Holman v. City of Warrenton, No. CV 01-1310-BR.

• Decision Date: 25 September 2002
• Docket Number: No. CV 01-1310-BR.
• Citation: 242 F.Supp.2d 791
• Parties: James HOLMAN dba Holman Property Investments, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF WARRENTON, Alan Johansson, and Dick Pearson, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

242 F.Supp.2d 791

James HOLMAN dba Holman Property Investments, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF WARRENTON, Alan Johansson, and Dick Pearson, Defendants.

No. CV 01-1310-BR.

United States District Court, D. Oregon.

September 25, 2002.

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Blair J. Henningsgaard, Astoria, for Plaintiff.

Michael A. Lehner, Lehner, Mitchell, Rodrigues & Sears, Portland, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

BROWN, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (# 8) and Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment (# 12) as to certain claims.

Plaintiff asserts a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 arising from Defendants' conduct in responding to Plaintiffs efforts to obtain a building permit to develop certain property within the City of Warrenton. Plaintiff alleges Defendants' conduct violated Plaintiffs procedural due process and substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiff also alleges Defendants' conduct was an uncompensated taking of Plaintiffs private property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 18 of the Oregon Constitution.

Defendants move the Court to enter summary judgment in their favor on all of Plaintiffs claims. Plaintiff, in turn, moves the Court to grant summary judgment in his favor on his substantive and procedural due process claims. On August 12, 2002, the Court heard oral argument on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment.

For the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment as to the portion of Plaintiffs claims that seek damages for attorneys' fees incurred in the mandamus proceeding in state court. The Court also GRANTS Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment on Plaintiffs substantive due process claim and DISMISSES that claim with prejudice. In addition, the Court DENIES as moot Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiffs Fifth Amendment claim because Plaintiff voluntarily withdrew that claim and DENIES the remainder of Defendants' Motion.

The Court also GRANTS Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment as to the procedural due process claim against Defendants Johansson and Pearson and awards Plaintiff $30,408 in damages. The Court DENIES the remainder of Plaintiffs Motion.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The following facts are undisputed:

Plaintiff is the owner of approximately .84 acres of real property (Property) within the City of Warrenton, Oregon (City). The Property is located in the middle of the downtown area of the City and is classified as General Commercial (C-1) pursuant to City Planning Ordinances. The operation of a mini-storage facility is a "conditional use" within a C-1 zone. A conditional use of property zoned as C-1 is not approved automatically, but it may be allowed if the City Planning Commission determines certain criteria and all City ordinances would be met by a proposed plan.

In the fall of 1999, Plaintiff applied to the Planning Commission for a conditional use permit to construct a mini-storage facility. The facility consisted of three separate buildings, one of which fronted Market Street. Plaintiff submitted drawings with the application that showed access through garage doors to the storage units along Market Street. The application, however, indicated Plaintiff was not requesting vehicular access to the units from Market Street. In particular, Plaintiff stated in the application The site layout has been designed with access from the North end of Water Street only. No access is requested from Harbor Street, Skipanon Drive, or Market Street. This layout should eliminate any potential bottlenecks created by vehicles slowing or stopping for the purposes of ingress to or egress from the proposed use.

Defendant Dick Pearson was a City Planner when Plaintiff submitted his application for a conditional use permit. Pearson reviewed the application and drafted a Staff Report to the Planning Commission regarding the proposed use. Pearson concluded the proposed use would not generate excessive traffic, especially compared to the amount of traffic generated by uses permitted outright in a C-1 zone. He noted the adjacent streets had the capacity to accommodate the traffic that would be generated by the mini-storage facility. Pearson also stated in the Staff Report that "[m]ini-storage units must comply with access and parking standards in Section 7.080 through 7.083." These ordinances required 17 off-street parking spaces for the Property. The proposed plan, however, failed to show any off-street parking spaces for the storage units. Nonetheless, Pearson concluded:

The site has an adequate area to accommodate the proposed use. The site layout has been designed to provide for appropriate access points, on-site drives, public areas, loading areas and other facilities required by city ordinances.

