Hans Hagen v. City of Minnetrista

• Decision Date: 16 May 2006
• Docket Number: No. A05-1686.,A05-1686.
• Citation: 713 N.W.2d 916
• Parties: HANS HAGEN HOMES, INC., Respondent, v. CITY OF MINNETRISTA, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

713 N.W.2d 916

HANS HAGEN HOMES, INC., Respondent, v. CITY OF MINNETRISTA, Appellant.

No. A05-1686.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

May 16, 2006.

Syllabus by the Court

To deny effectively a written application for rezoning and for expanding a metropolitan-urban-service area, a multimember governing body must comply with the requirements of Minn.Stat. § 15.99, subd. 2(c) (2004), including the requirement to provide the applicant, in writing, a statement of the reasons for the denial. Failure to complete these requirements before expiration of the sixty-day statutory deadline, or an authorized extension, results in approval of the application as a matter of law.

Gary A. Van Cleve, Jessica B. Rivas, Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren Ltd., Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.

George C. Hoff, Amanda Morken, Hoff, Barry & Kuderer, P.A., Eden Prairie, MN, for appellant.

Considered and decided by TOUSSAINT, Chief Judge; LANSING, Judge; and RANDALL, Judge.

OPINION

LANSING, Judge.

On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted Hans Hagen Homes' petition for mandamus to enforce Minn.Stat. § 15.99, subd. 2 (2004), and directed the City of Minnetrista to approve Hagen Homes' application for rezoning and for expanding the metropolitan-urban-service area. The city appeals, and, because we conclude that the district court properly construed the requirements of section 15.99, subdivision 2(c), as mandatory, we affirm.

FACTS

Hans Hagen Homes, Inc., filed a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the City of Minnetrista to approve Hagen Homes' application for rezoning and for amending the city's comprehensive plan that would adjust the metropolitan-urban-service-area (MUSA) line. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court denied the city's motion, granted Hagen Homes' motion in part, and directed the city to approve the application. The district court denied Hagen Homes' mandamus request to approve its conceptual site plan, and this denial is not disputed on appeal.

Hagen Homes and the city agree on the essential facts. Hagen Homes owns approximately 220 acres of land, divided into six parcels, within the city. In May 2004 Hagen Homes submitted a rezoning application to the city, requesting that the city rezone its parcels from rural agricultural to R-4-PUD and amend its comprehensive plan to adjust the MUSA line to provide Hagen Homes' parcels with public services. The city asked for an extension of the sixty-day statutory time limit to approve or deny the application; Hagen Homes eventually agreed to a November 30, 2004 deadline.

On October 4, 2004, the city council held a public hearing on the application. A Minnetrista city planner presented information on Hagen Homes' request, and a company representative described the project in further detail. After hearing the presentations and public comments, the city denied the application, finding that Hagen Homes' requests were inconsistent with the city's comprehensive plan and that further traffic studies were necessary. The city did not adopt written findings until its October 18, 2004 meeting when it passed a resolution formally denying Hagen Homes' request. Hagen Homes did not have a representative at this meeting.

The city posted minutes of the October 4 and 18 meetings on its website before the November 30, 2004 deadline for action on the application. Copies of the resolution were also available at city hall within forty-eight hours after its adoption. The city did not, however, provide Hagen Homes with a copy of the resolution until December 9, 2004, when Hagen Homes requested a copy from the city.

In March 2005 Hagen Homes filed a petition for mandamus, contending that it was entitled to approval of its application as a matter of law because the city did not provide Hagen Homes with a written statement of denial and the reasons for denial before November 30, 2004, as required by Minn.Stat. § 15.99, subd. 2 (2004). The city appeals from the district court's summary judgment granting Hagen Homes' mandamus petition.

ISSUE

Did the district court err by concluding that a city's failure to provide an applicant with a written statement of its reasons for denying an application for rezoning and extending a MUSA line before the expiration of the Minn.Stat. § 15.99 deadline for action resulted in approval as a matter of law?

ANALYSIS

To obtain a writ of mandamus, a petitioner must establish that the law clearly requires the performance of the mandatory or purely ministerial act for which the writ will issue. Minn.Stat. § 586.01 (2004); McIntosh v. Davis, 441 N.W.2d 115, 118 (Minn.1989). Whether a petitioner has established the grounds necessary to support the issuance of a writ is a question of law. McIntosh, 441 N.W.2d at 118.

