A.F. Homes LLC v. Ward
| Decision Date | 08 March 2010 |
| Docket Number | C.A. PC 09-1145 |
| Parties | A.F. HOMES, LLC, v. JOHN WARD, in his capacity as the Town Finance Director of the TOWN OF LINCOLN, and ALBERT v. RANALDI, JR., in his capacity as the Town Planner and the Administrative Officer to the Planning Board of the TOWN OF LINCOLN |
| Court | Rhode Island Superior Court |
DECISION
Before this Court are the Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment filed by Plaintiff, developer A.F. Homes, LLC ("Plaintiff"), and Defendants John Ward, in his capacity as the Town Finance Director of the Town of Lincoln and Albert V. Ranaldi, Jr., in his capacity as the Town Planner and Administrative Officer to the Planning Board of the Town of Lincoln (collectively, "Defendants"). Plaintiff filed this action pursuant to the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, G.L. 1956 § 9-30-1 et seq., seeking a declaration of its rights as well as injunctive relief regarding July 2008 amendments to G.L. 1956 § 45-23-40(g), to wit, whether a one-year or two-year vesting period applied to a master plan submitted by Plaintiff and approved with conditions by the Town of Lincoln Planning Board ("The Planning Board") on April 25 2007.
Facts and Travel
Plaintiff has an equitable interest, via purchase and sale agreement to certain real property located at 90 Industrial Circle in Lincoln, Rhode Island (the "Property"). The record owner of the Property is 3J Corporation (the "Owner"). The Property is approximately two acres in size and is located in a manufacturing general (MG-0.5) zoning classification.
On October 3, 2006, Plaintiff and Owner applied for and obtained a use variance from the Lincoln Zoning Board (the "Zoning Board") for a project to convert an existing mill building into forty-eight (48) residential condominium units, with 10% designated as affordable.1[]Thereafter, Plaintiff and Owner applied to the Planning Board for review of a Major Land Development project in accordance with the 2005 Land Development and Subdivision Regulations of the Town of Lincoln (the "Town Regulations") and the Rhode Island Development and Subdivision Review Enabling Act, codified at § 45-23-25, et. seq. (the "Development Review Act"). The plan received master plan approval on April 25, 2007 from the Planning Board with two conditions to be satisfied prior to proceeding to the next stage of approvals: (1) the applicants had to obtain a dimensional variance to clear existing nonconformities on the Property; and (2) the applicants needed to resolve a matter with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management ("DEM") regarding a previously imposed Environmental Land Use Restriction (the "ELUR") on the Property (hereinafter, the "Master Plan approval").
Subsequent to the Master Plan approval, and consistent with the conditions set forth therein, the Plaintiff and Owner applied for and received from the Zoning Board dimensional variances for side, rear, and setback relief on July 10, 2007. As to the other condition, Plaintiff and Owner represented to the Planning Board at the April 25, 2007 meeting that they expected a resolution regarding the ELUR within a couple of weeks after that meeting.2[] Thereafter, the Plaintiff and Owner applied for and obtained an extension of their use variance for one year from November 6, 2007. The Plaintiff and Owner did not seek an additional extension of their use variance beyond November 6, 2008, and never sought any extensions of their dimensional variance. The ELUR imposed by DEM remains unresolved.
Effective July 5, 2008, the Development Review Act was amended to extend the vesting period for an approved master plan. P.L. 2008, ch. 294, § 1. Specifically, up until July 4, 2008, § 45-23-40(g)(1) provided for vesting of a master plan approval as follows:
(1) The approved master plan is vested for a period of one year, with a one year extension upon written request by the applicant, who must appear before the planning board for the annual review. Vesting may be extended for a longer period, for good cause shown, if requested by the applicant, in writing, and approved by the planning board. Master plan vesting includes the zoning requirements, conceptual layout and all conditions shown on the approved master plan drawings and supporting materials. Section 45-23-40(g)(1)(pre-July 5, 2008 amend.) (emphasis added).
