ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:
Property owners seek an injunction against enforcement of a City of New Orleans ordinance prohibiting the issuance of building permits for fast-food restaurants in a certain neighborhood until the City completes a study of the area. The district court held that this moratorium was not a zoning ordinance and therefore need not conform to Louisiana’s constitutional and statutory provisions for the adoption of such ordinances and that its enactment was not a denial of due process or equal protection. Relying on the temporary nature of the restriction, we affirm.
Thomas E. Schafer, Jr., and others who join as plaintiffs in this suit, (“the landowners”), own the property that forms a corner of South Carrollton Avenue and Jeannette Street in the City of New Orleans. In 1970, the City adopted a comprehensive zoning ordinance permitting the landowners’ property and other property in the same square to be used for a variety of
commercial purposes, including operation of fast-food restaurants. In this square, fronting on South Carrollton Avenue, there are a Gulf Service Station, a Popeye’s Chicken store (which is of the fast-food type), a branch of the United States Post Office, and, on the landowners’ property, a sandwich shop and a drug store, which has a food-service counter. Behind this property is an industrial district and in that adjacent square the regional transit authority bus and car “barn” is located.
In January 1984, McDonald’s Corporation, which franchises fast-food restaurants, agreed to buy the Post Office property and the landowners’ property for use as a McDonald’s Drive-In. When Bryan Wagner, the City Councilman elected from the district in which these properties are located, read an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about McDonald’s plans, he had drafted and then introduced a proposed ordinance, which later became Ordinance No. 9713 M.C.S., calling for a moratorium on the issuance of permits for fast-food restaurants in that area until a study of land use in the area could be completed or until December 31, 1984, whichever was sooner. He also introduced a resolution requesting the City Planning Commission to initiate a study of land use in the area. The Council immediately adopted the resolution which recited that the Carrollton neighborhood, in which the landowners’ property is located, is one of the most picturesque and stable in the city and is historically important. A public hearing was later held on the proposed moratorium ordinance and, although no notice of the hearing was given to the landowners, Timothy Schafer, their counsel, appeared at the hearing and spoke in opposition to the proposed moratorium. Nineteen persons, three of whom represented neighborhood or historic groups, advocated the proposal, giving a number of reasons why they opposed the construction of a fast-food restaurant on this block.
After the moratorium was adopted, McDonald’s terminated the agreement to buy the landowners’ property, as it had a right to do under a clause permitting termination of the agreement if it could not obtain á building permit.
The district court denied the landowners’ application for a preliminary and permanent injunction and dismissed the suit. The landowners contend that the ordinance was adopted in violation of Louisiana law and deprives them of their property without due process or equal protection.
I.
The Louisiana enabling statutes
and the City Charter
require notice of a proposed
change in a zoning ordinance and prohibit adoption of such a change without a minimum layover period. The construction of these statutes is obviously for the state courts. In
A. Copeland Enterprises v. City of New
Orleans,
a Louisiana appellate court considered a similar attack on a moratorium on land use. It found that the landowners had not borne the burden of demonstrating that the moratorium was “incompatible with the enabling legislation or the [Louisiana] Constitution,” and that the moratorium was not subject to a similar layover provision in the New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.
“No notice,” it said, is “required before the passage of ‘urgency’ ordinances of limited duration in furtherance of a comprehensive plan since the very purpose of such ordinances — to preserve the status quo — would be destroyed if such notice and hearing were required.”
Although
Copeland
did not specifically address the notice requirements in City Charter Section 3-112(5), the decision cannot be distinguished on that basis.
Copeland
construed La.R.S. 33:4721
et seq.
and the provisions of New Orleans ordinances similar to City Charter Article 3-112(5). In the light of
Copeland,
we have no reason to believe a state court would interpret City Charter Article 3-112(5) differently. We must accept the state court’s construction of state law.
II.
The landowners’ contention that they have been denied property without due process depends first on their showing a deprivation of property. The district court noted that they had introduced no evidence that the value of their property had been reduced. Their present use is not affected. There is no evidence that delaying the possible sale of the property until after December 31, 1984 will cause them any financial loss. Indeed, the ordinance does not deprive the landowners of the opportunity to sell the property to McDonald’s in the future, although the contract gave McDonald’s the right to withdraw from the earlier contract.
