Agenda - Planning Commission - 06/07/2007

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January.1, 2007 I Volume 1 I NO.1 See also: Humane Soc'y of Moore Cty. Inc, v. Toum of Southern Pines,S 89 S.E.2d 162 (N.c. App. 2003), Zoning Decision-Town classifies residential care facility as an laffice' . Says facility does not have the required number of parking spaces given that classification Citation: Spec;trum Health Systems, Inc. v. Town of Weymouth, 2006 WL 3487030 (D. Mass. 2006) MASSACHUSETTS (12/04/06)- Spectrum Health Syst=s was renovating a building in the town of Weymouth from which to operate a residential substance abuse program. The program was run through a contract with the state depart- ment of public health, and, as a condition of the contract, the residents were not allowed to have cars. The facility had 32 existing parking spaces. According to a local orclinance" certain builclings had to have a specified number of parking spaces in relation to square footage of the building. If a facility did not have the required number of spaces, it had to obtain special permit approval for fewer spaces from the town. Under the orclinance, Spectrum was required to have 80 parking spaces. The building inspector sent Spectrum a letter stating that the current construc- tion violated the orclinance and that a special permit had to be obtained. Spec- trum appealed to the court for emergency relief, asking it to block any action that might be taken by the town to stop the work on. the builcling or, alternatively, to grant the special permit. Spectrum contended that the town was attempting to discourage the presence of a residential care program in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The town argued that the additional parking spaces were required under the orclinance and that r..he case should be dismissed because Spectrum had not ex- hausted its administrative remedies. Decision: Request for emergency relief denied. Though the court denied Spectrum's request for relief, it did not appear that construction of the facility would be interrupted. The court rioted that the lawsuit was pr=arure, but, if pursued to trial, Spectrum would likely succeed based on the merits of its claim. The orclinance in question applied to "office" builclings. If Spectrum's builcling was assigned to one of many other categories under the ordinance-which did not have a classification for such facilities specifically - it would have met the parking space regulation. The decision of the town to classify Spectrum's facility as an of-- fice was arbitrary. Further, the public interest would not be harmed by the lack of parllT1g spaces at the facility, which, based on the number of staff, iDlrequent visitors, and the contract forbid cling residents from ovvning cars, would service a very limited nu...TIl- ber of vehicles. The court suggested that the operation of a substance .abuse facil- ity, however, would serve the public interest. Finally, there was a strong public interest in the non-arbitrary implementation of zoning law. i\lthough the relief sought by Spectrum was not granted, the judge asked the town to make a decision on the parking issue within five days of the hearing, and suggested that, if Spectrum was denied the waiver, the proceedings to remedy the situation would be "speedy"-and likely in favor of Spectrum. 7 151