City of Bethel Heights, Ark. v. City of Springdale

2017 Ark. App. 81, 514 S.W.3d 472, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 86
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 8, 2017
DocketCV-16-332
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 81 (City of Bethel Heights, Ark. v. City of Springdale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Bethel Heights, Ark. v. City of Springdale, 2017 Ark. App. 81, 514 S.W.3d 472, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 86 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

PHILLIP T. WHITEAKER, Judge

11 This is a companion case to City of Bethel Heights v. Kendrick Revocable Living Trust, 2017 Ark. App. 78, handed down today. Here, the City of Bethel Heights appeals the decision of the Benton County Circuit Court granting a motion to dismiss Bethel Heights’ declaratory-judgment action against the appellee, the City of Springdale. 1 The circuit court |?also granted Springdale’s motion for summary judgment with respect to Springdale’s decision to rezone a parcel of property. We affirm.

I. Background

The litigation surrounding the detachment and annexation of the subject property is the subject of the companion case. The facts pertinent to the instant appeal are that Shelly Kendrick and the Gregory A. Kendrick Living Trust (“Kendrick”) owned parcels of property totaling approximately eighty-seven or eighty-eight acres (“the property”). The property was originally located within the boundaries of Be-thel Heights. In 2015, Kendrick sought to detach the property from Bethel Heights and have it annexed to Springdale pursuant to Act 779 of 1999. Following the detachment of the Kendrick property from Bethel Heights, Springdale filed an ordinance to annex the property in March 2015. 2 Springdale subsequently filed an ordinance to rezone the property from agricultural use to industrial use. Bethel Heights challenged Springdale’s rezoning actions, filing a complaint that sought a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief.

II. Applicable Law

The underlying dispute between the parties involves the enactment and amendment of local zoning. Such actions are a legislative function. Sullins v. Cent. Ark. Water, 2015 Ark. 29, at 8, 454 S.W.3d 727, 732-38 (citing Bolen v. Washington Cnty. Zoning Bd. of Adjustments, 2011 Ark. App. 319, at 7, 384 S.W.3d 33, 38). One challenging a municipality’s legislative rezoning decision may appeal to the circuit court of the county in which the rezoning was authorized. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-56-425(b)(1) (Supp. 2015). The circuit court shall uphold the legislative rezoning decision unless the court determines that the decision was arbitrary or capricious or lacking a rational basis. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-56-425(b)(2); PH, LLC v. City of Conway, 2009 Ark. 504, at 12, 344 S.W.3d 660, 667. The supreme court established the guidelines for determining whether legislative zoning actions are arbitrary and capricious in City of Lowell v. M & N Mobile Home Park, Inc., 323 Ark. 332, 916 S.W.2d 95 (1996):

In reviewing cases involving legislative enactments, such as zoning ordinances, there is a presumption that the legislative branch acted in a reasonable manner, and the burden is on the moving party to prove that the enactment was arbitrary. City of Little Rock v. Breeding, 273 Ark. 437, 619 S.W.2d 664 (1981).
We recently defined “arbitrary” and “capricious” in City of Little Rock v. Pfeifer, 318 Ark. 679, 887 S.W.2d 296 (1994), as follows: Arbitrary is “decisive but unreasoned action,” and capricious is “not guided by steady judgment or purpose.” The definition most easy to apply was given in City of Little Rock v. Breeding, 273 Ark. 437, 445, 619 S.W.2d 664, 668 (1981), when we said that the enactment was not arbitrary if there was any reasonable basis for its enactment.

City of Lowell, 323 Ark. at 338-39, 916 S.W.2d at 98-99.

Our appellate standard of review is equally well settled in appeals concerning legislative rezoning. We will affirm the circuit court’s findings unless they are clearly erroneous or clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. PH, LLC, 2009 Ark. 504, at 13, 344 S.W.3d at 667. A finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the | ¿reviewing court based on the entire evidence is left with a firm conviction that a mistake has been committed; disputed facts and determinations of credibility are within the province of the fact-finder. Id.

III. Motion to Dismiss

Bethel Heights’ complaint against Springdale sought a declaratory judgment that Springdale’s rezoning was not compatible with or equivalent to those of the adjacent lands in Bethel Heights, as required by Arkansas Code Annotated section 14-56-306 (Supp. 2015). Springdale filed an answer and motion to dismiss, asserting that a declaratory-judgment action was not the appropriate procedural vehicle for challenging its zoning decision. Specifically, Springdale argued that Arkansas Code Annotated section 14-56-425(b) provides the specific statutory mechanism by which a city’s legislative zoning decision is to be reviewed. After a hearing, the circuit court granted Spring-dale’s motion to dismiss, finding that declaratory judgment was not the appropriate procedure for reviewing Springdale’s zoning action and stating that the case would go forward using the standard set forth in section 14-56-425(b).

In its first point on appeal, Bethel Heights challenges the circuit court’s order granting Springdale’s motion to dismiss. It does not, however, challenge the circuit court’s decision to dismiss its declaratory-judgment action. Rather, Bethel Heights complains that the circuit court erred in making a factual finding in its order, wherein the court found “that the City of Springdale’s rezoning of the property at issue in the Plaintiffs Complaint was not arbitrary, | Bwas not capricious, and did not lack a rational basis.” 3 Bethel Heights complains that this factual finding essentially foreclosed the outcome of the case and that the court should have waited until after an evidentiary hearing to make the finding that Springdale’s zoning decision was not arbitrary and capricious.

We find Bethel Heights’ arguments unpersuasive. The heart of the motion to dismiss was the determination that a declaratory-judgment action was not the proper vehicle for challenging a zoning decision, a conclusion that Bethel Heights does not challenge on appeal. Although the circuit court made a collateral finding that Springdale’s zoning decision was not arbitrary or capricious based on the surrounding zoning, it nonetheless set the matter for “a hearing on the remaining merits ... at which time the City of Springdale’s legislative decision to rezone the property at issue in this case will be reviewed by the court using the standard set forth in [section] 14-56-425(b)[.]” Bethel Heights was thus presented the opportunity to adduce any additional evidence on the question that it felt appropriate; indeed, in response to Springdale’s subsequent summary-judgment motion, Bethel Heights did just that. Error that does not result in prejudice is not reversible. Sherman v. Boeckmann, 2016 Ark. App. 568, at 13, 507 S.W.3d 535.

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2017 Ark. App. 81, 514 S.W.3d 472, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-bethel-heights-ark-v-city-of-springdale-arkctapp-2017.