Howden v. Mayor of Savannah

159 S.E. 401, 172 Ga. 833, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 221
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 11, 1931
DocketNo. 7966
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 159 S.E. 401 (Howden v. Mayor of Savannah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howden v. Mayor of Savannah, 159 S.E. 401, 172 Ga. 833, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 221 (Ga. 1931).

Opinions

Hines, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

Section 8 of the zoning ordinance of the City of Savannah provides that “only residences, apartments, churches, schools, hotels, and hospitals shall be erected on lots fronting on Forsyth Park and Extension, Monterey Square, and Jasper Square, as said lots appear upon the present official map of said city.” The property of the plaintiff involved in this case is situated on the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Drayton Street. It consists of lot C and lot 15 in Cuthbert Ward. The combined property has a frontage of 70 feet on Park Avenue, and extends northward along Drayton Street 105 feet. The improvements on this property consist of a two-story frame dwelling, the entrance of which faces Park Avenue. The west side of this residence fronts on Drayton Street, which alone separates it from Forsyth Park Extension. On the rear of this property is a two-story frame outhouse, the entrance into which faces on Waldberg Street Lane, which is the northern boundary of the property. This building, like the residence, is separated from Forsyth Park Extension by Drayton Street alone. It is contended by the plaintiff that in these circumstances this property does not front upon Forsyth Park Extension, and that for this reason it does not come within the provisions of this zoning ordinance. We do not think that this contention is well founded. Any side or face of this property is the front thereof within the meaning of this provision of this ordinance. Property may front on one street only, or it may front on two streets. Where a lot, or combined lot, is a corner lot which faces on two streets, it fronts upon both of such streets. Re Dennick, 3 Ont. W. N. 1061; Waters v. Collins (N. J. Eq.), 70 Atl. 984; DesMoines v. Dawe, 31 Iowa, 89, 93. A lot which is separated from a park by a street alone fronts on such park. We are of the opinion that this property of the plaintiff falls within this provision of the ordinance.

In the next place it is insisted by counsel for the plaintiff that the trial judge erred in failing and refusing to find and ’adjudge that the effect of this zoning ordinance, if applied to her property under the facts of the case, amounted to depriving her of her property without due process of law, in violation of the due-process clauses of the constitution of this State and of the Federal constitution ; and because it amounted to the taking of her property for public purposes without just and adequate compensation being first [840]*840paid, in violation of tlie constitution of this State. The precise question for adjudication is this:' Is the denial to the owner of a residence lot located in a district zoned, by a city ordinance passed in pursuance of legislative and constitutional authority, exclusively for residences, apartments, churches, hospitals, schools, and hotels, of a permit to erect on such lot a gasoline-filling station, a deprivation of her property within the meaning of the due-process clauses of the constitution of this State and of the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States? In other words, can an owner of land be constitutionally denied the right to erect thereon a building for the conduct of a business therein, if neither the business nor the manner of its operation constitutes a nuisance ? This court is committed to the doctrine that a filling-station is not per se a nuisance. Standard Oil Co. v. Kahn, 165 Ga. 575 (141 S. E. 643); Thompson v. Texas Co., 166 Ga. 315 (143 S. E. 376); Barton v. Rogers, 166 Ga. 802 (144 S. E. 248); Wooten v. Smith, 167 Ga. 256 (145 S. E. 446); Howell v. Board of Comrs., 169 Ga. 74 (149 S. E. 779). There are no facts going to show that the filling-station which the plaintiff desires to install will be so operated as to become a nuisance. Kahn v. Standard Oil Co., 166 Ga. 698 (144 S. E. 241). We can not assume that it will be so operated. So the erection of a building or structure for a gasoline filling-station and the conduct of the business of selling gasoline thereat are both lawful acts. This being so, can the owner of real estate be prohibited by a zoning ordinance from erecting such structure under the facts of this case ?

This court has, in several cases, passed upon the constitutional validity of zoning statutes and ordinances. In Smith v. Atlanta, 161 Ga. 769 (132 S. E. 66), this court dealt with the act of August 4, 1921 (Acts 1921, p. 665), which authorized the mayor and council of Atlanta to pass an ordinance “zoning the city for the purpose of regulating the location of trades, industries, apartment-houses, dwellings,” etc.; and we held that this provision of that act and the ordinance passed in pursuance thereof violated the due-process clauses of the State and Federal constitutions, and were therefore void in so far as they authorized the municipal authorities to prohibit the building of stores in districts which had been established as residential sections. In that case this court declared that its decision was “not to be construed as a holding upon other [841]*841provisions of the act and the ordinance intended to allow and make zoning regulations as to structures and buildings other than stores.” In Morrow v. Atlanta, 162 Ga. 228 (133 S. E. 345), this court made this ruling: "In so far as the zoning ordinance of the City of Atlanta, adopted April 11, 1922, seeks to deprive the owner of real estate thereafter designated as an apartment zone of the right to use his realty in the pursuit of a business recognized as lawful, such ordinance is unconstitutional and void.” This decision was put upon the ruling made in Smith v. Atlanta, supra. In the Morrow case this court was dealing with the operation of a garage and vulcanizing plant located in a zoning district where such establishment was prohibited. The decision in Smith v. Atlanta was again approved and followed by this court in City of Atlanta v. Smith, 165 Ga. 146 (140 S. E. 369), where it was said: "We are satisfied with the correctness of the decision of this case when it was formerly here, and the request to review and overrule the same is therefore refused.” See Reynolds v. Brosnan, 170 Ga. 773 (154 S. E. 264). So it appears from the decisions of this court, cited above, that zoning statutes and ordinances, which were passed prior to the adoption, of the zoning amendment to the constitution of this State, and which forbade the erection of buildings for the conduct of businesses which were not per se nuisances, violated the due-process clause of the constitution of this State and the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States.

Our decisions upon this subject are in harmony with the decisions of other courts. Formerly statutes or ordinances which sought to create residence districts from which all business buildings were to be excluded would not have been sustained as coming within the police power, and the same would have been denounced as unconstitutional and void because they deprived owners of their property without due process of law. In re Jacobs, 98 N. Y. 98 (50 Am. R. 636); People v. Chicago, 261 Ill. 16 (103 N. E. 609, 49 L. R. A. (N. S.) 438, Ann. Cas. 1915A, 292); St. Louis v. Dawe, 145 Mo. 466 (41 S. W. 1094, 42 L. R. A. 686, 68 Am. St. R. 575); Calvo v. New Orleans, 136 La. 480 (67 So. 338).; State v. Houghton, 124 Minn. 226 (158 N. W. 1017, L. R. A. 1917F, 1050); Willison v. Cooke, 54 Colo.

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Bluebook (online)
159 S.E. 401, 172 Ga. 833, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howden-v-mayor-of-savannah-ga-1931.