City of St. Albans v. Hayford

Decision Date12 March 2008
Docket NumberNo. 07-082.,07-082.
Citation2008 VT 36,949 A.2d 1058
CourtVermont Supreme Court
PartiesCITY OF ST. ALBANS v. Alan and Beverly HAYFORD, Gregory Benoit and Deborah Kane.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON, SKOGLUND and BURGESS, JJ.

ENTRY ORDER

¶ 1. Former and current owners of the subject property appeal the Environmental Court's order imposing fines on them and granting the City of St. Albans injunctive relief in response to the City's action seeking enforcement of its zoning ordinance. The owners contend that (1) the City's action is barred by the applicable statute of limitations; (2) the court abused its discretion by granting injunctive relief for a violation that was insubstantial and did not involve conscious wrongdoing; and (3) the court abused its discretion by imposing punitive and excessive fines. We affirm.

¶ 2. The City filed the instant enforcement action in July 2004 against the former owners of the subject property, Alan and Beverly Hayford, as well as the present owners of the property, Gregory Benoit and Deborah Kane, who purchased the property from the Hayfords in June 2003. The subject property consists of two buildings on approximately 21,000 square feet located in a high-density residential zoning district in the City of St. Albans. The Hayfords purchased the property in 1976, the year before the City adopted its first zoning ordinance. When the Hayfords purchased the property, the main building contained four apartments, and the rear building housed a garage and print shop. That same year, the Hayfords obtained a building permit to convert the rear building into a nursery school.

¶ 3. In 1977, the City adopted a zoning ordinance that rendered the property nonconforming as to side and rear setbacks and as to the presence of more than one principal building on a single lot. The ordinance, however, allowed nonconforming buildings or uses to continue indefinitely, as long as the degree of noncompliance did not increase. The ordinance further required zoning board approval to change a nonconforming use into another use and a permit from the zoning administrator for any permitted uses. The zoning regulations also required site-plan approval from the planning commission for any uses other than single-family or two-family residences.

¶ 4. In 1986, the Hayfords added a fifth apartment to the main building. A few months later, in early 1987, they moved the nursery school to a different location and converted the rear building into an additional residential unit. They took these steps without obtaining a zoning permit or site-plan approval, in violation of the zoning ordinance. Apart from the Hayfords' failure to obtain a permit and site-plan approval, the conversion of the rear building to an additional residential unit did not render the property any more nonconforming than it had been. This was so because maintaining six residential units on the property did not violate the dimensional and density requirements of the then-current zoning regulations, except for the grandfathered nonconforming setback of the rear building. In 1993, the City issued the Hayfords a zoning permit to repair one of the apartments in the main building that had been damaged by a fire. A later court order relied on this permit to overturn the City's notice of violation with respect to the existence of a fifth apartment in the main building.

¶ 5. In 1998, the City adopted new zoning regulations that made multi-family dwellings conditional uses in the subject property's zoning district and that otherwise made the subject property nonconforming in several respects. For the most part, the new dimensional and use nonconformities were grandfathered and thus could continue under the new regulations. Also in 1998, at about the same time that the City adopted the new regulations, the Hayfords applied for a certificate of occupancy, which the zoning administrator denied. Instead of appealing the zoning administrator's decision, the Hayfords applied to the zoning board of adjustment for variances that would allow them to maintain six rather than four residential dwelling units on the property. The board denied the application. The Hayfords did not appeal the board's decision, which became final.

¶ 6. In 1999, the City issued a notice of violation and filed an enforcement action against the Hayfords, alleging that it had approved only four of the six residential units on the their property. That enforcement action was eventually dismissed because of the City's failure to provide a valid notice of violation. The zoning administrator issued a new notice of violation in 2001 based on the same allegation. The Hayfords then applied for a variance to use the rear building as a residential unit. In a 2003 decision, the Environmental Court denied the application based on its 1998 denial of the same request for a variance, which had not been appealed. The court, however, overturned the notice of violation as to the fifth apartment in the main building, reasoning that the City's previous grant of a permit to allow the Hayfords to repair one of the apartments following the 1993 fire effectively permitted the fifth apartment. No party appealed this decision.

¶ 7. In June 2003, Benoit and Kane purchased the subject property from the Hayfords. As had the Hayfords, Benoit and Kane continued to rent out the sixth residence in the rear building despite the notice of violation. At one point, they applied for an after-the-fact conversion of the rear building from a nursery school to a residential dwelling unit. The development review board denied their application. Meanwhile, the City filed the instant enforcement action, seeking injunctive relief and monetary penalties.

