Keller v. City of Council Bluffs

• Decision Date: 21 September 1954
• Docket Number: No. 48493,48493
• Citation: 51 A.L.R.2d 251,246 Iowa 202,66 N.W.2d 113
• Parties: , 51 A.L.R.2d 251 Dorothy L. KELLER and T. W. Keller, Appellees, v. CITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 113

66 N.W.2d 113

246 Iowa 202, 51 A.L.R.2d 251

Dorothy L. KELLER and T. W. Keller, Appellees, v. CITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, Appellant.

No. 48493.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 21, 1954.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 19, 1954.

J. A. Williams, Council Bluffs, David E. Stuart, City Atty., Council Bluffs, for appellant.

Peterson, Smith, Peterson, Beckman & Willson, Council Bluffs, for appellees.

LARSON, Justice.

The City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the year 1927 adopted a comprehensive zoning ordinance under the authority and in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Zoning Law now known as Chapter 414, Code of 1954, I.C.A. On June 27, 1949, the city council also passed an ordinance changing the use classification of three lots in Morningside Addition from 'A' Residential to 'B' Residential District. For sometime prior thereto the owners of the lots had operated the premises as a convalescent home caring for about 34 patients. A large house about 55 years old, 4 stories high, containing 16 rooms, was situated on parts of each of the three lots concerned. Zoning ordinance violation complaints by the plaintiffs, who reside next door, resulted in an official request to desist, an appeal to the Board of Adjustment, and an application for a change in the zoning law which was considered by the zoning commission. Upon their recommendation the city council considered and adopted the contested amendatory ordinance. On the basis that the council's action was unreasonable, arbitrary, and an abuse of its discretion, and that the action amounted to illegal spot zoning, the trial court in this equity action held the amendment invalid and ineffective. The city appealed.

From the record we find Lots 13, 14 and 15, in Block 8, Morningside Addition, and the house thereon had been used as a medical clinic, apartments for from 3 to 5 families at a time, and as a boarding and lodging house, and convalescent home. It was never substantially used as a single family residence since prior to the comprehensive zoning ordinance enactment, and the plaintiffs had purchased and substantially improved their property next door knowing of the use then made of said property. Twenty-nine neighboring property owners had signed a petition for the change, and twenty-four persons owning property in that and adjoining additions had signed a resistence, all of which were before the zoning commission and the council in their deliberations. The record also discloses that in the past some fifty amendments had been made to the comprehensive zoning ordinance, ten of which were from 'A' to 'B'; this was the only convalescent home operated in a Class 'A' Residential District, though there were twelve such operations in the city; this was the only departure from the Class 'A' restriction in Morningside Addition, and its present owner had acquired the property in 1943 from a previous owner and operator of the home. Other relevant facts appear later.

I. The defendant contends plaintiff did not present an appropriate case for declaratory relief. We find no merit in this contention. Rule 262, Rules of Civil Procedure, 58 I.C.A., provides that any person may have determined 'any question of the construction or validity' of any municipal ordinance whose right or status is affected thereby. The procedure for declaratory relief should be given a reasonably liberal construction. State v. Central States Electric Co., 238 Iowa 801, 28 N.W.2d 457. In re Pierce's Estate, 245 Iowa ----, 60 N.W.2d 894, 900, and citations, are other decisions to like effect. We think the case as presented is appropriate for declaratory judgment. C. K. Eddy & Sons v. Tierney, 276 Mich. 333, 267 N.W. 852; Clifton Hills Realty Co. v. City of Cincinnati, 60 Ohio App. 443, 21 N.W.2d 993; Donovan v. City of Santa Monica, 88 Cal.App.2d 386, 199 P.2d 51.

II. The principal controversy is whether the city council exceeded its authority or discretion in the adoption of Ordinance 3235 amending the comprehensive zoning ordinance of the city changing the three lots, an area of about 125 feet square, from Class 'A' Residential District, which limited the use of property to private dwellings for one or two families, churches, schools, libraries, farm and truck gardening, and accessory buildings, to Class 'B' Residential District, which limited the use of property to Class 'A' uses, multiple dwellings, boarding and lodging houses, hotels, hospitals and clinics, institutions of educational, philanthropic or eleemosynary nature, private clubs, fraternities and lodges, nurseries and greenhouses, and public garages. This precise question has not been passed upon by this court but has been given consideration in other jurisdictions.

