Suffield Heights Corporation v. Town Planning Commission

133 A.2d 612, 144 Conn. 425, 1957 Conn. LEXIS 115

• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decided: June 18, 1957
• Status: Published

Opinions

Baldwin, J.

The defendant commission has appealed from a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas which sustained the plaintiff’s appeal from the denial by the commission of the plaintiff’s application for a change of zone from residence A to business 1.

The facts are as follows: The plaintiff owns a parcel of land adjoining and to the north of the business zone on the north side of East Center Street, at its intersection with Lenox Street, in Manchester. The business zone extends along the north side of East Center Street for approximately 300 feet and has a depth of 320 feet. The portion of the zone adjacent to the plaintiff’s land is owned by the East Center Street Corporation and is occupied by a shopping center containing nine stores. Next to this on the west is a building designed to accommodate a branch bank and a store, with offices on the second floor. The plaintiff’s land is substantially triangular in shape, the base of the triangle adjoining the land on which the shopping center is located and the westerly and easterly boundary lines extending 540 and 631 feet, respectively, to a northerly boundary parallel to the southerly boundary but only 50 feet long. A wall, mounted by a five-foot wire mesh fence, extends along the easterly boundary and retains land lying to the east which is twelve feet higher than the plaintiff’s land. The plaintiff’s land is zoned residence A and is bounded on three sides by other lands also zoned residence A. The plaintiff applied to have the .southerly portion, including that which was within 200 feet of the business zone, zoned business 1. The buildings hereinbefore described are set back 140 feet from East Center Street, and the area in front •of them is used for parking, in accordance with the zoning regulations. There is an increasing demand for off-street parking to accommodate those who •come to do business in the area. The purpose of the plaintiff’s application was to make additional land available for parking. East Center Street is one of the main thoroughfares in Manchester, and the area under consideration is a relatively short distance from the main business center of the town. The defendant denied the plaintiff’s application and gave .as its only reason that a change of zone from residence to business would result in “jutting a Business Zone into a Residential area.”

The rule often stated by this court that courts •cannot substitute their discretion for the liberal discretion which the legislature has conferred on local zoning authorities (Couch v. Zoning Commission, 141 Conn. 349, 359, 106 A.2d 173, and cases cited) is based upon two fundamental reasons. First, courts do not have administrative or legislative powers and consequently do not hear appeals from zoning authorities de novo. Second, local authorities .are presumed to be more familiar with the circumstances of a given situation and the peculiar character and inherent nature of the zonal development of their town. Situations arise, however, where the application of zoning to a particular piece of property practically destroys its value for any permitted use to which it can reasonably be put and where the application of the ordinance bears so little relationship to the purposes of the zone requirement, as it affects that particular property, as to render the regulation confiscatory or arbitrary. Libby v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 143 Conn. 46, 51, 118 A.2d 894. The legislature has given a right of appeal from the decisions of local zoning authorities to the Court of Common Pleas, which “may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify or revise the decision appealed from.” Cum. Sup. 1955, § 379d. In the light of the statute, a court cannot take the view in every case that the discretion exercised by the local zoning authority must not be disturbed, for if it did the right of appeal would be empty. Therefore, the court can grant relief upon appeal in those cases where the local authority has acted arbitrarily or illegally and consequently has abused the discretion entrusted to it. Lindy’s Restaurant, Inc. v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 143 Conn. 620, 622, 124 A.2d 918. In reviewing the action of the court, we have to decide whether it could in logic and in law reach the conclusion that the commission should be overruled.

The record of the hearings before the commission contains testimony that the land for which the change in zone was sought was unsuitable for residential use and “entirely unfit for any other use but business.” This testimony was not contradicted. More important, and essential to the sustaining of the trial court’s decision, was the circumstance that this testimony was supported by incontrovertible physical facts, as was disclosed by the numerous exhibits in the commission’s record. The court viewed the location. In its memorandum of decision the court stated: “If the zonal change were permitted, the parcel of land in question, an inner lot situated to the rear of an already existing business :zone and useless for residential purposes, would be permitted to have utility for the parking of ears in connection with the extensive public uses of the business zone fronting the public highway.” The rationale of the court’s decision is essentially that the denial of the plaintiff’s application for a reclassification of its land prevented it from making any reasonable use of that land. “A classification permanently restricting the enjoyment of property to such an extent that it cannot he utilized for any reasonable purpose goes beyond valid regulation and constitutes a taking without due process.” Del Buono v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 143 Conn. 673, 678, 124 A.2d 915, and authorities there cited; see Fiorilla v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 144 Conn. 275, 280, 129 A.2d 619; Libby v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 143 Conn. 46, 51, 118 A.2d 894. Under the circumstances of this case, the decision of the court reversing the commission can be justified both in logic and in law.

The defendant’s argument that the change of zone is not in furtherance of the comprehensive plan of zoning for Manchester is invalid. The proposal is to extend, at the dictate of public convenience and necessity, an existing business zone created by the commission. It is not to create a new one. Hills v. Zoning Commission, 139 Conn. 603, 609, 96 A.2d 212; Mallory v. West Hartford, 138 Conn. 497, 506, 86 A.2d 668; see Zuckerman v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 144 Conn. 160, 164, 128 A.2d . The further claim of the defendant that, having refused to grant the plaintiff’s application at an earlier hearing, it was powerless to reverse itself at. a second hearing shortly thereafter and was therefore justified in its action lacks merit. There was a. substantial change in conditions owing to the construction in the business zone of an additional building to contain a bank, a store and offices. Fiorilla v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 144 Conn. 275, 279, 129 A.2d 619. Furthermore, we are dealing here with, the action of a legislative body as distinguished from a board of appeals, and the rule upon which the defendant relies does not necessarily apply. Winslow v. Zoning Board, 143 Conn. 381, 390, 122 A.2d 789.

There is no error.

In this opinion O’Sullivan, C. J., Wynne and. King, Js., concurred.