Parks Properties v Maury County

• Decision Date: 17 August 2001
• Docket Number: 97-00235
• Citation: 70 S.W.3d 735
• Parties: PARKS PROPERTIES, et al. v. MAURY COUNTY, et al.IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

PARKS PROPERTIES, et al. v MAURY COUNTY, et al.

No. M1997-00235-COA-R3-CV

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE

September 3, 1998 Session

Filed August 17, 2001

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Maury County, No. 6707

William B. Cain, Judge

This appeal involves a dispute between Maury County and the developers of a commercial warehouse project. The developers purchased two large metal warehouses based on their understanding that the Director of Community Development and the Maury County Regional Planning Commission had effectively agreed to waive the Southern Standard Building Code's requirement that buildings have automatic sprinkler systems. After the Director of Community Development declined to issue a building permit because the plans did not include a sprinkler system, the developers filed suit in the Circuit Court for Maury County seeking to compel the county to issue a building permit and to recover damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994). Following a bench trial, the trial court concluded that Maury County and its Director of Community Development had violated the developers' substantive due process rights and awarded them $445,152.55 in damages and $2,772.80 in discretionary costs. On this appeal, Maury County and its Director of Community Development assert that the trial court erred by concluding (1) that they had violated the developers' substantive due process rights, (2) that the director was not entitled to qualified immunity, and (3) that their actions proximately caused the developers' claimed damages. We have determined that the trial court erred as a matter of law when it concluded that Maury County and its Director of Community Development violated the developers' property interests protectable by substantive due process. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand the case to the trial court with directions that it be dismissed.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Reversed

William C. Koch, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Henry F. Todd, P.J., M.S., and Jerry Smith, J., joined.

George Dean, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellants, Maury County and Judy Langsdon.

Robert Holloway, Jr., Columbia, Tennessee, for the appellees, Parks Properties and Columbia Warehouses, Inc.

OPINION

I.

Joe S. Parks operates the Columbia Tobacco Warehouse in Maury County. In early 1994, Mr. Parks decided to expand his warehouse space in order to increase the amount of time he would be permitted to conduct tobacco sales.¹ Accordingly, he decided to construct additional warehouse space on a tract of real property located east of the Tom J. Hitch Parkway in Maury County that was owned by a family partnership named Parks Properties.² He also decided that the project would be a joint venture between Parks Properties and a family-held corporation named Columbia Warehouses, Inc.³

Mr. Parks learned that a factory in the City of Columbia was being torn down to make way for a new automobile dealership and that two of the factory's metal buildings were for sale. One building contained 40,000 square feet of space, and the other 50,000 square feet. In March or early April 1994, after determining that it would be feasible to dismantle and reconstruct these buildings on the tract owned by Parks Properties, Mr. Parks and Steve Parks met with Judy Langsdon, Maury County's Director of Community Development, to discuss the zoning and planning issues relating to the relocation of these metal buildings.

One of the principle matters discussed at this meeting related to the requirement in Section 402.4 of the Standard Building Code⁴ that warehouses containing combustible materials like tobacco must be equipped with an automatic sprinkler system. Mr. Parks and his son knew that the city water line did not extend to their property and that the water line they planned to install would be inadequate for the type of sprinkler system required by the Standard Building Code. Because they desired to avoid the considerable expense of constructing a larger water line to their property, Mr. Parks and his son desired to explore with Ms. Langsdon whether any alternatives to an automatic sprinkler system were available. Ms. Langsdon informed them that she would waive the automatic sprinkler system requirement if the Parks family would agree (1) to install the automatic sprinklers as soon as the City of Columbia extended the city water line to their property and (2) to post a bond to assure that the automatic sprinklers would be installed. She also stated that the Maury County Regional Planning Commission would have to approve her proposal to waive the requirement of automatic sprinklers in return for a performance bond. Mr. Parks and his son, believing that Ms. Langsdon was trying to help them complete their project, agreed with these conditions.

