Simmonds v. Meyn

7 P.2d 506, 134 Kan. 419, 1932 Kan. LEXIS 229
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 30, 1932
DocketNo. 30,086
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 7 P.2d 506 (Simmonds v. Meyn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simmonds v. Meyn, 7 P.2d 506, 134 Kan. 419, 1932 Kan. LEXIS 229 (kan 1932).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harvey, J.:

This is an action to enjoin the construction and operation of a filling station on lot number 166 on Massachusetts street in Lawrence, and to have adjudged void ordinance number 1739 of the city of Lawrence, which amended a prior zoning ordinance of the city. The trial court made findings of fact and rendered judgment for defendant. Plaintiff has appealed. The findings of fact tell the story of the controversy, as follows:

[420]*420“1. The defendant, Fritz Meyn, is the owner of lot number 166, Massachusetts street, Lawrence, Kan., which is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Massachusetts and Thirteenth streets in said city, and the plaintiff, Simmonds, owns property directly across the street west of said lot.
“2. By ordinance of the city of Lawrence, number 1637, which is an ordinance defining the uses to which real property in the city of Lawrence may be put, usually characterized as a zoning ordinance, said lot 166 was placed in the U-2 zone or district and its use restricted to residences, apartment houses, hotels and- kindred structures.
“3. In January, 1930, the defendant, Meyn, applied to the commission of the city, of Lawrence, in writing, requesting the rezoning of said lot for the uses that it might be put to and aslked that it be changed from U-2 district to a U-3 district. This application was referred to the planning commission of the city, which refused to act upon it for the reason that the applicant had not complied with a rule of the planning commission, and it was returned to the city commission without recommendation.
“4. In February, 1930, the city commission by a unanimous vote passed an ordinance, known as ordinance number 1739, which provided, among other things, ‘That the following described real property in the said city of Lawrence, to wit: Lot number 166 on Massachusetts street in said city, be placed in U-3 district.’ The title to ordinance number 1739 read as follows: ‘An ordinance amending section one of ordinance number 1637, being section 19-101 of the revised ordinances of the city of Lawrence, Kan., of 1926, and repealing said original section one of said ordinance number 1637.’ Section three provides: ‘That this ordinance shall take effect and be in force from and after ten days after its passage and publication according to law.’ Said ordinance is in evidence as exhibit ten, and by reference is made a part of these findings.
“5. The city clerk without further direction than that contained in the ordinance caused the said ordinance 1739 to be published in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World, the official city paper of said city, and such ordinance was published the number of times required by law, the first publication appearing on March 18, 1930. A day or two after its passage in February an abortive attempt was made to publish it.
“6. After the ordinance was published a gasoline filling station was installed on said lot 166, which was permissible in a U-3 district.
“7. At the time that the ordinance was published there appeared in connection with it in the same publication, and as a part of the ordinance, a map or plat of the city which by different methods of identification indicated the zone in which the several lots in the city of Lawrence might lie. Exhibit ten is the proof of publication made by the printer of ordinance number 1739. The ordinance was first published on March 18, 1930. The printing on the map or plat of the' city above referred to was imperfect with reference to some of the lots, and the impression of lot 166, Massachusetts street, thereon was somewhat indistinct; however, the district in which said lot was placed was ascertainable from the said publication as a whole.
“9. Lot 166, Massachusetts street, for the last sixty years or more has been [421]*421used in connection with business enterprises, and since sometime between 1880 and 1890 there has been a grocery store on said lot to which was connected a small residence.
“914. Massachusetts street extends from the south end of the Kaw river bridge or Sixth street south to Twenty-third ’street. From Sixth street to South Park it is zoned for business on both sides of the street. South Park begins about three hundred feet south of Eleventh street and continues to about three hundred feet north of Thirteenth street, the open space of the park being on both sides of Massachusetts street, at which point both sides of the street are zoned in the U-2 district. From Thirteenth street south on the west side thereof it is zoned in the U-2 district about two-thirds of the way to Fourteenth street, and for business or U-3 district from thence on south to Fourteenth. The east side of lot 166, which is a corner lot, is in the U-3 district and from there on south to Fourteenth it is zoned in the U-2 district. Lawrence Memorial high school is immediately south of Fourteenth street and the building and yard occupies all of the land up to Fifteenth street. Many of the pupils naturally pass by said lot 166 going to and coming from school. On the west side south of Fourteenth the first few lots are zoned in the U-3 district, and from thence south to Fifteenth it is in the U-2 district. Nearly every fifty-foot lot has a house on it and practically all of the residences in the U-2 district are of a permanent character, as are those on Thirteenth street in the immediate vicinity. The residence owned by the plaintiff, Simmonds, is directly across the street west of said lot 166 and is a particularly substantial and commodious stone residence. The Christian Science church is north of Thirteenth street and probably a hundred feet or more from the corner. The Trinity Lutheran church is about four hundred feet north and east of said lot 166. It is a new building in which there are conducted the usual and ordinary church services.
“10. Most of the property in the immediate neighborhood has been improved with the knowledge of the conditions existing on lot 166.
“11. Installation of a gasoline filling station with its attendant uses, together with the noise incident thereto and the artificial lights used, is distasteful to the plaintiff and to some of the other owners of real estate in the immediate vicinity and may cause some damage from a monetary standpoint to their property for residence purposes. However, from all of the testimony, I am unable to determine satisfactorily the approximate depreciation, if any, which the installation of the station will occasion to the adjacent property with any degree of certainty. The enjoyment by some of the present owners of the residence property near by appears in some instances to be impaired and in Other instances it does not appear to be impaired.
“12. Up to the present time the filling station has been conducted in an orderly manner and does not appear to be obnoxious to the parties from any other standpoint than that it is a filling station, except as suggested in the foregoing conclusion.
“13. At the time the city commission had under consideration ordinance number 1739 it had before it practically the same evidence which is before the court in this suit.
[422]*422“14.

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Bluebook (online)
7 P.2d 506, 134 Kan. 419, 1932 Kan. LEXIS 229, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmonds-v-meyn-kan-1932.