Signature Properties International Ltd. Partnership v. City of Edmond

310 F.3d 1258, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 23263, 2002 WL 31538647
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedNovember 8, 2002
Docket00-6403
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 310 F.3d 1258 (Signature Properties International Ltd. Partnership v. City of Edmond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Signature Properties International Ltd. Partnership v. City of Edmond, 310 F.3d 1258, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 23263, 2002 WL 31538647 (10th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judge.

I

INTRODUCTION

This appeal arises from a dispute between a real estate development firm and a municipality. Plaintiff/appellant Signature Properties purchased land in the town of Edmond, Oklahoma, defendant/appellee herein, which was part of a planned residential development called Oak Tree. A controversy developed over which party was responsible for improving or enlarging the sewer system for a part of the development that had been completed in previous years. After some period of maneuvering, Signature brought this suit in federal court alleging, inter alia, that the City had violated its constitutional property rights by preventing it from developing its land.

After trial to the court, the district judge granted declaratory relief to plaintiff on a state law claim, establishing that Edmond was responsible for the cost of improving the sewer system for the earlier developed portion of the land. The court rejected plaintiffs plea for an injunction and dismissed without prejudice plaintiffs claims for damages, holding that those claims were not ripe because there had been no final action by Edmond on which to base plaintiffs substantive due process claim. Plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff Signature invoked- the district court’s jurisdiction under both 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1332, alleging that some of its claims arose under federal law and that diversity of citizenship provided an independent basis for jurisdiction over other claims. The complaint also invoked the jurisdictional grant of 28 U.S.C. § 1343 as the case .addresses deprivation of Signature’s civil rights guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments. 1 This court’s ap *1261 pellate jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1291. 2

II

A

THE BACKGROUND OF THE OAK TREE DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEWER PROBLEM

In 1974, an entity known as Unique Golf Concept, Inc. proposed the Oak Tree residential development as a “planned unit development” (PUD). 3 The project included two golf courses and a country club as well as planned residential areas. Landmark, the successor to the original developer, went into bankruptcy, and plaintiff Signature, the owner and developer of other projects combining golf courses and residential areas, purchased Oak Tree from the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) in 1994. The Oak Tree project was located in Edmond, a relatively large municipality adjacent to Oklahoma City.

The sewer system installed in the first phase of the Oak Tree project included a lift station, known as lift station no.l, and a “force main” line. The system was de *1262 signed so that all sewage from the development would flow to lift station no.l and then be pumped through the force main to the city’s main line leading to the city’s treatment plant. The system was constructed by Unique, the original developer, and its capacity was intended to be adequate to serve the entire development, which was planned to consist eventually of 1700 residential units, housing approximately 5100 people. Edmond approved the design and in 1977 accepted the completed system.

Problems with the sewage system had begun at least as early as 1983, long before plaintiff Signature came on the scene. In that year a study of the problems revealed excessive “inflow and infiltration,” meaning that rain water periodically came into the system in a volume exceeding the system’s capacity. A second lift station was added in 1983 as had been planned earlier; this was not a response to the inflow and infiltration problem. The sewage ran from lift station no.2 to lift station no.l, which continued to pump the effluent from the entire development. A second study in 1985, undertaken after complaints about overflow continued to be received by Edmond, again found the problem to be inflow and infiltration.

When considering making the purchase of Oak Tree from the R.TC, plaintiff Signature undertook a substantial project of “due diligence,” that is an effort to learn about the project to ensure that its decision would be a well informed one. Plaintiffs interviews with Edmond representatives and staff and plaintiffs review of the RTC’s previous due diligence work yielded no information about the inflow and infiltration problems that had existed for over ten years. Instead, plaintiffs representative was told that “all utilities had the capacity for full buildout and there were no problems.” Dist. Ct. Memorandum Opinion at 3,1 App. 130.

It was not until some months after its 1994 purchase of Oak Tree that plaintiff was told of problems with the sewer system. Bob Bode, who held the title of Director of Development for plaintiff, met with representatives of Edmond regarding plans for two plats. These meetings included discussions of the necessity of building a new lift station, lift station no .3. As a result of these discussions, Mr. Bode wrote two letters which, Edmond was later to assert, committed plaintiff to replacing lift station no.l and the force main. One of plaintiffs proposed plats was approved in November 1995, and the second was approved in January 1996. As far as the district court’s opinion reveals, there was no substantial conflict between the parties for the next year or more; presumably plaintiff was developing the most recently approved plats. Soon, however, the parties were at odds.

B

THE LEGAL CONTROVERSY

By city ordinance, a planned unit development (PUD) must be completed within five years or the city must grant an extension of the PUD. If neither of these events occurs, then the zoning reverts to the previous use, which for the Oak Tree area was agricultural. Obviously then, a developer like the plaintiff has a great interest in obtaining an extension of the PUD.

The district court found that in 1997 the renewal of the PUD “was looming,” from which we infer that plaintiff had requested an extension and that the request was pending before the city council or the plan *1263 ning commission. Mr. Chris Ansley, general partner of plaintiff Signature, asked Bryan Coon, an engineer who had worked for plaintiff before, to develop a plan for increasing the sewer capacity. The resulting proposal was rejected by the planning commission in the summer of 1998.

At approximately the same time, plaintiff began plat development for a portion of Oak Tree that it called “the Legacy,” and contracted with a builder for the planned construction of 33 units. In the summer of 1998, planning commission approval was denied. At this time, Edmond officials showed Mr. Ansley two letters written by Mr. Bode, previously mentioned, which purported to commit plaintiff to upgrading the sewer system.

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Bluebook (online)
310 F.3d 1258, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 23263, 2002 WL 31538647, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/signature-properties-international-ltd-partnership-v-city-of-edmond-ca10-2002.