Section 16G of the Town Regulations in effect on April 25, 2007, the day Plaintiff's Master Plan was approved, tracked the one-year vesting provision set forth in the pre-July 2008 version of § 45-23-40(g)(1). That provision reads as follows:
(G) Vesting. The approved master plan shall be vested for a period of one (1) year from the master plan approval date. The vested master plan approval can be extended for one additional year upon the written request of the applicant, who must appear before the Planning Board for an annual review. Vesting may be extended for a longer period, for good cause shown, if requested by the applicant prior to the expiration of the approval date, in writing, and approved by the Planning Board. Master plan vesting shall include zoning requirements, conceptual layout and all conditions shown on the approved plan drawing and supporting material.
The amended version of § 45-23-40(g)(1), effective July 5, 2008, states:
(1) The approved master plan is vested for a period of two (2) years, with the right to extend for two (2) one year extensions upon written request by the applicant, who must appear before the planning board for the annual review. Thereafter, vesting may be extended for a longer period, for good cause shown, if requested by the applicant, in writing, and approved by the planning board. Master plan vesting includes the zoning requirements, conceptual layout and all conditions shown on the approved master plan drawings and supporting materials. Section 45-23-40(g)(1) (emphasis added).
At all times relevant hereto, "vested rights" has been defined in the Development Review Act as:
The right to initiate or continue the development of an approved project for a specified period of time, under the regulations that were in effect at the time of approval, even if, after the approval, the regulations change prior to the completion of the project. Section 45-23-32(54) (emphasis added).
By letters dated November 19, 2008, November 21, 2008 and January 9, 2009, Plaintiff and Owner, through their attorney, sought clarification from the Lincoln Town Solicitor regarding the implementation of the July 2008 amendments to § 45-23-40(g) as it applied to their Master Plan approved on April 25, 2007. Plaintiff opined in its November 19, 2008 correspondence that the Master Plan approval was subject to a two-year vesting period from April 25, 2007, based on the 2008 amendment. The Town Solicitor did not specifically respond to this correspondence with a legal determination or clarification. However, Defendants presented evidence to this Court that Plaintiff's own counsel had sought extensions of master plan approvals in other projects in Lincoln that had been approved prior to July 2008 because the Lincoln Planning Board applied the pre-July 2008 vesting period to those projects. (Defs.' Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J. 4-5 and Ex. J.)
Plaintiff and Owner applied to the Planning Board for an extension of their Master Plan approval on January 27, 2009, approximately twenty-one (21) months after the Master Plan approval. (Defs.' Memo in Support of Mot. for Summ. J., at 5 and Ex. K.) The Town Planner, who also serves as the Administrative Officer to the Planning Board, denied the request for the extension, stating that the Master Plan approval had lapsed because the one-year vesting period expired. (Defs.' Memo in Support of Mot. for Summ. J., at 5 and Ex. L.) On February 20, 2009, Plaintiff and Owner appealed the decision to the Zoning Board, sitting as the Board of Appeals pursuant to § 45-23-66 and § 2E-I of the Town Regulations. (Defs.' Memo in Support of Mot. for Summ. J., at 5 and Ex. M.)
Prior to a hearing on the appeal, Plaintiff filed this Complaint seeking declaratory judgment and injunctive relief regarding the July 2008 amendments to § 45-23-40(g) to determine whether a one-year or two-year vesting period applied to the Master Plan approval. The Owner is not a party to the instant action. In its Complaint, Plaintiff alleges that the Administrative Officer incorrectly applied the one-year vesting period and that the two-year vesting period applied so that it would have had until April 25, 2009, to apply to the Planning Board for further extension. (Pl.'s Comp.¶ 18.)
On July 9, 2009, Defendants filed their original Motion for Summary Judgment. They argue that Plaintiff's Master Plan approval was vested for one year in accordance with the applicable statutes and regulations at the time of the application and approval on April 25, 2007. See § 45-23-40(g)(1) (pre-July 5, 2008 amendment); Lincoln Town Reg. § 16G. Under those regulations, the Master Plan was vested until April 25, 2008. In further support of their argument, Defendants assert that there is no basis for this Court to conclude that the amendment to § 45-23-40(g) should apply retroactively, and that Plaintiff was required to submit a written request for a one-year extension on or before April 25, 2008, to prevent its Master Plan approval from lapsing.
Defendants also contend that Plaintiff has no standing because Plaintiff lacks sufficient ownership...
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