Town of Rye Board of Selectmen v. Town of Rye Zoning Board of Adjustment

930 A.2d 382, 155 N.H. 622, 2007 N.H. LEXIS 104
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedJune 26, 2007
DocketNo. 2006-598
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 930 A.2d 382 (Town of Rye Board of Selectmen v. Town of Rye Zoning Board of Adjustment) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Town of Rye Board of Selectmen v. Town of Rye Zoning Board of Adjustment, 930 A.2d 382, 155 N.H. 622, 2007 N.H. LEXIS 104 (N.H. 2007).

Opinions

Galway, J.

The plaintiff, the Town of Rye Board of Selectmen (Selectmen), appeals an order of the Superior Court {Morrill, J.) upholding a decision of the Town of Rye Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) to allow the intervenor, 228 Maple Street, LLC (228 Maple), to convert buildings that it owns to condominiums. We affirm.

The following facts are undisputed. 228 Maple owns a 1.29-acre parcel in Rye on which ten cottage-style buildings and one building containing a rental office and an apartment are located. The cottage-style buildings range in size from 347 to 766 square feet and have been rented seasonally. The Town of Rye Zoning Ordinance (Ordinance) classifies the cottage-style buildings as “tourist cabins” or “tourist camps,” which are excluded from the general residential zone in which they sit. The cabins were constructed prior to Rye’s adoption of the Ordinance, however; thus, they are prior non-conforming uses. Aside from not conforming to the use requirements, the cottages also do not conform to the lot-size requirements of the general residential zone.

In January 2004,228 Maple applied to the ZBA for a special exception to convert the eleven buildings to condominium ownership. In its application, 228 Maple agreed to limit the use of the tourist cabins to seasonal use. The ZBA dismissed the application for lack of jurisdiction because the Ordinance only permitted condominium conversion of “dwelling units,” and tourist cabins were not included in that definition.

228 Maple appealed to the superior court, and sought a declaratory ruling that the special exception criteria in the Ordinance conflicted with RSA chapter 356-B (1995 & Supp. 2006), the Condominium Act. The trial court ruled in July 2005 that the Ordinance’s prohibition of condominium conversion for any building not classified as a “dwelling unit” conflicted with the Condominium Act. The court reversed the ZBA’s dismissal of 228 Maple’s application and remanded for a determination of whether the proposed condominium conversion would result in a change in use of the property.

On remand, the ZBA determined that no change in use would occur and granted 228 Maple’s application for a special exception. The Selectmen appealed the ZBA’s decision to the superior court, claiming that the court’s [624]*624first decision placed the ZBA in the untenable position of deciding a matter over which it had no jurisdiction. Citing its prior decision, the trial court ruled in June 2006 that the Ordinance’s prohibition of condominium conversions for any structures other than “dwelling units” conflicted with the Condominium Act. The court found that the only way the ZBA could deny the special exception would be for the condominium conversion to result in a change in land use, and the Selectmen had not met their burden to demonstrate that the ZBA’s determination regarding change in use was unlawful or unreasonable.

The Selectmen appeal the trial court’s rulings. We address each issue raised by the Selectmen in turn.

I. Preemption

The Selectmen argue that the superior court erred in ruling that the Ordinance conflicts with the Condominium Act by prohibiting condominium conversion of “tourist cabins.” They argue that the legislature did not intend the Condominium Act to completely control land use regulation of condominiums because the Act expressly provides for local land use regulation.

An issue of state preemption is essentially one of statutory interpretation. Blagbrough Family Realty Trust v. Town of Wilton, 153 N.H. 234, 236 (2006). We review the trial court’s statutory interpretation de novo. In the Matter of Giacomini & Giacomini, 151 N.H. 775, 776 (2005).

We are the final arbiters of the legislature’s intent as expressed in the words of the statute considered as a whole. We first examine the language of the statute, and, where possible, ascribe the plain and ordinary meanings to the words used. When a statute’s language is plain and unambiguous, we need not look beyond it for further indication of legislative intent, and we refuse to consider what the legislature might have said or add language that the legislature did not see fit to incorporate in the statute.

Id. (citations omitted).

It is well settled that towns cannot regulate a field that has been preempted by the State. Thayer v. Town of Tilton, 151 N.H. 483, 487 (2004). The preemption doctrine flows from the principle that municipal legislation is invalid if it is repugnant to, or inconsistent with, State law. Id. One way in which municipal legislation will be preempted is if it expressly contradicts State law. Id. State law expressly preempts local law when [625]*625there is an actual conflict between State and local regulation. N. Country Envtl. Servs. v. Town of Bethlehem, 150 N.H. 606, 611 (2004). An actual conflict exists when a municipal ordinance or regulation permits that which a State statute prohibits, or vice versa. Id.

The Selectmen challenge the trial court’s finding of an actual conflict between the Condominium Act and the Ordinance. The Ordinance states, in pertinent part:

Section 503 Condominium Conversions.
503.1 Permitted by Special Exception: In any district, conversion of existing dwelling units to condominium ownership shall be permitted as a special exception granted by the Board of Adjustment, only if all the provisions herein are met.
503.3 Criteria for Special Exceptions.
A. The dwelling units which are subject to the request for condominium conversion must, at the time of the request for condominium conversion, exist as legal dwelling units pursuant to the ordinances of the Town of Rye. The burden shall be on the petitioner to demonstrate that the units sought to be converted have legal status.
B. Each dwelling unit of the condominium shall contain a minimum of six hundred (600) square feet of floor area.

The ordinance defines a “dwelling unit” as:

One or more rooms arranged for the use of one or more persons living together as a single housekeeping unit, and having cooking, living, sanitary and sleeping facilities, but not including hotel, motel, tourist cabin (camp), lodging house, institutional home, residential club units or other similar commercial accommodations offered for occupancy.

There is no dispute that the ten cottage-style buildings at issue in this case are “tourist cabins” under the Ordinance. There is also no dispute that the above-quoted language from the Ordinance prohibits conversion of tourist cabins to condominiums. The trial court ruled that this language in the Ordinance conflicts with RSA 356-B:5 (1995), which states, in pertinent part:

No zoning or other land use ordinance shall prohibit condominiums as such by reason of the form of ownership inherent therein. Neither shall any condominium be treated [626]*626differently by any zoning or other land use ordinance which would permit a physically identical project or development under a different form of ownership....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
930 A.2d 382, 155 N.H. 622, 2007 N.H. LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/town-of-rye-board-of-selectmen-v-town-of-rye-zoning-board-of-adjustment-nh-2007.