Browning-Ferris Indus. v. City of Maryland Heights

• Decision Date: 24 September 1990
• Docket Number: No. 88-2522-C-5.,88-2522-C-5.
• Citation: 747 F. Supp. 1340
• Parties: BROWNING-FERRIS INDUSTRIES OF ST. LOUIS, INC., Charles Nowak and John Carrigan, Plaintiffs, v. The CITY OF MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MISSOURI, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

747 F. Supp. 1340

BROWNING-FERRIS INDUSTRIES OF ST. LOUIS, INC., Charles Nowak and John Carrigan, Plaintiffs, v. The CITY OF MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MISSOURI, et al., Defendants.

No. 88-2522-C-5.

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, E.D.

September 24, 1990.

Thomas M. Blumenthal, Gerald A. Rimmel, Michael Waxenberg, Susman, Schermer, Rimmel and Shifrin, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiffs.

Timothy Walk, Clayton, Mo., Robert Krehbiel, Evans & Dixon, St. Louis, Mo., Howard Paperner, Clayton, Mo., for defendants.

ORDER, FINDINGS OF FACT, AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

LIMBAUGH, District Judge.

This case comes before the Court after a hearing before the Court sitting without a jury, and the submission of extensive Stipulation of Facts and submission of documents by the parties. The parties have stipulated to the jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343; 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985; and 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202. The parties have also stipulated that the venue of this Court is proper.

Based upon the evidence adduced, and the record presented to this Court as it appears in the Court file, the Court finds that the City of Maryland Heights, and the individual defendants, have infringed upon the plaintiffs' constitutional rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and hereby enters a permanent injunction against the defendants' further interference with the plaintiffs' operation of the sanitary landfill in question, the final development of the Property in accordance with the final development plan, or enforcement of the summonses issued by defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT

This case involves the dispute over the use of an approximate 99-acre parcel of land located in St. Louis County, Missouri ("the Property"). In 1969 this Property was located in the unincorporated portion of St. Louis County, and was owned by Mrs. Margaret U. Schott and the Alton Brick Company. Using the name "St. Louis County Landfill, Inc.," Mrs. Schott and Alton Brick Company filed an application for license to operate a private dump or sanitary landfill on August 18, 1969 with the St. Louis County Council and the St. Louis County Health Commissioner. That license was granted on June 11, 1970 after the St. Louis County Council had passed Ordinance No. 5365. This Ordinance rezoned the Property for use as a sanitary landfill. No other use of the property was permitted by that Ordinance. Landfill operations began on the Property in approximately 1972, and have continued, subject to certain disputed periods which are not in question here, to the present date.

The record as presented to the Court is voluminous, but in pertinent part it appears that Alton Brick Company and St. Louis County Landfill, Inc. applied to and received licensure from the State of Missouri and St. Louis County from at least as early as March 15, 1976 to the present. This situation changed in two significant respects in 1985. The first was that Plaintiff Browning-Ferris Industries of St. Louis, Inc. ("B.F.I."), undertook the management of the sanitary landfill pursuant to a landfill agency agreement executed by Mrs. Margaret U. Schott, the Alton Brick Company, and the St. Louis County Landfill, Inc., as owners and operators and Plaintiff B.F.I., as agent, on May 3, 1985. Pursuant to that agreement BFI agreed to expend significant amounts of necessary labor, equipment, and material to improve the operation of the landfill, to control the disposition and treatment of the waste deposited there, and to implement various new procedures and operations for the environmental protection of the surrounding area.

The other significant event that occurred in 1985 was that Maryland Heights, the unincorporated area in the County in which the property was situated, became incorporated as a third-class city in the State of Missouri by an order of the St. Louis County Council dated May 9, 1985. As one of its first official acts, the City passed Resolution No. 3 on May 13, 1985, which recognized the validity of the then existing zoning ordinances which were in effect in St. Louis County and continued to be in effect. The City of Maryland Heights did not enact any comprehensive zoning ordinance until April of 1989.

At the center of this controversy is an ordinance adopted by the City Council of Maryland Heights some six weeks after its incorporation. This ordinance is numbered Ordinance No. 35 and is titled "An Ordinance Providing For Dumps, Dumping, and Landfills". The ordinance required licensure for anyone using any property within the City of Maryland Heights for the dumping or disposal of any garbage, refuse or other waste material of any kind. The ordinance set out the procedure for application for licensure and certain minimal regulations for that licensure.

