Keys Youth Services, Inc. v. City of Olathe, Kan.
| Decision Date | 23 February 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-2398-KHV.,98-2398-KHV. |
| Citation | 38 F.Supp.2d 914 |
| Parties | KEYS YOUTH SERVICES, INC., Plaintiff, v. CITY OF OLATHE, KANSAS, Larry Campbell, John Bacon, Bill Trout, Michael Copeland, and Gary Mitchell, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Kansas |
Jmaes H. Ensz, Sarah G. Madden, Ensz & Jester, P.C., Kansas City, MO, for Plaintiff.
Anthony F. Rupp, Andrew M. DeMarea, Shugart, Thomson & Kilroy, Overland Park, KS, for Defendants.
Roy T. Artman, Dept. of Health & Environment, Legal Services Div., Topeka, KS, for defendant Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment.
Keys Youth Services, Inc. [Keys], a not-for-profit corporation that operates youth homes in Kansas, alleges that zoning actions by the City of Olathe, Kansas and related defendants violated the Fair Housing Act [FHA], 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq., as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, and its constitutional rights to procedural and substantive due process and equal protection. This matter comes before the Court on the Motion to Dismiss of Defendants Campbell, Bacon, Trout, and Copeland (Doc. # 13) filed October 6, 1998, asserting that certain individual defendants — who are members of the Olathe City Council — are entitled to absolute or qualified immunity. For reasons stated below, the Court finds that defendants' motion should be sustained in part and overruled in part.
In ruling on a motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the Court must assume as true all well pleaded facts in plaintiff's complaint and view them in a light most favorable to plaintiff. Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 118, 110 S.Ct. 975, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990). The Court must make all reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiff, and the pleadings must be construed liberally. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a); Lafoy v. HMO Colorado, 988 F.2d 97, 98 (10th Cir.1993). The issue in reviewing the sufficiency of the complaint is not whether plaintiff will prevail, but whether plaintiff is entitled to offer evidence to support its claims.
The Court may not dismiss a cause of action for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond a doubt that plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of its theories of recovery that would entitle plaintiff to relief. See Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs, Co. v. City of Lawrence, 927 F.2d 1111, 1115 (10th Cir.1991). Although plaintiff need not precisely state each element of its claims, plaintiff must plead minimal factual allegations on those material elements that must be proved. Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th Cir. 1991).
According to the complaint, the relevant facts are these:
Keys is a not-for profit corporation that operates six group homes in Johnson County, Kansas. The homes provide residential care for youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by parents and/or guardians and who are under the supervision and direction of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. In March 1998 Keys contracted to purchase a home in Olathe to house ten adolescent males and two or three adult staff members. The prospective residents have exhibited moderate behavioral, social, and emotional problems and would receive psychological counseling and treatment while at the home. Keys would not accept residents who are threats to themselves or others. The home is located on over one acre of land in an area zoned for single family residences.
On March 13, 1998, Keys applied for a special use permit, as required by the City of Olathe zoning ordinance which classifies the home as a "residential care facility." On April 13, 1998, the City Planning Commission1 held a public hearing to consider the application. The City staff recommended approval because the special use would provide a needed service for at-risk youth in the community and the proposed use was consistent with the City's Comprehensive Plan.2 The Planning Commission, however, rejected the staff advice and did not recommend approval of the special use permit.
Kansas law, K.S.A. § 12-736, provides that "persons with a disability shall not be excluded from the benefits of single family residential surroundings by any municipal zoning ordinance."3 It also provides that "[n]o municipality shall prohibit the location of a group home in any zone or area where single family dwellings are permitted" and declares unlawful any zoning ordinance, resolution or regulation which prohibits the location of a group home in such zone or area or which subjects group homes to regulations not applicable to other single family dwellings in the same zone or area. By its definition of what constitutes a "group home," however, Kansas law extends this protection only to dwellings occupied by eight or fewer persons with a disability.
On May 5, 1998, the City Council concluded that the Planning Commission findings were flawed and that there was a substantial issue whether they were legally justifiable under state and federal law. The City Council therefore voted to remand the matter to the Planning Commission so that the City attorney "might analyze law and craft findings that would authorize the City Council and Mayor to effectively deny [p]laintiff's application for the special use permit." Complaint ¶ 14.
Before the City Council voted to return the application to the Planning Commission, Keys had informed the City, individual members of the City Council, and the Mayor that state and federal law required the City to issue the special use permit. Keys also advised that failure to do so would subject the City and the individual defendants to liability for actual damages and attorney's fees, and also subject the individual defendants to liability for punitive damages.
Shortly after May 15, 1998, the City informed Keys that it would hold another full hearing before the Planning Commission. Keys then sent a letter to the City and the individual defendants, asserting that it was entitled to immediate approval of the special use permit and that failure to issue the permit would subject it to damages. The City and the individual defendants then obtained a legal opinion from outside legal counsel. That opinion concluded that the City had an obligation under the FHA and state law and that it should "reasonably accommodate Keys by allowing a 10-resident group home in a single family zone, even though this [was] over the statutory limit defining group homes." Complaint ¶ 17.
The City, through its attorney, then crafted unsubstantiated findings of fact to support a denial of Keys' application for a special use permit. The City submitted these findings to the Planning Commission, which on June 21, 1998, recommended that Keys' application be denied.
Keys informed the City and the individual defendants that the Planning Commission's recommendation was untenable and asked that the City Council and Mayor meet in executive session to recognize plaintiff's "unqualified right to use its home as a group home." Complaint ¶ 19. On July 7, 1998, however, the City denied Keys' application for a special use permit, based on the votes of the individual defendants.
Keys is now unable to operate the home because Gary R. Mitchell, Secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, will not issue a license or authorize referrals until the home receives local zoning approval. Keys asserts that efforts to pursue a remedy through the state appeal process "will predictably be fruitless," Complaint ¶ 21, and that it has incurred actual damages for costs of the home and lost profits.
In Count II, Keys asserts that the FHA required defendants to use the special use permit as a reasonable accommodation for the potential handicapped (mentally impaired) residents. Keys asserts that in denying the permit, defendants discriminated against the potential residents (and thus Keys) because of the "familial status" of the residents. Complaint ¶ 25 Keys asserts that if the ten young men and two or three supervising adults had been related by blood, they would have been absolutely entitled to occupy the house without a special use permit under the City Zoning Code. Based on this position, Keys asserts that K.S.A. § 12-736 authorizes ten persons to occupy a group home in a single family residential setting, notwithstanding local zoning to the contrary.
Keys asserts that as a result of the City's actions it has suffered irreparable harm for which it has no adequate remedy in law. Keys asks the Court to declare that it is entitled to occupy and use its home as a group home for ten young men with appropriate adult supervision, to find that Keys is in compliance with local zoning laws, and to direct Mitchell to find that local zoning approval exists in deciding whether to issue a license for a group home. Keys also asks the Court to award actual and punitive damages.
In Count III Keys asserts that defendants violated its federal rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to equal protection, substantive due process, and the right to be free from a taking without due process of law, as well as under the FHA. Keys thus asserts a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Keys asserts that it is entitled to actual damages from the City and individual defendants, to punitive damages from individual defendants, and to reasonable attorney fees as well as the declaratory relief sought in Count II.
In Count IV, Keys asserts that defendants have violated K.S.A. § 12-736 and asks the Court to declare that it is entitled to occupy and use its home as a group home, to direct Mitchell to consider that local zoning approval exists in determining whether to issue Keys a license for a group home, and to assess costs incurred in this action.
As an alternative, Count V asserts that as a matter of law the City lacked sufficient substantial evidence to deny Keys' application for a special...
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