Citizens Growth Management Coalition of West Palm Beach, Inc. v. City of West Palm Beach, Inc.

• Decision Date: 08 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 63564,63564
• Citation: 450 So.2d 204
• Parties: CITIZENS GROWTH MANAGEMENT COALITION OF WEST PALM BEACH, INC., Appellant. v. CITY OF WEST PALM BEACH, INC., et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 204

450 So.2d 204

CITIZENS GROWTH MANAGEMENT COALITION OF WEST PALM BEACH, INC., Appellant. v. CITY OF WEST PALM BEACH, INC., et al., Appellees.

No. 63564.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 8, 1984.

Rehearing Denied June 14, 1984.

Albert J. Hadeed, John K. McPherson and William P. Healy of Southern Legal Counsel, Inc., Gainesville, for appellant.

Carl V.M. Coffin, City Atty., West Palm Beach, for City of West Palm Beach.

L. Louis Mrachek and David M. Layman of Gunster, Yoakley, Criser & Stewart, Palm Beach, for the Goodman Co.

James R. Wolf, General Counsel, Tallahassee, for Florida League of Cities.

Stephen W. Metz, Florida Home Builders Association, Tallahassee, and Robert M. Rhodes of Messer, Rhodes & Vickers, Tallahassee, for Florida Home Builders Assn.

BOYD, Justice.

We have for review the judgment of the circuit court in Palm Beach County rejecting the challenge of a citizens' group (Citizens Growth Management Coalition of West Palm Beach) to a rezoning decision of the City of West Palm Beach. The citizens' group appealed and the district court of appeal certified that the issues presented by the appeal are such that the determination thereof will have a great effect on the proper administration of justice throughout the state and that they require immediate resolution by this Court. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(5), Florida Constitution. We find that the circuit court's judgment was correct in all respects and we therefore affirm.

The appellant Citizens Growth Management Coalition is an incorporated association the membership of which includes residents, citizens, and taxpayers of West Palm Beach. The Coalition filed a complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief and a petition for statutory writ of certiorari challenging the validity of two ordinances, one a rezoning ordinance and the other a clarification of an existing zoning ordinance. The ordinances were enacted to allow the construction of a large-scale residential and commercial building complex in the downtown area of West Palm Beach. The gravamen of the Coalition's complaint was that the ordinances were not enacted in conformity with the Local Government Comprehensive Planning Act of 1975, sections 163.3161-.3211, Florida Statutes (1981). The trial court entered judgment against the Coalition on the ground that it lacked standing to question the validity of the ordinances under Renard v. Dade County, 261 So.2d 832 (Fla.1972). Following the taking of an appeal and the district court's certification of the case as one requiring immediate resolution, we accepted jurisdiction and granted motions by the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Home Builders Association to file amicus curiae briefs.

In its brief the Coalition raises two issues. The first is whether it had standing to raise the question of whether the ordinances were passed in conformity with the Local Government Comprehensive Planning Act. The second is whether the city was required to use administrative procedures in determining whether the proposed development was consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. Because we affirm the trial court's holding with respect to standing, we refrain from commenting upon the second issue.

The question of standing to challenge zoning decisions was comprehensively explained in Renard v. Dade County. In that case a district court of appeal certified as a question of great public interest:

The standing necessary for a plaintiff to (1) enforce a valid zoning ordinance; (2) attack a validly enacted zoning ordinance as not being fairly debatable and therefore an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of legislative power; and (3) attack a void ordinance, i.e., one enacted without proper notice required under the enabling statute or authority creating the zoning power.

261 So.2d at 834. This Court held that under the first category a plaintiff had to prove special damages different in kind from that suffered by the community as a whole, that under the second category a plaintiff needed to have a legally recognizable interest that was adversely affected, and that under the third category an affected resident, citizen, or property owner had standing.

It therefore became important to determine into which category a particular case fell, for different rules of standing applied depending on whether the action sought to enforce a valid zoning ordinance, whether it attempted to attack a validly enacted zoning ordinance as being an unreasonable exercise of legislative power, or whether it involved an attack upon a zoning ordinance which was void because not properly enacted.

Skaggs-Albertson's v. ABC Liquors, Inc., 363 So.2d 1082, 1087 (Fla.1978).

Appellant argues that none of these three categories are applicable to actions seeking to enforce compliance with the Local Government Comprehensive Planning Act. Appellant claims that although the legislature did not enact a separate statutory section on standing, it intended to grant standing to the fullest extent possible by using the phrase "justiciably raised" in section 163.3194(3)(a), which provides in part:

A court, in reviewing local...