1998 -NMCA- 28, Siesta Hills Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque

• Decision Date: 21 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. 17617,17617
• Citation: 954 P.2d 102,1998 NMCA 28,124 N.M. 670
• Parties: , 1998 -NMCA- 28 SIESTA HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, a New Mexico Non-Profit Corporation, Petitioner-Appellant, v. CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE, a New Mexico Municipal Corporation; A New Day, Inc., a New Mexico Non-Profit Corporation; and Jeff Burrows, d/b/a New Day Shelters, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

Page 102

954 P.2d 102

124 N.M. 670, 1998 -NMCA- 28

SIESTA HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, a New Mexico

Non-Profit Corporation, Petitioner-Appellant, v. CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE, a New Mexico Municipal Corporation; A

New Day, Inc., a New Mexico Non-Profit

Corporation; and Jeff Burrows, d/b/a

New Day Shelters, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 17617.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

Jan. 21, 1998.

[124 N.M. 672] Nicholas F. Persampieri, Santa Fe, for Appellant.

Robert M. White, City Attorney, David Suffling, Assistant City Attorney, Albuquerque, for Appellee, City of Albuquerque.

John A. Myers, Myers, Oliver & Price, P.C., Albuquerque, for Appellees, A New Day, Inc. and Jeff Burrows, d/b/a New Day Shelters.

OPINION

DONNELLY, Judge.

¶1 Siesta Hills Neighborhood Association (Siesta Hills) appeals a decision by the Albuquerque City Council (City Council) approving annexation and special use zoning for property on which New Day Shelters (New Day) sought to build a short-term youth shelter. Siesta Hills contends on appeal that (1) special use zoning for the proposed shelter property is illegal; (2) technical and procedural errors in the zoning approval process render the approval invalid; and (3) the asserted bias of a member of the City Council prevented Siesta Hills from receiving a fair and impartial hearing by the City Council. We affirm the City Council's decision.

FACTS

¶2 In July 1991 New Day, a New Mexico non-profit corporation, acquired a ten-acre parcel of land (the Property) from the United States Government. The Property was transferred pursuant to the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 11301 to 11472 (1987) (the Act). The Act permits organizations or entities that serve the homeless to utilize surplus federal land to assist them in carrying out their purposes. The deed required that the Property be used continuously for thirty years in accordance with the proposed service program of the grantee and that use of the Property for the purposes specified begin within thirty-six months from the date of the deed. During the pendency of this litigation, New Day has secured successive one-year extensions of these conditions subsequent in order to avoid forfeiture of the Property.

¶3 New Day's proposed shelter targets non-delinquent, non-adjudicated youth having no substance abuse problems and children who are sometimes involved in dysfunctional families and therefore cannot be at home. The children cared for by New Day are, generally, runaways, abused, neglected, or sometimes homeless for other reasons. The goal of the proposed shelter is the same as for New Day's other youth programs: family reunification. The projected average stay at the proposed shelter to be built on the Property is nine and one-half days. The New Mexico Legislature appropriated funds in 1991 and in 1992 to assist New Day in developing the Property and building the proposed youth shelter. The $450,000 allocation has been reappropriated each year that New Day's construction plans have been delayed.

¶4 At the request of the New Mexico General Services Department, New Day sought local zoning for the Property. On June 4, 1993, the Bernalillo County Planning Commission rejected New Day's special use zoning request, in part because of neighborhood opposition and because some commissioners felt that airport noise might make the site unsuitable for the proposed use. New Day then petitioned the City of Albuquerque to annex the tract and to establish special use zoning for the Property. On December 15, 1994, the Albuquerque Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) recommended approval by the City Council of New Day's petitions pursuant to several conditions, including incorporation of certain noise mitigation measures. Following the action of the EPC, Siesta Hills appealed to the City Council.

¶5 The City Council made New Day's petitions for annexation and special use zoning the subject of Bill No. 0-130 and referred the matter to the City Council's Land Use, Planning, and Zoning Committee. The Planning and Zoning Committee recommended both annexation and approval of the proposed special use. Thereafter, the City Council voted to approve the bill on November 6, 1995. The bill was signed by the Mayor of the City of Albuquerque on November 15, 1995, and was filed with the city clerk on November 17, 1995. Siesta Hills appealed the decision of the City Council to the district court. Following a hearing, the district court entered an order denying the appeal on June 26, 1996.

