Byrn v. Beechwood Village

• Decision Date: 12 December 1952
• Citation: 253 S.W.2d 395
• Parties: BYRN et al. v. BEECHWOOD VILLAGE et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 395

253 S.W.2d 395

BYRN et al. v. BEECHWOOD VILLAGE et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Dec. 12, 1952.

Lawrence G. Duncan and Lewis D. Jones, Louisville, for appellants.

W. A. Armstrong, Chas. B. Zirkle, Albert F. Reutlinger and C. Maxwell Brown, Louisville, for appellees.

CULLEN, Commissioner.

Twenty property owners in Beechwood Village (a sixth-class city in Jefferson County), suing for themselves and purportedly on behalf of 119 other property owners in the village, sought to enjoin the use of a certain strip of land in the village for apartment house purposes, and to have declared invalid an amendment to the comprehensive zoning ordinance of the village, which amendment had changed the strip of land from a single-family residence classification to an apartment house classification. The board of trustees of the village, the planning and zoning commission of the village, the owners of the strip of land in question, and certain persons proposing to build apartments on the land, were made defendants. After hearing evidence on behalf of the plaintiffs, the court dismissed the petition. The plaintiffs have appealed.

Beechwood Village lies a short distance east of the City of Louisville, on the north side of U. S. Highway 60, which is a heavily traveled four-lane highway. The village is substantially rectangular in shape, and its south side, 1900 feet in length, abuts on U. S. 60. The strip of land in question is approximately 220 feet wide, running along the entire south side of the village, along the highway. The village embraces 180 acres of land, and the strip in question consists of around nine acres. The strip is separated by a roadway from the balance of the village.

In 1943, before the village was incorporated, the Louisville and Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission, in adopting its comprehensive zoning plan for Louisville and the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County, zoned the territory now constituting the village as a single-family residence zone. Thereafter the area developed as a high class residential area, with houses averaging from $20,000 to $25,000 in cost. In 1950 the village was incorporated as a sixth-class city, and a planning and zoning commission for the village was created. Pursuant to recommendations of the commission, the board of trustees of the village adopted a zoning ordinance placing the entire village in the single-family residence classification. In July 1951, this classification of the entire village was reaffirmed in another zoning ordinance. During the period following the incorporation of the village additional new residences were constructed, of a character similar to those already existing. However, the strip of land involved in this action remained vacant, having been retained in ownership by the original subdividers.

At the village election in November 1951, the question of reclassifying the strip along the south side of the village for apartment house use was a campaign issue, and the candidates favoring such reclassification were elected. Thereafter, in April 1952, by a vote of four to three, the board of trustees amended the zoning ordinance, on recommendation of the planning and zoning commission to reclassify the strip as an apartment house zone. However, detailed restrictions were imposed as to the character, number and position of apartment houses that might be built, and the location of entrance ways and parking areas.

The action seeking to invalidate the amendment to the zoning ordinance was commenced in May 1952. Under the statutes governing zoning in cities of the sixth class, KRS 100.500 to 100.830, there is no provision for an appeal from the action of the city legislative body in enacting or amending a zoning ordinance, so the only remedy of aggrieved property owners is such as may be available through resort to the extraordinary equitable jurisdiction of the courts. It is well settled that this remedy is available only upon a showing that the action complained of is arbitrary, capricious or illegal. Hatch v. Fiscal Court of Fayette County, Ky., 242 S.W.2d 1018.

The appellants do not contend that the board of trustees acted illegally with respect to the procedure followed in amending the zoning ordinance. Their complaint is that the amendment is arbitrary, capricious and illegal in its substance and effect.

The proof offered by the appellants tended to show that the value of the remaining property in the village would be depreciated substantially as a result of the erection of apartments on the rezoned strip; that the occupancy of this strip along the highway by apartments would increase the traffic hazards on U. S. 60; that there might be constructed as many as 118 apartment units, accommodating 354 people, which, according to the opinions of some of the witnesses, would 'overcrowd the land,' and cause 'undue concentration of...