Agenda - Planning Commission - 07/01/1997

Home

! ' Page 8 - June 25, 1997 Z.B. .. DECISION: Reversed and returned to the board. Jebousek was able to prove she brought the environmental concerns to the city's attention. The evidence supported her claims that the city failed to address the environmental hazard issue. Because the board affirmed the city's approva.l without discussion, the board's decision couldn't be reviewed to determine if any errors had been made. As a result, the case had to be returned to the board for additional proceedings. see also: Testa v. Clackamas County, 921 P.2d 967 (1996). Petrie v. City of Lake Oswego, 911 P.2d 346 (1996). u~ Rezoning - Owner faces city's road block on rezoning application Debes v. Key West, 690 So.2d 700 (Florida) 1997 Debes owned land in Key West, Fla., surrounded in all directions by a commercial area. Despite this location, Debes' land was zoned medium-density residential. Three times the city planner and planning board, in an attempt to correct a zoning "mistake," moved to have the parcel rezoned as commercial general so a shopping center could be built there. However, the Key West City Commission denied the three applications. Debes sued the city of Key West, asking the court to review the commission's decision to deny the applications. The city argued that rezoning the parcel would result in increased traffic and would frustrate its attempts to build additional affordable housing. The court upheld the commission's refusal to rezone the parcel. Debes appealed. DECISION: Reversed and returned to the commission with instructions. Singling out Debes' property for residential use was discriminatory and could not be allowed. The commission couldn't produce one argument to justify its denial of the rezoning application. The commission also couldn't substantiate its concerns about increased traffic. By their very nature, commercial uses generated more traffic, so fears of traffic overflow could not be used to deny a landowner of its rights. In addition, concerns of traffic congestion were invalid if used to discriminate unreasonably among uses. Because Debes' parcel was surrounded entirely by commercial uses, the commission appeared to be discriminating against her lanch The commission also couldn't reject the application on the basis of its affordable housing plans. While a noble aim, affordable housing policy couldn't be enforced at the expense of a property owner's rights. As a result, the matter was returned to the commission so it could grant the rezoning application. Editor's note: The appeals court in this case opposed the denial of Debes' rezoning request so strongly that, in addition to condemning the commission's actions, it labeled the lower court's decision to affIrm the denial as a "miscarriage of justice" that "fundamentally and seriously depart[ed] from the controlling law."