Mayor, etc., of Savannah v. Collins, 18735
| Decision Date | 08 November 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 18735,18735 |
| Citation | 84 S.E.2d 454,211 Ga. 191 |
| Parties | MAYOR, etc., of SAVANNAH et al. v. Chas. W. COLLINS et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Aaron Kravitch, James F. Glass, Savannah, for plaintiff in error.
Myrick & Myrick, Benj. Silverman, Savannah, for defendant in error.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
This litigation arose when 25 resident home-owners filed a suit to enjoin the defendants from erecting a fire station in an area of the City of Savannah which had been zoned for residences, apartments, and churches and on land which the city had acquired before the area was so zoned. In substance, the petition, after being twice amended, alleges that the City of Savannah cannot lawfully erect a fire station on land, though owned by it, which has been zoned for other and different uses; that the land which the city proposes to use as a location for a fire station had been previously dedicated by it to the public for park purposes; and that the city, acting through its governing body, had flagrantly abused its discretion in locating a site for its fire station, since it had, in doing so, acted arbitrarily capriciously, and in bad faith. These allegations were positively denied by the defendants. At an interlocutory hearing the parties introduced much evidence which is conflicting in many material respects. The exception is to a judgment granting a temporary injunction. Held:
1. Since a municipality unquestionably, and concededly in this case, has the right to condemn private property for a necessary governmental use, though it be located in an area which has been zoned for other and different uses, it necessarily follows that it may likewise use property for a necessary governmental use which it has acquired previously by purchase. The provision of our Constitution which provides for zoning, art. 3, § 7, par. 23, and the legislative act which authorized the City of Savannah to zone its territory, Ga.Laws 1929, pp. 1281, 1286, will not be given a construction which will prevent the city from erecting a fire station, which is a necessary governmental use of property, in any area of the city, though it be zoned for other and different uses. To construe them differently and so as to prevent the city's use of any property for a necessary governmental purpose, would offend that provision of our Constitution which declares that the right of eminent domain shall not be abridged. See, in this connection, 58 Am.Jur. 1008, § 120; ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
City of Pittsburgh v. Com.
...the agency immune from zoning regulations. See, e.g., State ex rel. Askew v. Kopp, 330 S.W.2d 882 (Mo.1960); Mayor of Savannah v. Collins, 211 Ga. 191, 84 S.E.2d 454 (1954).See generally, Note, Governmental Immunity From Local Zoning Ordinances, 84 Harv.L.Rev. 869 (1971); Comment, Inapplica......
-
Blackstone Park Imp. Ass'n v. State Bd. of Standards and Appeals
...entity's superiority in situations in which its proposed land use runs counter to local zoning provisions. E.g., Mayor of Savannah v. Collins, 211 Ga. 191, 84 S.E.2d 454 (1954); City of Kirkwood v. City of Sunset Hills, 589 S.W.2d 31 (Mo.Ct.App.1979). These latter tests have likewise come u......
-
City of Scottsdale v. Municipal Court of City of Tempe
...of Benton Harbor, 280 Mich. 522, 274 N.W. 324; Nichols Engineering & Research v. State, 59 So.2d 874 (Fla.1952); Mayor Etc. of Savannah v. Collins, 211 Ga. 191, 84 S.E.2d 454; McKinney v. City of High Point, 237 N.C. 66, 74 S.E.2d 440; and see 2 Metzenbaum, Law of Zoning, 1280 Chapter X-i, ......
-
Hayward v. Gaston
...domain, i.e., whether the governmental body has the right to condemn private property for the use in question. Mayor of Savannah v. Collins, 211 Ga. 191, 84 S.E.2d 454 (1954); State v. Board of County Com'rs, Ohio C.P., 79 N.E.2d 698 (1947), aff'd, 83 Ohio App. 388, 78 N.E.2d 694 (1948), ap......
-
Local Government Litigation: Some Pivotal Principles - R. Perry Sentell, Jr.
...Coast Line Railroad, 161 Ga. 432, 131 S.E. 46 (1925), a case involving neither local government land use nor local government zoning. 102. 211 Ga. 191, 84 S.E.2d 454 (1954). 103. Id. 104. Id., 84 S.E.2d at 454-55. 105. Id., 845 S.E.2d at 455. 106. Id. The court cited no Georgia authority. I......