Cayce v. City of Hopkinsville
| Decision Date | 14 December 1926 |
| Citation | 217 Ky. 135 |
| Parties | Cayce v. City of Hopkinsville, et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
1. Automobiles — City Held Authorized to Adopt Zoning Ordinance Regulating Location of Filling Stations (Kentucky Statutes, Section 3290, subdivisions 15, 16). — Kentucky Statutes, section 3290, subdivisions 15, 16, held to authorize city to adopt zoning ordinance regulating construction of gasoline filling stations.
2. Automobiles — Ordinance, Prohibiting Filling Stations Within 100 Feet of Church or School, Held Not Unreasonable. — Municipal zoning ordinance, prohibiting erection of gasoline filling stations within 100 feet of any church or school in any residential district, held not unreasonable.
3. Municipal Corporations — Council's Discretion in Zoning Matters will Not be Controlled, Unless Abused (Kentucky Statutes, Section 3290). — Kentucky Statutes, section 3290, was intended to confer on common council of city a discretion in matter of zoning ordinances, which will not be interfered with unless abused.
4. Constitutional Law — Zoning Ordinance Held Not Invalid as to One who had Previously Instituted Suit to Compel Issuance of Permit to Erect Filling Station. — Zoning ordinance, as applied to one who before its adoption had applied for and instituted mandamus proceeding to compel issuance of permit to erect gasoline filling station, held not invalid.
Appeal from Christian Circuit Court.
SELDON Y. TRIMBLE for appellant.
IRA D. SMITH for appellee.
Affirming.
C.H. Cayce owned a lot in Hopkinsville on the northwest corner of Main and Thirteenth streets. The Standard Oil Company proposed to purchase the lot at a price agreed on between them if a permit could be obtained from the city for the erection on the lot of a filling station. Cayce and the agent of the Standard Oil Company went before the city authorities and presented an application for the permit. The application was refused on February 9, 1926. On May 18, 1926, Cayce filed this action for a mandamus against the city authorities compelling them to issue the permit, and on that day gave notice that he would on June 7, which was the first day of the next term of the circuit court, enter a motion for the mandamus. After the suit was filed and before June 7, the city passed an ordinance zoning the city, providing, in substance, that oil stations might be established anywhere in the business section of the town as defined by the ordinance, but that they should not be established in the residential section of the town as therein defined within one hundred feet of any church or school. Cayce's lot was just across the street from the Methodist church and within less than a hundred feet from it. The circuit court on the hearing of the motion for a mandamus dismissed the petition. Cayce appeals.
It is insisted for the appellant that the city was without power to pass a zoning ordinance of this kind. By section 3290, Kentucky Statutes, the common council of the city is given power by ordinance, "to regulate the storage . . . of coal oil, lime and other combustible, explosive of inflammable material," subsection 15, also "to make all police regulations, to secure and protect the general health, comfort, convenience, morals and safety of the public," subsection 16.
Gasoline is a highly inflammable substance; it is also a dangerous explosive. The regulation of such business within the city clearly falls within the police power as defined in the statute above quoted.
It is also insisted that the ordinance is unreasonable. But such a filling station as shown by the evidence would seriously interfere with the services at a church or school within one hundred feet of it, and the children especially would be...
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