent to the City’s corporate boundary running along the north edge of that road. In other words, the sign was across the street from the City’s incorporated limits, and it was less than fifty feet from the City’s corporate boundary. Jamison’s visit to the City provided the information that Clear Channel *679 relied on to conclude that the sign location was not in the City’s ETJ.

Jamison also went to City Hall on September 28, 2003, after the City discovered that the sign had been built and had promptly “red tagged” the sign before construction could be finalized. During the second visit to the City, Jamison was accompanied by another Clear Channel employee, Teresa Moore. Jamison and Moore spoke with Bill Palmer, the City’s Code Enforcement Officer, who asserted that the sign was in the City’s ETJ. That same day, Jamison and Moore spoke with Delcambre, who also asserted that the property was in the City’s ETJ. Clear Channel investigated the Denton County Appraisal Records with regard to the property; the records indicated that the property was not taxed by the City.

Before Clear Channel built the sign, it was aware that off-premises signs were prohibited within the City’s ETJ.

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Bluebook (online)
258 S.W.3d 674, 2008 WL 2078620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-argyle-v-pierce-texapp-2008.