Kuvin v. City of Coral Gables

62 So. 3d 604, 2007 Fla. App. LEXIS 13015, 2007 WL 7548631
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 22, 2007
Docket3D05-2845
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 62 So. 3d 604 (Kuvin v. City of Coral Gables) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kuvin v. City of Coral Gables, 62 So. 3d 604, 2007 Fla. App. LEXIS 13015, 2007 WL 7548631 (Fla. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

Kuvin appeals a final declaratory judgment in favor of the City of Coral Gables which upheld the validity of ordinances he violated by parking his personally-used pickup truck on a street in a residential area of the municipality. Coral Gables is justly regarded by itself, by its citizens, and by the entire community as The City Beautiful.1 Famously, and in most cases appropriately, it seeks to maintain that reputation by enacting and strictly enforcing rigorous restrictions on the design and construction of commercial and residential structures in the City. In this case, however, we conclude that the City has uncon[605]*605stitutionally crossed the line into an impermissible interference with the personal rights of its residents and therefore reverse the judgment below.

I.

In 2003, Kuvin lived in the City in a rental home with no garage. On February 7 of that year, after a previous warning, he parked his Ford F-150 overnight on the public asphalt in front of his residence. This conduct violated both sections 8-4.12 and 8-123 of the City’s Zoning Code, which respectively prohibit parking a “truck”4 (the definition of which clearly includes an F-150) anywhere at any time in a residential area (including a private driveway) or on a public street between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. On March 12, a Gables hearing officer found him guilty and assessed fees and costs against him.

Kuvin subsequently filed a complaint in the circuit court5 and then a motion for summary judgment, asserting, on various grounds, including the invalidity of sections 8-11 and 8-12, that his conviction had been unconstitutionally secured. The City responded and filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, which was granted.

II.

We reverse that ruling because there is no lawful basis for this restriction of the freedom of the residents of the City. The City seeks to justify it as an allegedly appropriate exercise of its general police power over the safety, morals and general well-being of its citizens and the particular authority to regulate zoning and land use in the city. We find, however, that the only proposed and even arguable rationales for this use of the power entirely fail the requirement for a discernible rational relationship between a municipal regulation and the advancement of a governmental goal the City has a right to promote or the discouragement of what it has a right to restrict. See County Bd. of Arlington County v. Richards, 434 U.S. 5, 98 S.Ct. 24, 54 L.Ed.2d 4 (1977); Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926); Dep’t of Cmty. Affairs v. Moorman, 664 So.2d 930 (Fla.1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 822, 117 [606]*606S.Ct. 79, 136 L.Ed.2d 37 (1996); City of Miami Beach v. Lachman, 71 So.2d 148 (Fla.1954), appeal dismissed, 348 U.S. 906, 75 S.Ct. 292, 99 L.Ed. 711 (1955). In our view, therefore, the ordinances are clearly invalid as applied to the appellant and his vehicle:6

(a) First, the truck parking ban cannot be related to what might be, at least as to section 8-11, a permissible attempt to preserve the residential character of a neighborhood by excluding commercial uses. See Parking Facilities, Inc. v. City of Miami Beach, 88 So.2d 141 (Fla.1956). This is so for the very simple reason that the ordinances are not restricted to “commercial” vehicles and admittedly include the truck involved here, which serves only the personal use of a resident who both owns the vehicle and lives in Coral Gables.

(b) The argument that the ordinances may be supported on aesthetic grounds is just as unacceptable. Apart from pure matters of taste, concerning which government cannot be involved, Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego, 453 U.S. 490, 510, 101 5.Ct. 2882, 69 L.Ed.2d 800 (1981), there is nothing to distinguish Kuvin’s truck or others like it from what some might think are even more aesthetically displeasing cars or, even more plainly, from one of whatever make or model which is in obvious disrepair or just plain dirty.7 As the court said in City of Nichols Hills v. Richardson, 939 P.2d 17, 19-20 (Okla.Crim. App.1997):

Any vehicle that meets the definition of a “private passenger vehicle” — no matter how ugly, rusted or offensive, may be parked in this municipality between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. However, not a single pickup — no matter how new, expensive, or “pleasing to the eye,” may be parked in any driveway during these hours. The obvious contradiction belies the City’s claim that it has enacted the ordinance to protect the aesthetic integrity of the community.

The result we reach in this case is in full accordance with numberless decisions of this and every other court which have invalidated government attempts to regulate conduct in similar regards but for no supportable reasons. See Eskind v. City of Vero Beach, 159 So.2d 209, 211 (Fla.l963)(holding ordinance prohibiting motel signs advertising rates but permitting other motel advertising signs unconstitutional as having “no justification from an aesthetic viewpoint[:] ... a sign advertising rates is not aesthetically distinguishable from a sign advertising [other] motel services”); Pinellas County v. Fiore, 732 So.2d 1152 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999)(upholding judgment invalidating, as bearing no rational relationship to asserted government interest in prohibiting gambling, ordinance regulating skill machines so as to bar leasing of toy crane machines on premises conducting bingo games); Sunshine Key Assocs. Ltd. P’ship v. Monroe County, 684 So.2d 876 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996)(reversing order upon holding invalid, as being arbitrary and unenforceable, regulation defining recreational vehicles as less than eight feet wide so as to bar from park vehicles [607]*607now classified as mobile homes based on width greater than eight feet); Fox v. Town of Bay Harbor Islands, 450 So.2d 559, 561 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)(reversing order upon holding invalid, as having “not the slightest bearing upon the health, safety, morals or welfare of the public,” ordinance limiting occupancy of parking facility apartment to building superintendent so as to bar occupancy by plaintiff); Campbell v. Monroe County, 426 So.2d 1158 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)(reversing order upon holding invalid, as showing no relationship to aesthetic uniformity or safety, ordinance requiring homes be built of masonry to the roof line so as to bar modular housing); Dennis v. City of Key West, 381 So.2d 312 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)(reversing judgment upon holding invalid, as having no discernible relationship to public health, welfare or safety, ordinance requiring all live-aboard vessels be docked or moored at designated areas so as to bar live-aboard vessels moored to pilings off the coast of Key West), petition for review dismissed, 389 So.2d 1108 (Fla.1980); Kuster Enters., Inc. v. Dep’t of Transp., 357 So.2d 794 (Fla.

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Related

Kuvin v. City of Coral Gables
62 So. 3d 624 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
62 So. 3d 604, 2007 Fla. App. LEXIS 13015, 2007 WL 7548631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuvin-v-city-of-coral-gables-fladistctapp-2007.