Olsen v. Park City Municipal Corporation

2016 UT App 106, 374 P.3d 52, 2016 WL 2942900, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 106
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedMay 19, 2016
Docket20141193-CA
StatusPublished

This text of 2016 UT App 106 (Olsen v. Park City Municipal Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olsen v. Park City Municipal Corporation, 2016 UT App 106, 374 P.3d 52, 2016 WL 2942900, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 106 (Utah Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Memorandum Decision

BENCH, Senior Judge:

{1 David Olsen, Rosemary Olsen, and Rick Margolis (collectively, Appellants) challenge the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Park City Municipal Corporation .(Park City) and Valley of Love LLC (collectively, Appellees). We affirm.

12 Valley of Love owns three adjacent parcels of real property on Empire Avenue in Park City, Utah, The two smaller parcels, consisting of 2,221 and 1,676 square feet, border Empire Avenue. The large parcel, consisting of 8,985 square feet, is landlocked behind the two small parcels. The parcels are located in a recreation commercial zone, which allows developments to have a maximum density ratio of 1.0. 2 See Park City, Utah, Land Mgmt. Code § 15-2.16-8(B), http://www.parkeity.org/home/ showdocument?id=220 - [https://perma.ce/55 MV-2R65]. However, setback requirements made the two smaller parcels unbuildable on their own.

4 3 In 2009, Valley of Love sought approval of a proposed ordinance to combine the three parcels, which had not yet been subdivided 3 for development, into a single platted lot of record. Park City approved Valley of Love's *54 proposal and enacted Ordinance 10-08, subdividing the three parcels into a'"single lot. 4 Valley of Love then sought and obtained approval of a conditional use, permit allowing it to build a multi-unit. dwelling. on the lot. 5

4 Appellants, who own property near the parcels, challenged Ordingnee 10-08 in district court; asserting that Park City violated various provisions of the Park City Land Management Code (LMC) by adopting the ordinance. . The parties filed eross-motions for summary judgment,. The district court determined that Ordinance 10-08 did not violate the LMC and granted Appellees motion for summary judgment.

1 5 Appellants assert that the district court erred in concluding that Park City's adoption of Ordinance 10-08 did not conflict with the LMC, and they therefore request that we reverse the district court's summary judgment ruling. We review the district court's ruling on summary judgment for correctness. See Springville Citizens for a Better Cmty. v. City of Springville, 1999 UT 25, ¶ 22, 979 P.2d 332.

¶ 6 “A mummpahty’s land use decisions are entitled to a great deal of deference." Id. Thus, we reverse such decisions only if they are "arbitrary, capricious, or ilegal," Id. ¶ 23. Appellants argue that Ordinance 10-08 violates LMC sections 157-5 and 15-7-2 and the Park City Planning Department's "General Plan" and that it is therefore illegal. 6

T7 Appellants first argue that Ordinance 10-08 violates section 15-7-5(B)(1), which provides that the LMC's regulations regarding subdivisions

are not intended to interfere with, abrogate, or annul any other ordinance, rule or regulation, statute, or other provision of law. Where any provision of these regulations imposes restriction different from those imposed by any other provision of these regulations or any other ordinance, rule or regulation, or other provision of law, whichever provisions are more restrictive or impose higher standards shall control.

Park City, Utah, Land Mgmt. Code § 15-7-5(B)(1), .- http://www.parkeity.org/home/ showdocument?id=207 [https://perma.co/XQ5 D-E9XM]. Appellants argue that Ordinance 10-08 annulled the effects of the building ratio and setback requirements applicable in the recreation commercial zone (the lot 'requirements), see id. § 15-2.16-8, http://www. parkeity.org/home/showdocument?id=220 [https://perma.ce/55MV-2R65], because it subdivided the parcels into a single lot and théreby increased their total buildable square footage, which the setback requirements previously hrmted '

18 Appellants argue that because setback requirements would have made the front two parcels unbuildable had they been subdivided into individual lots, the lot requirements had the effect of forever limiting the total builda-ble square footage on the three parcels to the amount allowed on the large parcel-8,985 square feet, They assert that the total could not be altered even if the parcels were ulti *55 mately subdivided into a single lot, Thus, because Ordinance 10-08 effectively ° increased the buildable square footage of the parcels to 12,882. square feet-an amount equal to the total square footage of the parcels-Appellants argue that it conflicted with the lot requirements as applicable prior to the subdivision and thereby violated section 15-7-5(B)(1).

T9 Appellants refer us to no authority suggesting that the buildable square footage of property must forever be defined by what would have been allowed on an individual parcel of property if it were subdivided as an individual lot, The setback requirements only indirectly affect the buildable square footage on a lot due to the impossibility of building a structure on a narrow lot while complying with the setback requirements; those requirements do not actually alter the density allowance for the lot, Furthermore, the lot requirements apply to lots, id. § 15-2,16-3, and the three parcels were not lots as defined by the LMC until they were subdivided, id. § 15-15-1,154, http://www.parkeity. org/home/showdocument?id=198 [https:// perma.ce/D8Z)J-GGT7Q] (defining a lot as "[a] mit of land described in a recorded Subdivision Plat"). Indeed, no structure of any kind could have been built on the parcels until they were subdivided. Id, § 15-1-9, http:// www.parkeity.org/home/showdocument?id= 7419 - [https://perma.ce/84MZ-FYBS] (instructing the Planning Department, in reviewing an application for a building permit, to "determine whether the proposal ... respects Lot Lines of a legally subdivided: Lot"). Thus, the lot requirements did not come into operation with respect to the parcels until after they were subdivided into a lot, and there is no possibility that Ordinance 10-08 could have with, abrogate[d], or annulfled]" the lot requirements for the recreation commercial zone. See id. § 15-7-5(B)(1), http://www.parkeity.org/ home/showdocument?id=207 [https://perma. ce/XQ5D-E9XM]. - ‘

'I 10 Appellants next assert that Ordinance 10-08 violates two of the stated purposes of the subdivision provisions of the LMC, namely, "to prevent overcrowding of the land and undue congestion of population" and "[tlo provide the most beneficial rélationship 'between the Uses of land and Buildings and the circulation of traffic, throughout the municipality, having particular regard to: the avoidance of congestion in the Streets and highways." Id. § 15-7-2(C), (G). Appellants argue that the increase in the potential buildable square footage of the three parcels created by Ordinance 10-08 violated the purposes 'of the LMC to prevent overcrowding and allow:cireulation of traffic.

11 We agree with the district court that Ordinance 10-08 is consistent with the purposes of the LMC. The fact that the setback requirements might have resulted in an overall lower density if the parcels had been subdivided differently does not change the fact that the LMC allows for a 1.0 density ratio. Thus, in enacting the LMC, Park City had previously determined that 1.0 was an appropriate density for the area.

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2016 UT App 106, 374 P.3d 52, 2016 WL 2942900, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olsen-v-park-city-municipal-corporation-utahctapp-2016.