City of Austin v. Hyde Park Baptist Church

152 S.W.3d 162, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 10255, 2004 WL 2606750
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 2004
Docket03-03-00561-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 152 S.W.3d 162 (City of Austin v. Hyde Park Baptist Church) 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 Austin v. Hyde Park Baptist Church, 152 S.W.3d 162, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 10255, 2004 WL 2606750 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

DAVID PURYEAR, Justice.

Appellee Hyde Park Baptist Church sued appellant the City of Austin over the City’s decision to suspend a site-development permit that would have allowed the Church to construct a parking garage on Church property. The permit was suspended by the Austin City Council after the Church’s neighbors complained that the parking garage would not comply with an area-specific ordinance enacted in 1990 to govern development of the Church’s property. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Church, finding that the City Council had no authority to hear the appeal and that the permit complied with the applicable ordinance, and the City appealed. We affirm the district court’s judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

The Church owns several tracts of property in the area of central Austin known as Hyde Park. The property is zoned SF-3. 1 *163 Generally, construction on property zoned SF-3 is subject to a 45% impervious-cover limitation under the City’s Land Development Code (LDC). 2 The LDC’s limitations are, however, subject to modification. 3

The tract in question is bounded north and south by 40th and 39th Streets, east and west by Speedway and Avenue D. The Church’s efforts to expand its facilities have been a source of contention with its neighbors for many years. In 1990, in an effort to resolve the long-standing disagreement, the City arranged meetings between members of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association (the “Association”) and the Church. Among the many issues discussed was the Church’s need for more parking. The parties came to a mediated resolution, which in 1990 was incorporated by the City into an ordinance known as the “Hyde Park Conservation and Combining District No. 1” (the “Hyde Park NCCD”). Austin, Tex., Code of Ordinances No. 900830-Q (1990). The Hyde Park NCCD modified the site-development standards applicable to the Church’s property and authorized, among other things, a multi-storied parking facility “on all or a portion of the western half of [Tjract 2” within the applicable setback lines. 4

In 2000, the Church filed an application with the Director of the Planning and Development Department (the “Director”) for a site-development permit to construct the parking garage on the western half of Tract 2. After the Director approved the permit, the Association and other “interested parties” filed “Site Plan Appeal[s],” alleging that the site plan, specifically the size of the proposed parking garage, did not comply with the Hyde Park NCCD and the City’s LDC. The Church argued that under the Hyde Park NCCD it had the right to build the parking garage on the entire western half of Tract 2 subject only to the setback and height restrictions. Opponents argued that the property was still subject to the LDC and its impervious-cover limitations. The City Council heard the appeals and then suspended the Church’s permit.

*164 The Church sued the City, challenging the City Council’s authority to hear the appeals and claiming that the permit issued by the Director complied with the Hyde Park NCCD. Both parties moved for summary judgment, advancing different readings of the NCCD: the City argued that the City Council had the authority to entertain the appeals and that the permit suspension was justified; 5 the Church argued that there was no statutory authority for the Council to hear the appeals and that the suspension was unjustified. The district court granted the Church’s motion for summary judgment on four grounds: (1) the City Council lacked authority to entertain the neighbors’ appeals of the Church’s site-development permit; (2) the Church’s site-development plan met the applicable administrative standards; (3) the language of the Hyde Park NCCD allowed the church to construct a parking garage on “all or a portion of’ the tract following the “height limits and setback requirements specified in the NCCD”; and (4) the “language in the NCCD setting out the development standards for the parking garage” was unambiguous. 6

The City raises six issues on appeal: whether the Hyde Park NCCD permits the Church to construct a five-story parking garage (1) without regard to impervious-cover limits and (2) covering all of the western half of Tract 2; (3) whether the City’s interpretation of the Hyde Park NCCD is entitled to deference; (4) whether the City’s interpretation is unreasonable and lacks rational support in the text of the Hyde Park NCCD and its legislative history; (5) whether the City Council was authorized to hear the appeal; and (6) whether this Court should consider the substantive issue regardless of the determination of any procedural questions.

Discussion

For purposes of this appeal, we will consolidate the City’s first four issues into one substantive issue: whether Part 3(f) of the Hyde Park NCCD modified the LDC’s site-development standards for impervious cover. The dispute centers on the following sentence found in the Hyde Park NCCD: “A multi-story off-street parking facility can be constructed on all or a portion of the western half of Tract 2” within applicable setback lines. The issue is whether the phrase “all or a portion” modified the LDC’s underlying SF-3 impervious-cover limits, thus authorizing the Church to construct a garage on the entire western half of Tract 2 subject only to setback requirements. The disputed passage is found in Part 3(f) of the Hyde Park NCCD, which reads as follows:

The use of Tract 2 for a multi-story off-street parking facility, surface off-street parking, or single-family residential use is permitted, and all other uses are prohibited. A multi-story off-street parking facility may be constructed on all or a portion of the western half of Tract 2 (the “Proposed Garage”) and may equal but not exceed the height of the parking facility that currently is located on the eastern half of Tract 2 (the “Existing *165 Parking Facility”), with the following building setback lines:
(i) from West 40th Street, a distance equal to the building setback of the Existing Parking Facility from West 40th Street;
(ii) from West 39th Street, a distance equal to the building setback of the Existing Parking Facility from West 39th Street; and
(iii) from Avenue D, no setback from the public right-of-way is required unless the alley separating the Proposed Garage from the Existing Parking Facility is vacated. If that alley is vacated, the building setback line shall be 10 feet from the Avenue D property line.
Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, if the Proposed Garage abuts a lot used for a single-family residential use, there shall be a building setback line established 25 feet from the common property line with the abutting lot; and the height of the Proposed Garage shall not exceed 30 feet at any point closer than 50 feet from the common property line with the abutting lot.

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Bluebook (online)
152 S.W.3d 162, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 10255, 2004 WL 2606750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-austin-v-hyde-park-baptist-church-texapp-2004.