DISCUSSION

Standard of Review

¶6 Judicial review of a decision of a zoning authority is limited to questions of law. Downtown Neighborhoods Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque, 109 N.M. 186, 189, 783 P.2d 962, 965 (Ct.App.1989). An appellate court conducts the same review as the district court, which is simply to determine whether the zoning authority's decision is illegal in whole or in part. Id. Appellate review of actions taken by a governing body, such as the City Council, is undertaken with deference and those decisions are disturbed only if the court is not satisfied that the action was authorized by law or if it is not supported by substantial evidence. Id. Zoning actions are quasi-judicial in nature and a reviewing court applies an administrative standard of review. West Old Town Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque, 1996-NMCA-107, p 11, 122 N.M. 495, 927 P.2d 529. On appeal, although conflicting evidence is not completely disregarded, the evidence is reviewed in the light most favorable to the administrative body, see San Pedro Mining Corp. v.. Board of County Comm'rs, 1996-NMCA-002, p 27, 121 N.M. 194, 909 P.2d 754 (decided in 1995), and the reviewing court may not substitute its judgment for that of the administrative body. See Coe v. City of Albuquerque, 76 N.M. 771, 774, 418 P.2d 545, 547 (1966).

I. Special Zoning Use

¶7 Siesta Hills asserts that the special use zoning approved by the City Council for the Property was illegal under City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Comprehensive Zoning Code Sections 14-16-2-22(B) and 14-16-1-3(B) (hereinafter Albuquerque Zoning Code). Section 14-16-2-22(B) lists twenty-seven separate "Special Uses" for which SU-1 zoning may be approved, and Section 14-16-1-3(B) provides that "[a]ny use not designated a permissive or conditional use in a zone is specifically prohibited from that zone...." New Day and the City of Albuquerque (the City) justify SU-1 zoning for the Property on the grounds that under Section 14-16-2-22(B), the proposed youth shelter is either a "[p]lanned development area" authorized by subsection 19 if "special use, height, area, setback, or other regulations [are] imposed," or it is a "[u]se combination[ ] not adequately allowed and controlled in other zones" as permitted by subsection 27. We need not consider whether the zoning action comes within the purview of a "[p]lanned development area" because we conclude that the City Council could properly determine that the proposed shelter involves "[u]se combinations not adequately allowed and controlled in other zones." We find Burroughs v. Board of County Comm'rs, 88 N.M. 303, 540 P.2d 233 (1975), relied upon by Siesta Hills, unpersuasive under the circumstances presented here because that case did not involve consideration of Section 14-16-2-22(B)(27) or any similar Albuquerque Zoning Code provision authorizing "[u]se combinations not adequately allowed or controlled in other zones."

¶8 Siesta Hills also argues that the short-term youth shelter is an "emergency shelter" that could be "allowed and controlled" under Section 14-6-2-22(B) in any one of six specified zones under the Albuquerque Zoning Code. Section 14-16-1-5(B) of the Albuquerque Zoning Code defines an "emergency shelter" as: "A facility which provides sleeping accommodations to six or more persons for a period not normally exceeding 30 consecutive days, with no charge or a charge substantially less than market value; it may provide means and social services...." Siesta Hills points out that the Albuquerque Zoning Code specifically authorizes emergency shelters as a permissive use in the M-1 Light Manufacturing Zone and M-2 Heavy Manufacturing Zone, and as a conditional use in the R-2 Residential Zone, the R-3 Residential Zone, the C-2 Community Commercial Zone, and the C-3 Heavy Commercial Zone. See Albuquerque Zoning Code §§ 14-16-2-20(A)(7); 14-16-2-21(A)(1); 14-16-2-11(B)(6); 14-16-2-12(B)(1); 14-16-2-17(B)(8); 14-16-2-18(B)(1). Prior to its annexation by the City of Albuquerque, the Property was zoned A-1 Rural Agriculture Zone by the Bernalillo County Planning Commission.

¶9 In response to this argument, New Day and the City argue that the proposed use of the Property is more than just as an emergency shelter because it provides a broader range of assistance to the children it serves. After a hearing, the EPC made a specific finding that the Property "is appropriate for the temporary residential/lodging and classroom uses " planned for the youth shelter. (Emphasis added.) Moreover, at the EPC hearing, there was testimony that most of New Day's existing facilities are "20 feet away from other houses" such that the ten-acre Property represented a "huge opportunity" for New Day. The site development plan submitted to the EPC indicated that New Day planned to use this opportunity to provide designated areas for outdoor recreation for the youth at the shelter, in addition to sleeping and eating quarters. The plan also included space for administrative offices for New Day. Additionally, there was testimony at the January 10, 1996, Planning and Zoning Committee hearing that New Day planned to leave seven and one-half acres of the ten-acre site in its native state as an open space use. The City Council had all of this information before it when it approved special use zoning for the Property. Because there is substantial evidence of a number of proposed uses for the Property that are...