Mount Elliott Cemetery Ass'n v. City of Troy

• Decision Date: 24 March 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-2146,97-2146
• Parties: MOUNT ELLIOTT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF TROY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 398

171 F.3d 398

MOUNT ELLIOTT CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF TROY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 97-2146.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 28, 1999.

Decided March 24, 1999.

Joseph F. Galvin (argued and briefed), Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, Detroit, Michigan, Thomas J. McCarthy (briefed), Monaghan, LoPrete, McDonald, Yakima & Grenke, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Joseph Aviv (argued and briefed), Matthew F. Leitman (briefed), Bruce L. Segal (briefed), Miro, Weiner & Kramer, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: MERRITT, GUY, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

RALPH B. GUY, JR., Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, Mount Elliott Cemetery Association, appeals from the entry of summary judgment in favor of defendant, the City of Troy (City), in this action to challenge the City Council's refusal to rezone certain property for use as a Catholic cemetery. Plaintiff alleges that the denial of the zoning request violated the right to free exercise of religion and denied it equal protection as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. ¹ Plaintiff also claims that the City's action constituted exclusionary zoning in violation of the Michigan City and Village Zoning Act. See MICH. COMP. LAWS ANN. § 125.592 (West 1997). Based on our review of the record and the arguments on appeal, we find that the City was entitled to summary judgment and affirm.

I.

Plaintiff, Mount Elliott Cemetery Association (Association), a non-profit corporation run by its trustees, owns and operates four existing Catholic cemeteries in the metro-Detroit area: Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit; Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit; All Saints Cemetery in Waterford Township; and Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township. The Association was established in 1864 when the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Detroit deeded property in trust to the Association to be maintained and operated as a Catholic cemetery, with the proviso that any funds received from its operation be used to maintain and establish future Catholic cemeteries.

The Association's general manager, Patrick Farrell, testified that the Roman Catholic Church is not involved in the management or operation of the Association or its cemeteries. In fact, Farrell testified that Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, which is owned by the Diocese, is its competition. The Association does not provide religious services in connection with burials in its cemeteries, but establishes, maintains, and sells plots in consecrated ground for the burial of the Catholic faithful and their families (Catholic or non-Catholic). The Association is not a part of the Church or the Diocese, but must operate the cemeteries under the rules and regulations of the Archdiocese.

In 1992, Farrell examined the geographical area that was being served by Resurrection Cemetery and concluded that it was not serving Catholics in Troy or the surrounding communities in Oakland County. Although the Association had expected to serve families within a twelve-mile radius of Resurrection Cemetery, Farrell concluded that they were only reaching families within about an eight-mile radius. He looked at the geographical reach of the Association's existing cemeteries to identify an area for a new cemetery where the radius from the property would "mesh" with its other properties. Farrell selected Troy for the development of a new cemetery because of its location in relation to the Association's existing cemeteries.

In 1993, the Association purchased adjacent parcels of land totaling about 88 acres located in Troy, east of Rochester Road and south of South Boulevard. Only about 55 acres of the property could be used as a cemetery, the rest falling in wetland and floodplain areas. The Association knew before it purchased the property that it would have to be rezoned from R-1D, single family residential, to the C-F, community facilities, district in order to develop the land as a cemetery.

When the City of Troy was incorporated in 1955, there were five small 19th-century cemeteries and one very large non-denominational cemetery, White Chapel Memorial Cemetery (White Chapel), within the City limits. In 1957, the City adopted its zoning ordinances, including the one-family residential districts (R-1A to R-1E) which "are designed to be the most restrictive of the residential Districts as to use." The ordinance "grand-fathered" existing cemeteries that lawfully occupied land zoned R-1 as a "principal permitted use." The City established the C-F district in 1977, which includes among the principal permitted uses: "Cemeteries, in locations where such would not abut platted and developed residential land." Those seeking to rezone property to a C-F district are required to conform to the requirements for rezoning any other property.

