City of Jackson v. Husbands, 45718

• Decision Date: 30 March 1970
• Docket Number: No. 45718,45718
• Citation: 233 So.2d 817
• Parties: CITY OF JACKSON, Mississippi v. Mrs. Marguerite D. HUSBANDS et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 817

233 So.2d 817

CITY OF JACKSON, Mississippi v. Mrs. Marguerite D. HUSBANDS et al.

No. 45718.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 30, 1970.

Jones & McKibben, John E. Stone, Jackson, for appellant.

Stennett, Wilkinson, Ward & Tharpe, Jackson, for appellees.

ROBERTSON, Justice.

The Appellant, City of Jackson, Mississippi, appeals from a judgment of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, reversing an order of the Jackson City Council which denied four petitions to rezone properties from A-1 Residential to Commercial. The circuit court rendered judgment rezoning the properties.

The properties involved are the four corners of the intersection of Northside Drive and Hanging Moss Road. About March 15, 1968, the owner of each corner filed a petition to rezone his corner from A-1 Residential to Commercial so that he could remove the residence and construct an automobile service station thereon.

On June 7, 1968, two adjoining homeowners filed their protest and objection to the rezoning, and on the same day J. L. Paulk & Associates, Inc., consulting engineers and city, county, and regional planners, filed their investigation and report with the zoning board recommending that the petitions to rezone be denied. These four petitions were heard as one by the zoning board at a public hearing on June 10, 1968.

The properties adjoining these corners on each side have been zoned A-1 Residential for many years, and the owners have built residences on their property and have occupied them as their homes for many years. Numerous property owners in the neighborhood filed letters of protest objecting to any change in the zoning. Nevertheless, the city zoning board recommended to the city council that the zone of the four corners be changed from A-1 Residential to Commercial. The action of the city zoning board was a tentative approval hedged about with recommendations as to other properties on which there were no petitions to rezone:

'A final motion was made, seconded, and passed to recommend to the City Council the request for the commercial rezoning be tentatively approved. However, in recommending approval, the Board would further recommend that all of that property fronting on Northside on both the North and South of Northside Drive from East on the west right of way line of the I.C.R.R. and to the West of the East line of the drainage ditch which is just East of Ridgecrest Baptist Church excluding that property covered by the rezoning of Case No. 695, which was rezoned to A-3 Residential on March 26, 1968, be also tentatively approved for rezoning for apartments and commercial usage subject to approval and review by the Zoning Board. That all consideration be limited to a one (1) lot depth not to exceed 200 feet in depth.'

The city council on June 18, 1968, ordered that these four zoning cases requesting commercial rezoning be referred back to the zoning board for further study, 'each case to be decided on its own merits with a definite recommendation on each case, without any tentative approval.' On July 8, 1968, the city zoning board came back with another tentative approval in these words:

'The Board believes that the use of the word 'tentative' in its intent was and still is proper, (reference 'Roget's International Thesaurus' 3rd Edition).

'The Board, in a belief based on the facts considered and developed on these cases again recommends to the City Council that this property, Cases 728, 729, 735 and 736 be approved for commercial zoning; that the rezoning be limited to a distance of 200 feet more or less, north and south of the property fronting on Northside Drive to equal out on the nearest lot line closest to the 200 feet distance; that the proposed service station sites be developed within the latest concepts of modern design to compliment the adjoining residential properties; that low density lighting only be allowed and that the commercial developments be required to build and maintain in a neat and orderly manner a buffer wall not less than 8 feet in height and that all lighting shall be screened and directed away from the adjoining residential areas, that proper conveyance from the affected property owners as to street widening shall be granted to the City before the zoning is effective.'

On July 16, 1968, the city council again referred these four petitions to rezone to the zoning board 'for additional consideration and study by City Planning Board of land use in area west of Illinois Central Railroad, north of Meadowbrook Road to city limits, west to existing commercial uses.'

On August 12, 1968, a comprehensive and detailed in-depth study...