¶ 8. Among other things, the property owners (the Hayfords and Benoit and Kane) argued that the enforcement action should be dismissed because it had not been filed within the applicable fifteen-year statute of limitations. See 24 V.S.A. § 4454(a) (requiring municipalities to bring enforcement proceedings related to a failure to obtain or comply with a land-use permit within fifteen years from the date the alleged violation first occurred). They contended that the alleged violation was the Hayfords' failure to obtain a zoning permit and site-plan approval in 1987, which occurred more than fifteen years before the enforcement action.

¶ 9. The Environmental Court concluded that although the Hayfords' failure to obtain a permit and site-plan approval in 1987 occurred more than fifteen years before the instant enforcement action, a new and independent violation occurred in 1998 when the City adopted its new zoning regulations.* In addition to enjoining the property owners from using the rear building as a residential unit, the court imposed fines representing a combination of the City's enforcement costs and a portion of the property owners' financial benefit obtained through the violation. On appeal, the property owners argue that the Environmental Court erred by not barring the enforcement action based on the fifteen-year statute of limitations, by granting injunctive relief for a violation that was neither significant nor deliberate, and by imposing fines that are punitive in nature and unjustified under the circumstances.

¶ 10. We first address the property owners' claim that the fifteen-year statute of limitations barred the City's enforcement action. Section 4454(a) of Title 24 allows enforcement actions under specified statutory sections "against the alleged offender if the action, injunction, or other enforcement proceeding is instituted within 15 years from the date the alleged violation first occurred and not thereafter." According to the property owners, the only violation that is actionable is their failure in 1987 to obtain a permit and site-plan approval for converting the nursery school into a residential unit. They contend that the City's adoption of a new zoning ordinance in 1998 could not trigger another violation based on their failure to obtain a permit and site-plan approval in 1987 because the sixth residential unit was a nonconforming use and they did nothing in 1998 to make the use more nonconforming. In other words, the property owners argue that the sixth residential unit was not a violation, but a grandfathered nonconforming use following the adoption of the 1998 zoning regulations.

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7 cases
  • Town of Milton Bd. of Health v. Brisson, 15–091.
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • May 6, 2016
    ...with regard to [the] Town's attorney's fees and costs was reasonable.” Dunkling, 167 Vt. at 529, 711 A.2d at 1171 ; see City of St. Albans v. Hayford, 2008 VT 36, ¶ 18, 183 Vt. 596, 949 A.2d 1058 (mem.) (describing Dunkling as holding that trial court “acted within its broad discretion by b......
  • In re Burns 12 Weston Street NOV
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • August 19, 2022
    ...violating the terms of a permit.4 Neighbors cite numerous cases supporting this argument. However, neighbors do not cite City of St. Albans v. Hayford, 2008 VT 36, ¶ 11, 183 Vt. 596, 949 A.2d 1058 (mem.), a case in which we held that a municipality's adoption of new zoning regulations can, ......
  • Town of Pawlet v. Banyai
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • January 14, 2022
    ... ... 292, 295, 292 A.2d 247, 249 (1972); ... see also Levy v. Town of St. Albans Zoning Bd. of ... Adjustment , 152 Vt. 139, 143, 564 A.2d 1361, 1364 (1989) ... (explaining that ... mechanisms provided by the municipal planning and development ... statutes." City of S. Burlington v. Dep't of ... Corr. , 171 Vt. 587, 588-89, 762 A.2d 1229, 1230 (2000) ... supported the imposition of a significant fine. See City ... of St. Albans v. Hayford , 2008 VT 36, ¶ 18, 183 Vt ... 596, 949 A.2d 1058 (considering fact that penalty imposed was ... ...
  • Town of Fairfax v. Beliveau (In re Beliveau NOV)
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • June 14, 2013
    ...judiciary. org/ gtc/ environmental/ 51 f ENVCRTOpinions 2005– 2009/ 06– 142 zd. TCalaisv 51 f Noordsij. dec. pdf (citing City of St. Albans v. Hayford, 2008 VT 36, ¶¶ 15–18, 183 Vt. 596, 949 A.2d 1058) (mem.). ¶ 24. On appeal, homeowner argues that the economic benefit he obtained from the ......
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