Devaney v. Board of Zoning Appeals of City of New Haven

• Decision Date: 18 April 1956
• Citation: 122 A.2d 303,143 Conn. 322
• Parties: Michael DEVANEY et al. v. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 303

122 A.2d 303

143 Conn. 322

Michael DEVANEY et al. v. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

April 18, 1956.

Richard T. Mokrzynski, New Haven, for appellants (plaintiffs).

Julius Maretz, New Haven, with whom were John J. Johnson and, on the brief, Arthur H. Healey and Elliott R. Katz, New Haven, for appellees (defendants).

Before INGLIS, C. J., and BALDWIN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ. ^*

DALY, Justice.

The plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Common Pleas from the action of the named defendant, hereinafter called the board, in granting an application for a variance of the zoning ordinance of the city of New Haven. This appeal is taken by the plaintiffs from the judgment of the court affirming the action of the board and dismissing the plaintiffs' appeal.

The applicant, New Haven Post No. 47, American Legion, Inc., owns premises known as 423 Orange Street and situated at the northeast corner of Orange and Trumbull Streets in New Haven. A building thereon is used as the post's headquarters. The property is in a residence B zone. It is in the center of a group of eighty-six medical and dental offices. In a residence B zone, only the uses of property specified in § 1013 of the zoning ordinance are permitted. ¹ The applicant sought a variance permitting the use of part of its property for a private parking place. It proposed to rent part of its premises to certain physicians and dentists, whose offices are in the neighborhood, for the daytime parking of thirty to forty cars owned by them, their employees and their patients. In addition, permission for the use of the parking space by members of the post on the evenings of its meetings was requested. At the public hearing held by the board, it was testified that because of the lack of parking space automobiles often remained standing in the middle of a street, with resulting traffic jams in the area, while infirm patients some on crutches or with casts, tottered from or into the cars. Several neighboring landowners and tenants indicated that they were in favor of the granting of the application. The plaintiffs, owners of properties in the neighborhood, opposed it. A nearby parcel owned by some of them is used as a funeral home, a variance to permit that use having been granted.

The board concluded that the proposed use of the space would not only tend to relieve the bottleneck at the corner of Trumbull and Orange Streets which prevents the free flow of traffic but also would afford greatly needed parking facilities for neighboring physicians and dentists; that a denial of permission to use the space for private parking would make the effect of the application of the ordinance arbitrary; that the appearance and value of neighboring property would not be affected except possibly from an esthetic standpoint; that the safety and general welfare of neighbors would be secured by avoidance of a traffic hazard; and that the granting of the variance was warranted under the provisions of subdivision (7) of § 1033 of the zoning ordinance.

In one of their assignments of error the plaintiffs claim that the trial court erred in excluding testimony offered by them. In offering the testimony, they stated that the purpose was to prove that there had been a material change in the availability of parking space in the area in question since the date of the hearing before the board. '[A]n appeal from an administrative tribunal should ordinarily be determined on the record made before that tribunal, and only when that record fails to present the hearing in sufficient scope to determine the merit of the appeal or when some extraordinary reason requires it should the court hear evidence.' Beach v. Planning and Zoning Commission, 141 Conn. 79, 80, 103 A.2d 814, 815. The question whether additional testimony shall be taken by the court upon appeal calls for an exercise of the court's legal discretion, and it does not appear that its discretion was abused in this case. Hlavati v. Board of Adjustment, 142 Comm. 659, 668, 116 A.2d 504.

Subdivision (7) of § 1033 of the ordinance authorizes the board in a specific case to vary any provision of it in harmony with its general purpose and intent so that the public health, safety and general welfare may be secured and substantial justice done '[w]here there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships' or 'where the effect of the application of the Ordinance is arbitrary.' The power and function of the board can be called into operation if one or the other of two conditions is found to exist, that is, if the strict application of the ordinance is arbitrary or if practical difficulties or unncessary hardships result. McMahon v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 140 Conn. 433, 440, 101 A.2d 284. The question for our determination is whether the board was justified in granting the variance, as it did, upon the ground that the effect of the application of the ordinance is arbitrary.

'We have frequently asserted, as a fundamental proposition, that the decisions of zoning authorities are to be overruled only when it is found that they have not acted fairly, with proper motives, and upon valid reasons. Mallory v. Town of West Hartford, 138 Conn. 497, 505, 86 A.2d 668; First National Bank & Trust Co. v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 126 Conn. 228, 237, 10 A.2d 691. 'Where it appears that an honest judgment has been reasonably and fairly exercised after a full hearing, courts should be cautious about disturbing the decision of the local authority.' Kutcher v. Town Planning Commission, 138 Conn. 705, 710, 88 A.2d 538, 541. The burden of overthrowing the decision of [the board of zoning appeals] rests squarely upon the plaintiffs. DeFelice v. Zoning Board of...