It is clear on its face that this ordinance is an exercise of the police power of the City of Maryland Heights to control the safety and health of its inhabitants. The plaintiffs, however, challenge the ordinance in two aspects. The first aspect is a facial challenge to the validity of the ordinance. This challenge is based upon the fact that Ordinance No. 35 was passed without published notice being given to the public, and without the City holding a public hearing concerning the ordinance prior to its passage. Plaintiffs contend that the ordinance did not comply with Missouri State law and was not enforceable. The second challenge of the plaintiffs is that the ordinance was applied to the plaintiffs in an arbitrary and capricious manner in violation of their rights to due process of law and to equal protection.

The facts which support these contentions focus more on the City's treatment of BFI's application for an operating permit under Ordinance No. 35, than on the validity of its passage. Since the facts are in dispute concerning how Ordinance No. 35 was passed, the Court will only focus on the manner in which the City enforced the Ordinance.

Within the boundaries of the City of Maryland Heights as it now exists, there is at least one other landfill operation, which shall be referred to as "the North Landfill". On August 28, 1985, the City issued a letter which allowed the North Landfill to operate a sanitary landfill for one year. On October 24, 1985, the City issued a similar letter to operate a sanitary landfill to St. Louis County Landfill, Inc., the owner-operator of the B.F.I. Landfill. The City acknowledged the lack of any formal procedure at that time by which to permit such operations. Prior to the end of each respective one-year period, the two landfills made application to the City for renewal of their respective permits. The North Landfill submitted its application on August 5, 1986; B.F.I. submitted its application on June 27, 1986. The record reflects that after the Planning and Zoning Administrator submitted a 3-page examination of the North Landfill permit application, the City granted the permit to operate on September 18, 1986, some six weeks after the initial application. In contrast to a rather detailed engineering report and plan prepared by the engineering and architural firm of Burns and McDonnnell for B.F.I., the North Landfill's application was accompanied, on the face of the record, by a short 3-page letter from that landfill's attorney. In contrast to the brief examination of the North Landfill operation by the Planning and Zoning Administrator of the City of Maryland Heights, the B.F.I. application was subjected to extensive review, including a 6-page examination by the City's Building Commissioner and a 23-page examination by the same Planning and Zoning Administrator of the City.

The examinations of the B.F.I. application by the Building Commissioner and the Planning and Zoning Administrator apparently occurred in early November of 1986. They are both detailed and technical in their content, and their conclusions are both favorable. The Building Commissioner found, in part:

All of the problems encountered in the last year can be traced to the operation of the landfill before BFI took over. Browning-Ferris is a worldwide organization. Depending on the measurement used, it is either number one or two in the world in the solid waste industry. They operate more than eighty (80) landfills throughout the United States.... Their tenure as operator of the St. Louis County landfill has been plagued by problems caused by improper activities in the past. The reports of inspections by St. Louis County reflect an effort by BFI to get control of the landfill.... It is fair to say that these deficiencies do not reflect BFI's ability or intention to run the landfill properly, but, rather, an attempt to get the landfill into shape.... The plan prepared for BFI by Burns and McDonnell is well thought out. Their plan for handling the critical facets of landfill management will enable them to provide a much needed service to our citizens, while maintaining the landfill in a safe condition. Their on-site staff have shown an understanding of landfill problems, especially those connected with the existing landfill. The company has spent a lot of money rectifying existing conditions, and if the permit is granted, will spend a lot more. I feel confident that, should the Council decide to grant the permit, BFI personnel will work closely with local and state officials to maintain the landfill as an asset to the City.

The Planning and Zoning Administrator made similar comments, the following of which are of particular note:

The zoning provisions of the current ordinance clearly permit the landfill use in this location although by conditional provisions. Our proposed ordinance will also conditionally permit landfill use in the Industrial districts.... The site of the proposed landfill expansion is probably not suitable for any use at the moment and is not likely to be usable unless it is filled. In addition, the pits and lagoons are a public health and safety hazard as they presently exist and the

...