City of Englewood v. Apostolic Christian Church
Decision Date | 01 May 1961 |
Docket Number | No. 19519,19519 |
Citation | 362 P.2d 172,146 Colo. 374 |
Parties | CITY OF ENGLEWOOD, a municipal corporation, the Board of Adjustment and Appeals of the City of Englewood, and Tymer Rice, Kenneth P. Carlson, William Clayton, E. B. Cartwright, and R. E. Kinney, In their capacity as and being The Board of Adjustment and Appeals of the City of Englewood, and Beryl A. Wallace, as Building Inspector of the City of Englewood, State of Colorado, Plaintiffs in Error, v. APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH, a corporation existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Colorado, Herman Hess and Esther Hess, Defendants in Error. |
Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Joseph W. Esch, Englewood, for plaintiffs in error.
Creamer & Creamer, Denver, for defendants in error.
Plaintiffs in error will be referred to as Englewood, and defendants in error as the church or by the names of the individuals as circumstances may require.
The action was commenced by the church and Herman and Esther Hess against Englewood, its Board of Adjustment and Appeals and its Building Inspector, seeking relief by declaratory judgment and otherwise with relation to certain portions of the Englewood Zoning Ordinances which they alleged to be invalid.
The case was tried upon stipulated facts, which so far as pertinent are as follows: Mr. and Mrs. Hess had arranged to give the church a tract of land for the purpose of constructing a church building thereon and plans and specifications therefor were prepared. Application was made to Englewood for a building permit, which was denied.
In none of the single-family or two-family residence districts established by the zoning ordinance of Englewood can land be used for church purposes as a use of right. Instead, it is provided that 'religious and educational institutions,' which by definition in the ordinance includes churches and other places of worship including Sunday School buildings and other accessory buildings and incidental nonprofit recreational facilities, are permitted as 'conditional uses,' 'provided the public interest is fully protected and * * * uses are approved by the board;' meaning the defendant Board of Adjustment.
Only in R-3 apartment districts is a church a use by right, it being provided in section 8 of the ordinance that permitted principal uses in an R-3 multifamily residential district include '(g) Institutions--educational, philanthropic, religious and eleemosynary.' In the commercial and industrial districts a church is barred and may not exist at all, being neither a permitted use nor a conditional use.
In an endeavor to comply with the prescribed administrative procedures of the City of Englewood, Mr. and Mrs. Hess and the church, having been denied a permit to build a church edifice, in February 1960 filed a petition for relief before the Board of Adjustment and Appeals which considered the petition at a special hearing on February 10, 1960. At that hearing The Board of Adjustment and Appeals denied the petition asserting that '* * * the public interest would not be fully protected as set forth in Article IV, section 3, paragraph 12 of the Zoning Ordinance.'
The trial court reversed the order of the Board of Adjustment and Appeals and directed the city to issue a permit for the erection of the church building. Englewood seeks review of that judgment by writ of error.
As grounds for reversal it is contended by counsel for Englewood that the ordinance prohibiting the erection of a church building in single-family and double-family residence districts contains sufficient standards for the use and direction of the Board of Adjustment and Appeals and does not offend constitutional provisions with relation to the existence of such standards; that Englewood has the power to restrict the uses to which real estate may be put and to prevent by zoning ordinances the erection of church buildings in such areas as it shall determine; and that the constitutional rights of the church and Mr. and Mrs. Hess are not violated by the zoning ordinance of Englewood.
Counsel for the plaintiffs present pertinent argument under four captions as follows:
We restate and give adherence to the basic concepts of constitutional law. In Jones et al. v. Board of Adjustment, 119 Colo. 420, 204 P.2d 560, 563, we said:
'It is elementary that an owner of property has the right to put his property to any legitimate use, unless the contemplated use is prohibited by the legislative arm of government through a proper exercise of the police power. * * *'
In People ex rel. Schimpff v. Norvell, 368 Ill. 325, 13 N.E.2d 960, 961, we find the following pertinent statement:
'The privilege of a citizen to use his property according to his own will is not only a liberty but a property right, subject only to such restraints as the common welfare may require, and, while new burdens may be placed on the property when the public welfare demands it, this power is limited to enactments having direct reference to the public health, comfort, safety, morals, and welfare.' (Emphasis supplied.)
The term 'property' as used in the due process clause of the constitutions, both state and national, Const. art. 2, § 25; U.S.Const. Amend. 14, includes the right of the citizen to make any legitimate use or disposition of the asset owned, and he cannot be deprived of any of these essential attributes of property unless the restraint is reasonably necessary in the protection of the public morals, health, safety or welfare.
In Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60, 38 S.Ct. 16, 18, 62 L.Ed. 149, we find the following:
It is well established in the law that whether an act of a legislative body adopted as a police regulation has any reasonable connection with public health, morals, safety or welfare, is a question for the determination of the judiciary. This court has stated that any such regulation 'must bear a fair relation' to those objectives and must 'tend to promote or protect the same.' Sapero v. State Board of Medical Examiners, 90 Colo. 568, 11 P.2d 555, 559. To hold otherwise would be to examine an act without reference to its constitutional validity thus surrendering the jurisdiction of the courts to legislative findings in constitutional matters.
We agree with the conclusion of the Supreme Court of Washington as expressed in State ex rel. Wenatchee Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses v. City of Wenatchee, 50 Wash.2d 378, 312 P.2d 195, 197, from which we quote the following:
The opinion of the Washington court cites numerous cases.
In Curran Bill Posting & Distributing Co. v. City of Denver, 47 Colo. 221, 107 P. 261, 264, 27 L.R.A.,N.S., 544, we find pertinent language as follows:
'The cut of the dress, the color of the garment worn, the style of the hat, the architecture of the building or its color may be distasteful to the refined senses of some; yet government can neither control nor regulate in such affairs. The doctrines of the commune invest such authority in the state, but ours is a constitutional government based upon the individuality and intelligence of the citizen, and does not seek, nor has it the power, to control him, except in those matters where the rights of others are injuriously affected or...
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