Following their initial meeting with Ms. Langsdon, Mr. Parks and Steve Parks began their negotiations to purchase the two metal buildings and to prepare the site plans for the project. At the same time, Ms. Langsdon notified other local officials of the project and began to prepare a staff report for the planning commission relating to necessary rezoning of the property from an A-2 zoning classification to an M-1 zoning classification. During this process, both the supervisor of the Columbia water system and the city's Director of Grants and Planning opposed rezoning the property because of the lack of adequate fire protection in the area. In response to this opposition, Ms. Langsdon suggested, and the Parks family agreed, that they would limit the number of occupants in each warehouse to five until they installed the automatic sprinklers.

At its May 2, 1994 meeting, the planning commission agreed to recommend to the Maury County Commission that the property be rezoned to an M-1 zoning classification; however, it deferred acting on the proposed site plan pending receipt of additional information about the property. After extensive discussion, the planning commission also endorsed permitting Parks Properties to erect the warehouses without automatic sprinkler systems, as long as the Parks family agreed to install these sprinklers as soon as their property had an adequate water supply and to post a bond to assure that these sprinklers would be installed.

Believing that they had cleared all the regulatory hurdles, the Parks family decided not to wait for the Maury County Commission to act on the planning commission's recommendations.⁵ On May 3, 1994, the day following the planning commission meeting, Parks Properties purchased the two metal buildings for $40,000. In June 1994, Parks Properties paid $45,000 to dismantle the metal buildings and to move the components of the buildings to the proposed site for the warehouses.

In August 1994, Steve Parks met with Ms. Langsdon to review the design for the footers for the warehouses and to obtain permits to construct the footings and foundations. After asking Steve Parks to step into her office, Ms. Langsdon told him that the warehouses could not be constructed without the automatic sprinkler systems required by the Standard Building Code.⁶ Steve Parks reminded Ms. Langsdon that the planned water line was insufficient for the sprinklers and that the planning commission had agreed at its May 2, 1994 meeting to allow the warehouses to be constructed without automatic sprinklers as long as the Parks family posted a bond to cover the future installation of the sprinklers.

Much to Steve Parks's surprise, Ms. Langsdon informed him that the minutes of the planning commission's May 2, 1994 meeting did not reflect that the commission had discussed the waiver of the automatic sprinkler system requirement. Steve Parks demanded a copy of the minutes and, after reviewing them, insisted that they did not accurately reflect what had transpired at the planning commission's meeting. Ms. Langsdon then played a tape recording of the meeting that contained no discussion of the Parks Properties warehouse project. Steve Parks demanded to know "What's going on here?" After deciding that Ms. Langsdon had "done a hundred and eighty on us," Steve Parks got "upset" and left Ms. Langsdon's office. Before Steve Parks left her office, Ms. Langsdon reiterated that she would not issue a building permit until the plans for both warehouses called for the installation of automatic sprinkler systems.

Following Steve Parks's meeting with Ms. Langsdon, Parks Properties tried unsuccessfully to obtain a clarification from the full planning commission about its May 2, 1994 decision. For whatever reason, the commission sidestepped its inquiries. Finally, on September 6, 1994, the chairperson of the planning commission advised Parks Properties that, notwithstanding what had transpired at the May 2, 1994 meeting, any variance or waiver of the fire safety requirements of the Standard Building Code could only be granted by the Maury County Board of Adjustments and Appeals.⁷

Parks Properties then applied to the Maury County Board of Adjustments and Appeals for a variance from the Standard Building Code's automatic sprinkler requirements conditioned on its agreement to provide a bond to secure the installation of the automatic sprinklers whenever adequate water service was provided to the site. The board discussed Parks Properties' proposal at length during its September 14, 1994 meeting and finally declined to approve the variance after the Chief of Codes of the State Fire Marshall's office informed them that automatic sprinklers were a minimum fire safety standard and that a building could not be legally occupied without the minimum standards being met.

By this time, Parks Properties had spent $40,000 to purchase the two metal buildings, $45,000 to dismantle them and move them to the property on Tom J. Hitch Parkway, and $49,447.61 for the site work on the property. On July 14, 1995, with their building plans in...