Agenda - Council - 03/25/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the grounds that a private college is not a permitted use in a residential zone. Northwestern sought a declaratory judgment that the denial of its permit by Arden Hills was arbitrary and capricious and 'therefore void. The Minnesota Supreme Court said that the city's action was "patently arbitrary and capricious and that it denied Northwestern equal protection of the laws." The Court paid close attention to the city's previous zoning approval of building projects at Bethel: Bethel... has been granted numerous building permits to cortstruct student and missionary housing, college buildings, and an addition to its fine arts center. In contrast, Northwestern was denied a special-use permit to construct a fine arts center on the ground that it is not a permitted use in a residential area. A zoning ordinance must operate uniformly on those similarly situated .... [T]he equal protection clauses of the Minnesota Constitution and of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution require that one applicant not be preferred over another for reasons unexpressed or unrelated to the health, welfare, or safety of the community or any other particular and permissible standards or conditions imposed by relevant zoning ordinances. Arden Hills further argued that it should not be bound by its allegedly erroneously issued building permits for Bethel. The Court rejected that argument, saying unequal treatment of similarly situated parties is prohibited even if the city's previous zoning actions involving Bethel .,were illegal or improper. Likewise, the City of Ramsey must grant R-1U (Urban) zoning to the Apple Ridge subdivision to be consistent with the action it has taken in granting several previous subdivisions in similar situations. The City Council should understand that the City of Ramsey is; bound by the representation it made to Good Value via its Official Zoning Map that the Barthold 7