The landowners have certainly received procedural due process. They had actual notice of the introduction of the ordinance, appeared at the hearing preceding its adoption, and availed themselves of the opportunity to argue against its adoption. This sufficed.
The landowners appear to contend that the ordinance is so arbitrary an exercise of government power as to deny them due process in its substantive sense. Every regulation of the use of property, permanent or temporary, restricts the owner’s freedom and may affect the value of his property. The due process clause, in its substantive sense, requires only that the regulation be reasonably related to a valid governmental purpose.
Zoning ordinances and similar regulations on the use of property are presumed valid.
Unless their impact on land usage denies the owner the “ ‘justice and
fairness’ ” guaranteed by the constitution, they should be upheld.
The ordinance does not take an inch of the landowners’ property. It does not deny them the right in the future to use the property for any purpose that it may now be put to.
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ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:
Property owners seek an injunction against enforcement of a City of New Orleans ordinance prohibiting the issuance of building permits for fast-food restaurants in a certain neighborhood until the City completes a study of the area. The district court held that this moratorium was not a zoning ordinance and therefore need not conform to Louisiana’s constitutional and statutory provisions for the adoption of such ordinances and that its enactment was not a denial of due process or equal protection. Relying on the temporary nature of the restriction, we affirm.
Thomas E. Schafer, Jr., and others who join as plaintiffs in this suit, (“the landowners”), own the property that forms a corner of South Carrollton Avenue and Jeannette Street in the City of New Orleans. In 1970, the City adopted a comprehensive zoning ordinance permitting the landowners’ property and other property in the same square to be used for a variety of
commercial purposes, including operation of fast-food restaurants. In this square, fronting on South Carrollton Avenue, there are a Gulf Service Station, a Popeye’s Chicken store (which is of the fast-food type), a branch of the United States Post Office, and, on the landowners’ property, a sandwich shop and a drug store, which has a food-service counter. Behind this property is an industrial district and in that adjacent square the regional transit authority bus and car “barn” is located.
In January 1984, McDonald’s Corporation, which franchises fast-food restaurants, agreed to buy the Post Office property and the landowners’ property for use as a McDonald’s Drive-In. When Bryan Wagner, the City Councilman elected from the district in which these properties are located, read an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about McDonald’s plans, he had drafted and then introduced a proposed ordinance, which later became Ordinance No. 9713 M.C.S., calling for a moratorium on the issuance of permits for fast-food restaurants in that area until a study of land use in the area could be completed or until December 31, 1984, whichever was sooner. He also introduced a resolution requesting the City Planning Commission to initiate a study of land use in the area. The Council immediately adopted the resolution which recited that the Carrollton neighborhood, in which the landowners’ property is located, is one of the most picturesque and stable in the city and is historically important. A public hearing was later held on the proposed moratorium ordinance and, although no notice of the hearing was given to the landowners, Timothy Schafer, their counsel, appeared at the hearing and spoke in opposition to the proposed moratorium. Nineteen persons, three of whom represented neighborhood or historic groups, advocated the proposal, giving a number of reasons why they opposed the construction of a fast-food restaurant on this block.
After the moratorium was adopted, McDonald’s terminated the agreement to buy the landowners’ property, as it had a right to do under a clause permitting termination of the agreement if it could not obtain á building permit.
The district court denied the landowners’ application for a preliminary and permanent injunction and dismissed the suit. The landowners contend that the ordinance was adopted in violation of Louisiana law and deprives them of their property without due process or equal protection.
I.
The Louisiana enabling statutes
and the City Charter
require notice of a proposed
change in a zoning ordinance and prohibit adoption of such a change without a minimum layover period. The construction of these statutes is obviously for the state courts. In
A. Copeland Enterprises v. City of New
Orleans,
a Louisiana appellate court considered a similar attack on a moratorium on land use. It found that the landowners had not borne the burden of demonstrating that the moratorium was “incompatible with the enabling legislation or the [Louisiana] Constitution,” and that the moratorium was not subject to a similar layover provision in the New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.
