Home Builders Ass'n of Greater Kansas City v. City of Kansas City
Decision Date | 12 September 1977 |
Docket Number | No. 59725,59725 |
Citation | 555 S.W.2d 832 |
Parties | The HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF GREATER KANSAS CITY et al., Respondents, v. The CITY OF KANSAS CITY, Missouri, Appellant. |
Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Richard N. Ward, Asst. City Atty., Kansas City, for appellant.
Theodore C. Beckett, Kansas City, for respondents.
In this class action for declaratory and injunctive relief, The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, and certain subdividers of land, challenge the constitutionality of Section 31.32 of Chapter 31 of the General Ordinances of Kansas City, Missouri. Section 31.32 reads as follows:
Trial was had without a jury and the Circuit Court of Jackson County entered judgment which reads in part as follows:
"The fixed percentage dedication requirement of Sec. 31.32(A) is an arbitrary requirement unsupported by any showing of necessity and as such constitutes an unconstitutional taking of Plaintiffs' property without compensation in violation of Article I, Sections 10 and 26 of the Constitution of the State of Missouri and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and is declared to be unconstitutional and void."
An appeal was then taken to this Court by the City of Kansas City.
This case represents another episode in a series of clashes between the exercise of police power by a city for the purpose of protecting the health and welfare of its citizens and provisions that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. For a discussion of the general question, see Vol. 1, Nichols' Law of Eminent Domain, § 1.42. For a discussion of the narrower question attending forced dedications for the purpose of preserving open space, see Vol. 2, Nichols' Law of Eminent Domain, § 6.3511 and the cases collected in Annotation, Validity and Construction of Statute or Ordinance Requiring Land Developer to Dedicate Portion of Land for Recreational Purposes, or Make Payment in Lieu Thereof, 43 A.L.R.3d 862. See also: Johnston, Constitutionality of Subdivision Control Exactions: The Quest for a Rationale, 52 Cornell Law Quarterly 871 (1967); Landau, Urban Concentration and Land Exactions for Recreational Use: Some Constitutional Problems in Mandatory Dedication Ordinances in Iowa, 22 Drake Law Review 71 (1972); and Ellickson, Suburban Growth Controls: An Economic and Legal Analysis, 86 Yale Law Journal 385, 481-486 (1977).
In 1926, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303. The Court upheld a zoning ordinance and significantly said (at pages 386 and 387, 47 S.Ct. at page 118):
The Court then declared (at page 395, 47 S.Ct. at page 121) the test of constitutional validity of an ordinance to be whether its "provisions are clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, having no substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare."
In 1961, the Supreme Court of Illinois decided the case of Pioneer Trust & Savings Bank v. Mount Prospect, 22 Ill.2d 375, 176 N.E.2d 799. The Court held an ordinance requiring a subdivider to dedicate a portion of land for public use invalid, and applied the following test (176 N.E.2d 799, at 802):
". . . If the requirement is within the statutory grant of power to the municipality and if the burden cast upon the subdivider is specifically and uniquely attributable to his activity, then the requirement is permissible; if not, it is forbidden and amounts to a confiscation of private property in contravention of the constitutional prohibitions rather than reasonable regulation under the police power."
In 1971, the Supreme Court of California decided the case of Associated Home Builders, Inc. v. Walnut Creek, 4 Cal.3d 633, 94 Cal.Rptr. 630, 484 P.2d 606. The Court held an ordinance requiring dedication of land or payment of fees as a condition to approval of a subdivision map valid, and held (94 Cal.Rptr. 630, at 634, 484 P.2d 606, at 610) that the statute authorizing it
In 1972, in State ex rel. Noland v. St. Louis County, 478 S.W.2d 363, 367 (Mo.) this Court held that "there must be some 'reasonable relationship' between the proposed activity of the landowner and the exactions of government." This Court then found that the requirements that the subdivider relocate a new road and widen and pave an old road were not reasonably related to the activity of the subdivider.
We have concluded that the Pioneer Trust rule,...
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