The C-F, Community Facilities, District is intended to provide for those public or quasi-public institutional uses necessary to serve the cultural, educational, and, to some extent, the physical needs of the residential community. The unique nature and requirements of the uses contained within this District, and their need for location within the residential portion of the community, warrant the establishment of a separate zoning classification which contains land use controls to insure that such uses will be fully compatible with adjacent land uses and not contrary to the spirit and purpose of this ordinance.

While there is property in Troy zoned C-F, it is undisputed that no areas were set aside for use as C-F districts.

On June 14, 1994, the Planning Commission (Commission) recommended that the Association's first request to rezoned the property be denied (6-1), despite the recommendation of the City's planning director, Laurence Keisling, that it be approved. The Commission found that the proposed use (1) would erode the City's tax base; (2) was an inappropriate use for the C-F district, as it would not serve the general public; and (3) was a "quasi-commercial" use. The City attorney confirmed that the C-F district is the proper zoning classification for cemeteries and that the ordinance does not exclude cemeteries affiliated with religious organizations.

The Association revised its rezoning request to exclude platted lots to the north of the property, proposing that about 57 acres be rezoned to C-F and about 21 acres be rezoned to E-P "in recognition both of the large wooded floodplain area in the southeasterly portion of the property, and the need for a buffer or separation between the potential developed C-F zoned cemetery site and adjacent residential properties."

As is reflected in a memo from Keisling to the City manager, the Commission had two meetings to consider the revised request. Keisling strongly recommended its approval to discourage the spread of commercial uses from neighboring cities to the north. The Association presented a traffic study showing that residential development would generate much more morning and evening traffic than a cemetery. One of the commissioners disagreed with the conclusion that a cemetery would not have a negative impact on traffic in the area based on his experiences working near White Chapel. A number of potential neighbors also were present at the meeting, some of whom expressed concerns about the impact on traffic, the adequacy of the buffer area, the effect on property values, and the appropriateness of the use. After discussing the proposal, the Commission again recommended that the rezoning request be denied (6-2) for the following reasons: (1) insufficient transition or buffer areas; (2) reduction of potential tax base; and (3) potential traffic congestion.

At a regular meeting held May 22, 1995, the City Council followed the recommendation of the Planning Commission and denied the rezoning request by a vote of 6-1, offering the following six reasons in support of denial: (1) insufficient transition or buffer areas proposed, making the application of C-F zoning for cemetery purposes at this location improper; (2) reduction of potential tax base; (3) potential traffic congestion on Rochester Road related to uses permitted in C-F districts; (4) E-P zoning buffer was a clear circumvention of the intent; (5) it "doesn't meet the spirit of the ordinance"; and (6) abuts developed land and is not considered a quasi-public use.

The Association alleges that Council questioned the exclusionary practices of Catholic cemeteries and suggested that Catholics could be buried at the non-denominational White Chapel cemetery. The Association had, however, presented its proposal as one that addressed a need for a Catholic-only cemetery to serve residents of Troy and its surrounding communities. There is also no dispute that White Chapel, located only three and one-half miles from the property, accommodates the burial of Catholics in blessed ground with full Catholic burial rites. White Chapel is a large cemetery with a life expectancy of 100 to 150 years or more, due to the increasing rate of cremation, and estimates that a third of its burials are of Catholics. In addition, another non-denominational cemetery, Christian Memorial Cultural Center, which is located about five miles from the property in Rochester Hills, likewise accommodates the burial of Catholics, has an expected life of about 200 years, and estimates that about 35 percent of its burials are of Catholics.

The Association filed this action and after the close of discovery the City filed three separate dispositive motions seeking dismissal and/or summary judgment. On September 23, 1997, the district court entered three orders: (1) granting in part the City's motion to dismiss the free exercise claim for lack of standing; (2) granting the City's motion for summary judgment on the equal protection claims; and (3) granting the City's motion for summary judgment on the exclusionary zoning...