“No notice,” it said, is “required before the passage of ‘urgency’ ordinances of limited duration in furtherance of a comprehensive plan since the very purpose of such ordinances — to preserve the status quo — would be destroyed if such notice and hearing were required.”
Although
Copeland
did not specifically address the notice requirements in City Charter Section 3-112(5), the decision cannot be distinguished on that basis.
Copeland
construed La.R.S. 33:4721
et seq.
and the provisions of New Orleans ordinances similar to City Charter Article 3-112(5). In the light of
Copeland,
we have no reason to believe a state court would interpret City Charter Article 3-112(5) differently. We must accept the state court’s construction of state law.
II.
The landowners’ contention that they have been denied property without due process depends first on their showing a deprivation of property. The district court noted that they had introduced no evidence that the value of their property had been reduced. Their present use is not affected. There is no evidence that delaying the possible sale of the property until after December 31, 1984 will cause them any financial loss. Indeed, the ordinance does not deprive the landowners of the opportunity to sell the property to McDonald’s in the future, although the contract gave McDonald’s the right to withdraw from the earlier contract.
The landowners have certainly received procedural due process. They had actual notice of the introduction of the ordinance, appeared at the hearing preceding its adoption, and availed themselves of the opportunity to argue against its adoption. This sufficed.
The landowners appear to contend that the ordinance is so arbitrary an exercise of government power as to deny them due process in its substantive sense. Every regulation of the use of property, permanent or temporary, restricts the owner’s freedom and may affect the value of his property. The due process clause, in its substantive sense, requires only that the regulation be reasonably related to a valid governmental purpose.
Zoning ordinances and similar regulations on the use of property are presumed valid.
Unless their impact on land usage denies the owner the “ ‘justice and
fairness’ ” guaranteed by the constitution, they should be upheld.
The ordinance does not take an inch of the landowners’ property. It does not deny them the right in the future to use the property for any purpose that it may now be put to. It merely suspends the owners’ ability to devote their property to a particular use for IOV2 months. We express no opinion on the reasonableness of zoning the property more restrictively than is presently permitted. The City has taken no such action.
Interim development controls such as this moratorium have been found to play an important role in municipal planning.
They aid in “bridging the gap between planning and its implementation into legal measures.”
They may, as here, be used to preserve the status quo while study of the area and its needs is completed.
This moratorium on land use serves a significant public purpose.
Study of, and, if study warrants, changes in land use control cannot be completed instanter. While these are proceeding, there may be a dramatic increase in the number of potentially adverse uses. Building activity may increase or be expected because of the fear that contemplated uses may be prohibited. Interim zoning or a moratorium may be necessary to prevent a plan’s defeat before it is formulated.
In determining whether stop-gap ordinances or moratoria are reasonable, their duration is an important consideration. Property owners should not be deprived of the use of their property by an ordinance if its temporary character is but a ruse. Yet municipalities must be allowed a reasonable time within which to plan comprehensive zoning measures.
This New Orleans moratorium is for less than a year and its expiration date is firmly fixed.
While the landowners do not specifically challenge the duration of the moratorium, they challenge its application to only five blocks along Carrollton Avenue and seven blocks along Oak Street. There is at least a plausible reason to thus limit the area. Immediately adjacent blocks along Carrollton are zoned residential; the Comprehensive Zoning Law currently prohibits fast-food restaurants in residential zones, and thus there is no need for a moratorium as to those adjacent blocks. The landowners have not established that the IOV2 month moratorium denies them substantive due process.
The landowners’ argument that the ordinance denies them equal protection also fails. Patently, the ordinance is aimed only at fast-food restaurants. But we cannot say,
a priori,
without evidence, that there is not a sufficient rational distinction between such restaurants and other commercial establishments to warrant a study. We note again that we are not required to determine the validity of a
permanent
zoning ordinance that, for example, distinguishes between the “Popeye’s” or other establishments already located in that block and other kinds of fast-food restaurants. The issue presented is whether a moratorium and study of such, uses, over a 10% month period, denies those who would build fast-food restaurants of equal protection: The burden of proof is on the land
owners. The district court found they had not met it. It also found that the “waiver/appeals” section of the ordinance was not unconstitutionally vague. We find no error in these rulings on the record before us.
For these reasons the judgment is AFFIRMED.