Mill Realty Associates v. Crowe

841 A.2d 668, 2004 R.I. LEXIS 36, 2004 WL 297034
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedFebruary 17, 2004
Docket2002-433-M.P.
StatusPublished
Cited by70 cases

This text of 841 A.2d 668 (Mill Realty Associates v. Crowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mill Realty Associates v. Crowe, 841 A.2d 668, 2004 R.I. LEXIS 36, 2004 WL 297034 (R.I. 2004).

Opinions

OPINION

GOLDBERG, Justice.

The Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the petitioner, Mill Realty Associates (Mill Realty or petitioner), seeking review of a judgment of the Superior Court that affirmed the decision of the respondents, members of the Zoning Board of Review for the Town of Coventry (Coventry or respondents). This is Mill Realty’s second appearance before this Court, having previously sought relief from the requirement that it construct a paved road to provide access to a parcel of land on which it intends to construct a single-family dwelling.

In Mill Realty Associates v. Zoning Board of Review of Coventry, 721 A.2d 887 [670]*670(R.I.1998) (Mill Realty I), this Court reviewed, on certiorari, the decision denying Mill Realty’s request for relief from the town’s subdivision regulation requiring it to construct a road to subdivision standards to obtain a building permit. Specifically, pursuant to G.L. 1956 chapter 23.1 of title 45, entitled “Mapped Streets,” Mill Realty sought relief by way of an exception from the requirement that it construct a road to subdivision standards to provide access to its land. Instead, petitioner proposed to construct a single-family dwelling on a platted but unimproved, so-called “paper” street by extending a “private driveway” some 1,600 feet in length and 15 feet in width on the unimproved street. The zoning board, pursuant to § 45-23.1-5, denied the relief and Mill Realty sought cer-tiorari, alleging that the mandate that it construct a road in accordance with the town’s construction standards was arbitrary, confiscatory and unlawful. Mill Realty argued that the denial of its requested relief amounted to a confiscatory taking of the lot by the town. The petitioner is now before us seeking to avoid the requirement that it connect this parcel to the public water system.

The parcel in question “appears on a map of house lots entitled Washington Villa Plat platted in 1893 and later recorded in the land records for the town of Coventry in 1896.” Mill Realty I, 721 A.2d at 890-91. As we noted in Mill Realty I, the petitioner purchased, at tax sale, a parcel of land “then depicted on the Coventry tax assessor’s plat No. 42, as lot No. 41 and shown as containing 25,000 square feet.” Id. at 889. This parcel originally consisted of five contiguous lots on the Washington Villa Plat and is located in an area zoned as R-20 Residential that provides for single-family dwellings with a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet if the lot is serviced by a public water supply. If the lot is not serviced by a public water supply, the required minimum lot size for a single-family dwelling is 43,560 square feet. The availability of public water and Mill Realty’s contention that the lot size provisions of the zoning ordinance does not apply to Lot 41 are the seminal issues in this case.

In Mill Realty I, this Court held that in order to build and sell a single-family dwelling, petitioner was required to construct a road to serve the dwelling; however we relieved Mill Realty of the burden of constructing a paved road that met subdivision standards. Mill Realty I, 721 A.2d at 892. Instead, we directed that, in order to obtain a building permit, petitioner must construct a gravel road, the minimum established standard grade road permitted by the town’s subdivision regulation.1 Id. In so doing, we noted the strong “public interest in and necessity for proper street construction and future development in the plat as well as insuring adequate access into the plat by other plat lot owners[.]” Id. We issued that decision in 1998 and “for the expeditious interest of all parties,” we. remanded the case directly to the zoning board with directions to grant Mill Realty’s application for an exception based on its construction of a gravel roadway as defined in the ordinance. Id. However, this Court’s concern about the lot’s area deficiency is readily apparent in the decision. We specifically held:

[671]*671“Upon remand, the zoning board shall not, however, be required to direct the building official to issue any building permit authorizing construction of the proposed residential dwelling upon Mill Realty’s lot unless and until the town building official and the zoning board are satisfied that the proposed construction on Mill Realty’s lot is in conformity with all applicable building and zoning requirements.” Id. at 893. (Emphasis added.)

Now, almost five years later, petitioner is back before the Court contending that its parcel of land is a single nonconforming lot of record pursuant to Article 8, Section 870-871 of the Coventry Zoning Ordinance and as such, petitioner is entitled to a building permit for a single-family residence without access to a public water supply, notwithstanding that the lot does not meet the minimum lot size requirement of 43,560 square feet. Coventry’s building official refused to issue a building permit, having concluded that public water was available to Lot 41 and the lot did not meet the minimum lot size requirement for a single-family dwelling without access to public water. The zoning board affirmed the decision of the building official and specifically declared that a building permit would be issued if access to the public water supply was accomplished.

Mill Realty appealed to the Superior Court, which sustained the decision of the board. The trial justice found that petitioner’s parcel was a conforming lot because it met the 20,000-square-foot requirement for lots with access to a public water supply. She further declared that Article 6 of the Coventry Zoning Ordinance was permissive because it provided that a “lot or parcel of land having a lot width or area which is less than required by Article 6 may be considered buildable for [s]ingle [family] residential purposes * * (Emphasis added.) According to the trial justice, the zoning board is vested with discretion to determine whether an undersized lot is buildable as a single-family dwelling. Noting that Article 2, Section 200-201(C) of the Coventry Zoning Ordinance defines the term “may” as permissive rather than mandatory, the trial court found that this express language provided the zoning board with discretion to grant or deny the petition.

The trial justice also addressed petitioner’s contention that Coventry has selectively enforced the lot size requirement relative to lots that were not serviced by public water. Mill Realty alleged that the board was guilty of arbitrary and capricious selective enforcement of its zoning provision. Although acknowledging petitioner’s contentions, the trial justice rejected this argument, concluding that a selective enforcement argument is more commonly raised in cases alleging a denial of due process or equal protection of the laws and did not apply to the facts in this case. The trial justice found that Coventry did not selectively enforce its zoning ordinance because each zoning application is reviewed individually in accordance with its broad grant of statutory authority.2

The petitioner sought review in this Court by writ of certiorari and has assigned as error the trial justice’s construction of portions of the zoning ordinance. The petitioner also alleges that the decision of the zoning board was arbitrary and [672]

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Bluebook (online)
841 A.2d 668, 2004 R.I. LEXIS 36, 2004 WL 297034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mill-realty-associates-v-crowe-ri-2004.