The district court's summary judgment granting the mandamus petition and directing the city to approve Hagen Homes' application is based solely on the city's failure to provide Hagen Homes with a written statement of the city's reasons for denial before expiration of the response deadline as required by Minn.Stat. § 15.99, subd. 2(c) (2004). Because Hagen Homes and the city do not dispute the material facts, we exercise independent review to determine whether the district court erred in its application of the statutory language to the undisputed facts. See Wiegel v. City of St. Paul, 639 N.W.2d 378, 381 (Minn.2002) (stating that application of statute to undisputed facts is reviewed de novo).

Hagen Homes' and the city's respective arguments focus narrowly on the structure and text of the second and third subdivisions of section 15.99. The first subdivision, which has no provisions in contention, consists of definitions. See Minn.Stat. § 15.99, subd. 1 (2004) (defining agency, request, and application). The term "agency" includes all statutory and home-rule cities. Id., subd. 1(b). The city does not dispute that it is an agency governed by the time deadlines for agency action. The second subdivision has three subparts addressing the deadline for responding to requests. Id., subd. 2 (2004). The first and last of these subparts are at the core of this dispute. The third and final subdivision provides the requirements for applications and extensions. Id., subd. 3 (2004) (relating to applications and extensions for agency action). Hagen Homes and the city do not dispute that, at the city's request, Hagen Homes extended the deadline for the city's response to November 30, 2004. But they dispute the significance of subpart (c) of the third subdivision, which provides that an agency that sends its response within sixty days of the written request meets the deadline for agency action. See id., subd. 3(c) (allowing agency to prove compliance by documenting response sent within sixty days of written application).

The first of the core provisions in dispute, subdivision 2(a), contains the operative language that transforms an agency's failure to respond to an application within sixty days into an approval:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, section 462.358, subdivision 3b, or chapter 505, and notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, an agency must approve or deny within 60 days a written request relating to zoning, septic systems, or expansion of the metropolitan urban service area for a permit, license, or other governmental approval of an action. Failure of an agency to deny a request within 60 days is approval of the request. If an agency denies the request, it must state in writing the reasons for the denial at the time that it denies the request.

Id., subd. 2(a) (emphasis added). The second of the core disputed provisions, subdivision 2(c), lists the actions that a city council, as a multimember body, must complete to deny effectively an application:

If a multimember governing body denies a request, it must state the reasons for denial on the record and provide the applicant in writing a statement of the reasons for the denial. If the written statement is not adopted at the same time as the denial, it must be adopted at the next meeting following the denial of the request but before the expiration of the time allowed for making a decision under this section. The written statement must be consistent with the reasons stated in the record at the time of the denial. The written statement must be provided to the applicant upon adoption.

Id., subd. 2(c) (emphasis added). The final provision at issue, contained in subdivision 3(c), provides the deadline for sending a response:

An agency response meets the 60-day time limit if the agency can document that the response was sent within 60 days of receipt of the written request.

Id., subd. 3(c).

The city argues that because subpart (c) of subdivision 2, unlike subpart (a), does not contain a penalty clause, the violation of a requirement in subpart (c) does not result in automatic approval of the application. Specifically, the city argues that a violation of the requirement to "provide the applicant in writing a statement of the reasons for the denial" within the sixty-day deadline, or an authorized extension, does not result in automatic approval. Hagen Homes counters that the requirements of subdivision 2 are mandatory and that the penalty clause of subpart (a) applies to a violation of any of the requirements in subdivision 2.

In ascertaining the meaning of a statute, our goal is to effectuate the legislative intent. Minn.Stat. § 645.16 (2004). If the language of the statute is unambiguous, we apply its plain meaning. Id.; Kersten v. Minn. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 608 N.W.2d 869, 874-75 (Minn.2000). If the statutory language is unclear, however, we consider other factors that would reveal the legislative intent, including the need for the law, the circumstances of its enactment, the purpose of the statute, the consequences of a particular interpretation, and the contemporaneous legislative history. Minn. Stat. § 645.16; State v. Loge, 608 N.W.2d 152,...