Conyers v. City of Prescott

897 P.2d 638, 182 Ariz. 336, 171 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 166
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedAugust 11, 1994
DocketNo. 1 CA-CV 92-0273
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 897 P.2d 638 (Conyers v. City of Prescott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conyers v. City of Prescott, 897 P.2d 638, 182 Ariz. 336, 171 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 166 (Ark. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

McGREGOR, Judge.

The City of Prescott (City) appeals from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Anthony Conyers in an action challenging the legality of a sewer system assessment. The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in concluding that the City’s calculation of Conyers’ portion of the assessment was unfairly discriminatory and thus unconstitutional. Because the record supports the City’s finding that Conyers’ share of the assessment is proportional to the benefits he receives from the sewer system, we reverse the trial court’s order and remand the matter with directions to enter judgment for the City.

I.

Conyers owns two separate but adjoining parcels of land in the Granite Heights area of the City. One parcel is approximately 1.81 acres and the other is approximately 0.35 acres. When combined, the two parcels exceed 90,000 square feet. Roughly half of each parcel is within a commercial property zone, while the other half is within a residential zone.

On June 14, 1988, the City formed the Granite Heights Improvement District to construct a sewer system that would connect the Granite Heights area to the existing municipal sewer system. In addition to Conyers’ property, five other parcels lie within the improvement district. Of those, three are zoned residential and two are zoned commercial. The parcels vary in size from 10,-428 square feet to 15,804 square feet.

To apportion the cost of the sewer system, the City assigned each parcel within the district a number of “benefits).” The City defined a “benefit” as “a legal lot for a single residence,” which in the Granite Heights area requires 9,000 square feet. In calculating the number of benefits, the City reasoned that “[i]f a lot has sufficient area to provide for more than one legal lot, that parcel’s benefit would be increased according to the number of legal lots the parcel could be divided into.”

After assigning each parcel a number of benefits, the City divided the cost of building the sewer system by the total number of benefits within the improvement district. The City then assessed each landowner based on the number of benefits assigned to the landowner’s parcel or parcels.

Initially, the City informed Conyers that it would assign his larger parcel eight benefits and his smaller parcel one benefit. Subsequently, the City notified Conyers that it planned to combine his parcels for assessment purposes because he could develop the tracts together.1 As a result, the City assigned Conyers ten benefits.

After receiving the contractor’s bid, the City formally adopted an assessment charging each property owner in the improvement district $5,530.93 per benefit. On December 5, 1989, the City notified Conyers that his assessment was delinquent and that it would initiate remedial action if he failed to pay his delinquent installment, penalties, and an advertising fee by January 5, 1990. Conyers, who had not objected to any of the City’s earlier communications, filed a protest contesting the City’s apportionment of the sewer assessment. The City agreed to hold a public hearing on February 13, 1990 to consider Conyers’ objections.

At the hearing, Conyers testified and presented the testimony of James Purvis, a local real estate broker, and Harlan Gellhaus, a civil engineer. The City presented the testimony of Robert Kirkpatrick, an engineer in the Public Services Department, Garrett TerBerg, the Director of Planning & Zoning, and Richard Straub, the Director of Public Services. On February 20, 1990, the city [338]*338council sustained the City’s assessment against Conyers'.

Conyers initiated this action on March 1, 1990, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. On April 2, 1990, Conyers filed an amended complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction. The City then moved for summary judgment. After a hearing on September 10, 1990, the trial court issued a minute order granting the City’s motion in part and denying it in part. The parties then filed opposing motions for reconsideration. Following a hearing on January 8, 1991, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Conyers, concluding that although the City’s method of apportioning the assessment was not “inherently discriminatory or arbitrary,” the “method used by the City in this case is unconstitutional as applied.”' The City now appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated (“A.R.S.”) section 12-120.21.A.1 (1992), 12-2101.B (Supp.1993).

II.

The City contends the trial court erred, as a matter of law, in granting summary judgment for Conyers. In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we decide whether any genuine issue of material fact exists and whether the trial court correctly applied the substantive law. Orme School v. Reeves, 166 Ariz. 301, 309, 802 P.2d 1000, 1008 (1990).

A.

The statutory scheme for assessing property within an improvement district is set forth in A.R.S. section 48-589 (1988). The superintendent of streets, after receiving a bid for a special project, “shall” apportion the total cost of the project among the lots in the district, “each respectively in proportion to the benefits to be received by each lot." A.R.S. § 48-589.C (1988). The superintendent’s apportionment is subject to review by the city council. A.R.S. § 48-590.H (1988). The city council, after conducting a hearing, may modify an assessment or order the superintendent to recompute an assessment “if it finds that the benefits to any lot do not equal the amount of such lot’s respective assessment.” Id.

A party aggrieved by the city council’s decision can seek judicial review. Weitz v. Davis, 102 Ariz. 40, 424 P.2d 168 (1967). Judicial review, however, is narrowly circumscribed. Moore v. City of Chandler, 148 Ariz. 124, 128, 713 P.2d 325, 329 (App.1985); Town of Peoria v. Hensley, 26 Ariz.App. 30, 32, 545 P.2d 992, 994 (1976). “The determination as to the special benefits to be received by a particular lot within the improvement district is generally conceded to be a legislative function of the common council of the town.” Town of Peoria, 26 Ariz.App. at 32, 545 P.2d at 994. Accordingly, the standard of review we apply to decide whether an assessment correctly reflects the benefits derived from the proposed improvement is “whether the common council’s opinion is supportable, that is, not arbitrary, fraudulent or discriminatory.” Moore, 148 Ariz. at 128, 713 P.2d at 329 (quoting Town of Peoria, 26 Ariz.App. at 32, 545 P.2d at 994 (a court cannot set aside a city’s assessment “unless it clearly appears that the determination was based on erroneous principles of law, or was ... arbitrary, corrupt, fraudulent, or a manifest abuse of legislative authority, ... or unless the assessment so far transcends the limit of equality that its execution will become extortion and confiscation ... ”)).

B.

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Bluebook (online)
897 P.2d 638, 182 Ariz. 336, 171 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, 1994 Ariz. App. LEXIS 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conyers-v-city-of-prescott-arizctapp-1994.