Pearson recommended the Planning Commission approve Plaintiffs application for a conditional use permit.

On November 10, 1999, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on Plaintiffs application. During the hearing, one of the commissioners questioned Plaintiff about access to the units on Market Street. Plaintiff informed the Planning Commission that the garage doors to those units would face Market Street. Plaintiff explained customers would access those units by parking on Market Street and using a sidewalk between the street and the units to unload their belongings. Plaintiff stated he would not build a ramp, and, therefore, no vehicles would be able to drive into the units from Market Street. Plaintiff acknowledged, however, he was "sure some of those people will park on Market Street."

The Planning Commission approved the motion to grant Plaintiffs application for a conditional use permit by oral vote after the public hearing. On November 15, 1999, the Planning Commission recorded a written Notice and Order formally approving Plaintiffs request for a conditional use permit. The Planning Commission's decision was not appealed within the time allotted for such an appeal, and the decision became final.

The Mayor of Warrenton, the Warrenton City Commission, and many citizens were unhappy with Plaintiffs plans to build mini-storage units on the Property, which was one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in the core downtown area. Members of the City Commission publicly criticized the Planning Commission's approval of the use.

On February 22, 2000, Plaintiff submitted an application to the City Building Code Department for a building permit to construct the mini-storage facility. Plaintiff attached to the application more detailed building plans for the project. There were no material differences between the plans Plaintiff originally submitted to the Planning Commission for the conditional use permit and the plans Plaintiff submitted to the Building Code Department for the building permit. In particular, both plans showed storage units that fronted Market Street with a sidewalk between the building and the street.

Building plans must comply with the state building and specialty codes and all City ordinances before a building permit may be issued. To determine whether building plans comply with City ordinances, the application is sent to various department heads who indicate compliance on a routing slip. Pearson received the routing slip on behalf of the Planning Department. Pearson initially indicated on the slip that Plaintiffs request for "conditional use [was] approved by Planning Commission 11-10-99 in the layout and design as shown."

At some later date, however, Defendant Alan Johansson, the City Engineer and head of the Public Works Department, reviewed the routing slip and Plaintiffs application for a building permit. Johansson was concerned that access to the units from Market Street might violate general City ordinances regarding safe use of streets. Johansson contacted Pearson to discuss Plaintiffs proposed use of the Property. Johansson told Pearson that Pearson could not approve the use because the plan enabled Plaintiffs customers to access some of the units directly from Market Street. Johansson did not refer to any particular provision of the City ordinances that the proposed use might violate. At that point, Pearson realized for the first time that there might be an "offstreet parking, loading, maneuvering room problem" with the proposed use. Although Pearson had attended the hearing before the Planning Commission on Plaintiffs application for a conditional use permit and heard the discussion regarding access to units along the Market Street side of the Property, he did not make the appropriate "connections" at that time. After talking to Johansson, Pearson reviewed the parking lot standards and offstreet parking sections of the City ordinances. On March 23, 2000, Pearson sent Plaintiff a letter that indicated Plaintiff would have to redesign his project to comply with the City's off-street parking ordinances. Pearson stated:

It is my opinion that access to serve commercial uses must be off-street and that the City does not permit maneuvering and loading to occur on the public road right of way.

As a result of Pearson's refusal to "sign off on Plaintiffs application for a building permit, the Building Department could not and did not approve Plaintiffs application.

On March 28, 2000, Pearson sent a letter to the City Attorney requesting her opinion as to whether the Planning Commission's earlier approval of Plaintiffs application for a conditional use permit prohibited the City from requiring Plaintiff to comply with the City's zoning ordinances. On March 30, 2000, the City Attorney advised Pearson that the Planning Commission did not waive its right to require compliance with zoning ordinances when it approved Plaintiffs application for the conditional use permit. The City...