Koor Communication, Inc. v. City of Lebanon

813 A.2d 418, 148 N.H. 618, 2002 N.H. LEXIS 195
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedDecember 12, 2002
DocketNo. 2001-440
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 813 A.2d 418 (Koor Communication, Inc. v. City of Lebanon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Koor Communication, Inc. v. City of Lebanon, 813 A.2d 418, 148 N.H. 618, 2002 N.H. LEXIS 195 (N.H. 2002).

Opinion

Nadeau, J.

The plaintiff, Koor Communication, Inc., appeals the denial of its motion for partial summary judgment and the grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant, the City of Lebanon, in this declaratory judgment action challenging a zoning ordinance. We affirm in part, reverse in part and remand.

The Trial Court (Fitzgerald, J.; Burling, J.) found the following facts. The plaintiff obtained a permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to construct a commercial AM radio station with four antenna towers, each at a height of 266 feet. The plaintiff proposed to locate the station on Etna Road, in an area of the city zoned light industrial. The city’s zoning ordinance, however, allows radio towers only in rural zoning districts and only to a maximum height for new towers of forty-two feet.

The plaintiff requested a variance, which the city’s zoning board of adjustment (ZBA) denied. Rather than appeal the ZBA’s decision, the plaintiff filed this declaratory judgment action challenging the zoning ordinance on numerous grounds.

The plaintiff moved for partial summary judgment on the ground, among others, that the ordinance is preempted by the Federal Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. §§ 151-613 (2000). The plaintiff alleged that the proposed 266-foot height of its antennas is the [620]*620minimum allowed under federal law, and therefore no antenna tower meeting the city’s height restriction could comply with federal height requirements.

The Trial Court (.Fitzgerald, J.) found neither express nor implicit preemption, but concluded that “genuine issues of material fact remain[ed] with respect to whether the zoning ordinance actually conflicts with the federal law.” Accordingly, the court denied the plaintiffs motion.

The city also moved for summary judgment, contending that its height restriction was legal and constitutional. The Trial Court (Burling, J.) granted the city’s motion on all issues, including preemption. The court again found no express or implied preemption, and found there to be no actual conflict at issue. The court held:

The federal permits granted to the [plaintiff] ensure that the broadcast towers comply with federal standards. Local land use regulations govern the development patterns in the community. The court finds and rules that there is no actual conflict. See Florida Lime and Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132 (1963) (actual conflict occurs where compliance with both federal and state requirements is a physical impossibility).

The court also held that the plaintiffs claim that the zoning ordinance effected a taking of its property without just compensation (taking claim) failed as a matter of law.

We apply the following standard of review.

In reviewing the trial court’s grant of summary judgment, we consider the affidavits and other evidence, and all inferences properly drawn from them, in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. If our review of that evidence discloses no genuine issue of material fact, and if the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, we -will affirm the grant of summary judgment. We review the trial court’s application of the law to the facts de novo.

Iannelli v. Burger King Corp., 145 N.H. 190, 193 (2000) (quotation and citations omitted).

The plaintiff argues, among other things, that the city’s height restriction is preempted by federal law. Under the Supremacy Clause of the Federal Constitution, state law is preempted where: “(1) Congress expresses an intent to displace state law; (2) Congress implicitly supplants state law by granting exclusive regulatory power in a particular field to the federal government; or (3) state and federal law actually conflict.” [621]*621Disabilities Rights Center, Inc. v. Comm’r, N.H. Dept. of Corrections, 143 N.H. 674, 676 (1999). “Federal regulations have the same preemptive force as federal statutes.” Freeman v. Burlington Broadcasters, Inc., 204 F.3d 311, 321 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 917 (2000).

“An actual conflict exists when it is impossible for a private party to comply with both state and federal requirements or where state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishments and execution of the full purpose and objective of Congress.” Disabilities Rights Center, 143 N.H. at 678 (quotation omitted). The plaintiff argues that it is impossible to comply with both the city’s ordinance, which prohibits any antenna of a height greater than forty-two feet, and federal law, which requires a minimum antenna height of 266 feet for the type of station proposed by the plaintiff, namely, a Class B station at 720 kHz, see 47 C.F.R. § 73.189 (b)(2)(h) (2001). The plaintiff also contends that it is impossible for a station of any class, operating at any AM broadcast frequency, to meet both the FCC’s minimum height requirements and the city’s height restriction. See 47 C.F.R. §§ 73.189, 73.190 (fig. 7) (2001).

The city asserts that it is not physically impossible to comply with both laws, contending that “[p]hysical impossibility occurs only when one law is a mandate and the other a prohibition.” Thus, the city argues that because the plaintiff is not required by federal law to construct a 720 kHz AM broadcast station in Lebanon, but merely desires to do so, it can comply with both laws by simply not constructing its proposed antenna.

The city cites no authority for its narrow interpretation of physical impossibility, and we are not persuaded. We note that the principal case cited by both the city and the trial court as authority for the physical impossibility doctrine undermines the city’s position. In Florida Lime & Avocado Growers v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 133-34 (1963), the Supreme Court addressed whether a California law that prohibited the sale or transportation in California of immature avocados, as determined by oil content, was preempted by federal regulations that assessed the maturity of Florida-grown avocados by standards other than oil content. The Court stated:

A holding of federal exclusion of state law is inescapable and requires no inquiry into congressional design where compliance with both federal and state regulations is a physical impossibility for one engaged in interstate commerce. That would be the situation here if, for example, the federal orders .forbade the picking and marketing of any avocado testing more than 7% oil, while the California test excluded from the State any avocado measuring less than 8% oil content.

[622]*622Id. at 142-43 (citations omitted). The Court’s example precludes the argument that a Florida grower could comply with both laws simply by not selling its avocados in California.

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Bluebook (online)
813 A.2d 418, 148 N.H. 618, 2002 N.H. LEXIS 195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koor-communication-inc-v-city-of-lebanon-nh-2002.