The rule generally stated is that a city council does not have the authority to amend a comprehensive zoning law so as to remove or impose more or less onerous restrictions upon a small tract or lot similar in character and use to the surrounding property. Such action has been called an arbitrary and capricious abuse of the council's power and authority and is often designated as illegal spot zoning. This is particularly true if it bears no relation to a comprehensive city-wide plan.

It is within a council's power and authority, however, to decide whether or not the property so designated is similar in character and use to that of surrounding property, and when a sufficient showing has been made to reasonably support its judgment, such discretion may not be superseded by the court's different conclusion.

There are other factors which may be considered, such as whether the action will increase the burden unjustly on the other surrounding property or be harmful to the health, safety and general welfare of the community, but in those matters again the council's discretion is controlling unless it is clearly shown to be arbitrary and capricious.

It is defendant's contention the amendment adopted by the council was not adverse to the interest of public health, safety, morals or general welfare, the council's action was not unreasonable and arbitrary nor did it amount to illegal spot zoning. Under the police power, zoning is a matter within sound legislative discretion and, if the facts do not show the bounds of that discretion have been exceeded, it must be held the action of the legislative body, here the council, is valid. Anderson v. Jester, 206 Iowa 452, 221 N.W. 354, and authorities cited therein; American Wood Products Co. v. City of Minneapolis, 8 Cir., 35 F.2d 657; Taylor v. City of Hackensack, 137 N.J.L. 139, 58 A.2d 788.

Zoning by municipalities finds its authority under Chapter 414, Code 1954, I.C.A., and we have had several occasions to discuss and consider the constitutionality of these statutes. As elsewhere, we have generally sustained them as a valid exercise of the police power 'For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, or the general welfare of the community, * * * city or town * * *.' Boardman v. Davis, 231 Iowa 1227, 3 N.W.2d 608; Anderson v. Jester, supra; City of Des Moines v. Manhattan Oil Co., 193 Iowa 1096, 184 N.W. 823, 188 N.W. 921, 23 A.L.R. 1322; Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303, 54 A.L.R. 1016.

Section 414.4, Code 1954, I.C.A., permits the council from time to time to amend, supplement or change, the regulations, restrictions and boundaries, and designates the procedure.

We are of the opinion the governing body of a municipality may amend its zoning ordinances any time it deems circumstances and conditions warrant such action, and such an amendment is valid if the procedural requirements of the statutes are followed and it is not unreasonable or capricious nor inconsistent with the spirit and design of the zoning statute. The burden is upon the plaintiffs attacking the amendment to establish that the acts of the council were arbitrary, unreasonable, unjust and out of keeping with the spirit of the zoning statutes. Taylor v. City of Hackensack, supra; Rodgers v. Village of Tarrytown, 302 N.Y. 115, 96 N.E.2d 731; Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303; Wulfsohn v. Burden, 241 N.Y. 288, 150 N.E. 120, 43 A.L.R. 651; Shepard v. Village of Skaneateles, 300 N.Y. 115, 89 N.E.2d 619.

There was no serious dispute regarding compliance with procedural requirements preliminary to the council's action and therefore our principal inquiry is as to the reasonableness of its action under the facts and circumstances here shown. In determining the reasonableness of a zoning classification or an amendment thereto, each case must be determined upon its own facts. Anderson v. Jester, supra; Boardman v. Davis, supra; 62 C.J.S., Municipal Corporations, § 226(12), p. 468; Moreland v. Armstrong, 297 Mich. 32, 297 N.W. 60; City of Omaha v. Glissmann, 151 Neb. 895, 39 N.W.2d 828. The facts and circumstances here were apparently carefully considered by both the zoning commission and the city council. The action was recommended and passed by a 7 to 1 vote of both bodies.

The defendant contends and the facts tend to show the huge structure located upon the concerned lots has little or no appeal to a present day home owner, and about the only beneficial use that could be made of these premises was as a nursing home, an apartment house, fraternity, or other multiple dwelling, all of which were prohibited in a Class 'A' district. The record discloses difficulty in obtaining any permanent use of the property for many years and we have already referred to its past uses in those years. It had become run down and was an eyesore before it was beneficially used as a convalescent home sometime in the 1930's. It has received substantial repairs since then though no structural changes were made. A rather ugly outside wooden stairway or fire escape was added in the back during the war years, no doubt as required by the State Fire Marshal, when steel could not be...