Jackson & Perkins Co. v. Martin

16 A.D.2d 1, 225 N.Y.S.2d 112, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11296
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 22, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 16 A.D.2d 1 (Jackson & Perkins Co. v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson & Perkins Co. v. Martin, 16 A.D.2d 1, 225 N.Y.S.2d 112, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11296 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinions

Bastow, J.

The parties to this action own contiguous parcels of land in the Village of Newark both located in a residential A district under the provisions of a Zoning Ordinance originally enacted in 1931. Plaintiff owns some 58 acres and for many years has used the land for the raising and marketing of horticultural and nursery products. The perimeter of plaintiff’s lands is in excess of 8,000 feet and the westerly line thereof adjoins defendants’ easterly line for a distance of 330 feet. The latter own some 16 acres and in 1958 defendants began to permit trailers used as dwellings to be located on their lands.

The judgment herein mandates defendants to remove all trailers from their property and permanently restrains them from maintaining trailers as dwellings thereon. Defendants, however, by a further judgment provision are given the right to elect to be relieved from such injunction provisions by the payment to plaintiff of $41,000 which is stated to represent the depreciation in the value of plaintiff’s property.

The 1931 Zoning Ordinance made no specific provision for trailers, presumably, as we may judicially note, because they were practically unknown at that time as a dwelling abode. (Cf. New York Mobile Homes v. Steckel, 9 N Y 2d 533; “ Regulation of Mobile Homes ”, 13 Syracuse L. Rev. 125.) The trial court found that house trailers would not comply with certain provisions of the ordinance because, for instance, they were not set on a masonry foundation with adequate cellar under the same with at least two windows opening to the outside therefrom or they did not occupy more than 25 % of the lot area.

The 1931 ordinance was adopted apparently pursuant to the provisions of article 6-A of the Village Law. (L. 1923, ch. 564, as amd.) Section 175 thereof contains a broad grant of power to village trustees to regulate and restrict by ordinance For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, or the general welfare of the community * * * the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes.” In 1955 the Legislature added subdivision 69 to section 89 of the Village Law. (L. 1955, ch. 227.) This empowered boards of trustees to regulate house trailer camps and to regulate the locating of trailers when used or occupied as living quarters outside of an established trailer camp. (See, also, Village Law, § 89, subd. 52.)

In 1958 the Village Board attempted to enact an ordinance regulating trailers and trailer parks. It is conceded that the enactment was not valid by .reason of defects in publishing and posting following adoption. We are here concerned with the second ordinance enacted in January, 1960, The trial court [3]*3found this invalid because it (1) was in conflict with the 1931 ordinance; (2) bore no relation to the health, safety, morals or general welfare of the residents of the village and (3) was “ spot zoning.”

We digress to consider the conditions that confronted the trustees at the time the 1960 ordinance was adopted. The proof discloses that there were 77 trailers in the village then being used as dwellings. Forty-one trailers were located in six trailer camps. Four camps with 36 trailers therein were in a residental district and two camps with five trailers were outside any zoned area. There were 36 individual trailers located in the village with 29 in a residential A district, one in a residential B district, one in a commercial A district, four in a light industrial district and one outside any zoned area.

Turning to the 1960 ordinance we find that it begins with a statement of purpose, that is, to promote the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the village by regulating “ the physical characteristics and development of a trailer park.” Section 1 prohibits the “parking” or “ storage ” of trailers, as defined therein, except in public garages or in the open within 20 feet of the rear lot line and 4 feet from any occupied side lot line and mandates that the trailer shall not be used, the doors thereof must be locked and the trailer must be disconnected from all utilities. Existing trailers parked in violation of these provisions may remain on their present sites as long as they continue to be occupied by the present occupants ór their transferees.

Section 2 of the ordinance relates to trailer parks. No one may operate a park without securing a license from the Local Building Inspector. The various subdivisions define a “ trailer park”, establish a setback line, prescribe the distance apart trailers shall be on their sites, demand conformity with village regulations for water and sewerage, require separate parking facilities for cars, ban additions to the trailers and the accumulation of rubbish, establish certain requirements for grading and position of streets within the park, direct compliance with the regulations of the local utility company, the building regulation forms and the payment of a license fee. Next, the section prohibits all trailer parks and camps within the village except for existing ones and those previously authorized by the Village Board. As to those, it is required that a plan with specified details be approved by the board and the State Health Department before construction may be started or operation continued. Lastly, the section states that insofar as the provisions thereof controvert or conflict with existing provisions [4]*4'of the Zoning Ordinance the former shall govern and supersede all provisions of that ordinance or other village ordinances, i We conclude that the 1960 ordinance was adopted in conformity with a comprehensive plan and did not constitute ‘ ‘ spot zoning.” On the first phase it has been written that the “ comprehensive plan, Avith which the amendment must conform, is many things to many courts. It may be the basic zoning ordinance itself, or the generalized ‘ policy ’ of the local legislative or planning authorities in respect to their city’s development— or it may be nothing more than a general feeling of fairness and rationality. Its identity is not fixed with any precision, and no one can point with confidence to any particular set of factors, or any document, and say that there is the general plan to which the zoning enabling act demands fidelity.” (Haar, “ In Accordance With a Comprehensive Plan ”, 68 Harv. L. Rev., 1154,1167.)

The subject of “ spot zoning ” was considered in Rodgers v. Village of Tarrytown (302 N. Y. 115, 123-124) where it was defined “ as the process of singling out a small parcel of land for a use classification totally different from that of the surrounding area, for the benefit of the OAvner of such property and to the detriment of other owners [citing cases], ‘ spot zoning ’ is the very antithesis of planned zoning. If, therefore, an ordinance is enacted in accordance with a comprehensive zoning plan, it is not ‘ spot zoning ’, even though it (1) singles out and affects but one small plot * * * or (2) creates in the center of a large zone small areas or districts devoted to a different use. * * * Thus, the relevant inquiry is not whether the particular zoning under attack consists of areas fixed within larger areas of different use, but whether it was accomplished for the benefit of individual owners rather than pursuant to a comprehensive plan for the general welfare of the community.”

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Bluebook (online)
16 A.D.2d 1, 225 N.Y.S.2d 112, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-perkins-co-v-martin-nyappdiv-1962.