Quiktrip Corp. v. City of St. Louis
| Decision Date | 20 November 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 57577,57577 |
| Citation | 801 S.W.2d 706 |
| Parties | QUIKTRIP CORPORATION, et al., Respondents, v. CITY OF ST. LOUIS, et al., Appellants. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Julian Bush, Elkin Kistner, James J. Wilson, St. Louis, for appellants.
Stanley E. Goldstein, Brian Paul Seltzer, Kay R. Sherman, Clayton, for respondents.
Appellants, City of St. Louis, the City's Building Commissioner, the Board of Building Appeals (individually and as members), the Heritage and Urban Design Commission (individually and as members), the Heritage and Urban Design Commissioner and the Mayor of the City of St. Louis, appeal from an order of the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis in a lawsuit involving demolition permit applications for several buildings and a building permit application for a QuikTrip convenience store. We are obliged to review, in relatively great detail, the facts of the underlying action before addressing appellants' claim.
Peggy Harms, Winston Hsu and Joseph Hebenstreet, respondents, are owners of several parcels of land, improved and unimproved, located at the intersection of Jefferson and Chippewa Streets in the City of St. Louis. QuikTrip Corporation, also a respondent herein, contracted to purchase the property contingent upon QuikTrip's ability to obtain demolition and building permits from the city. QuikTrip sought to construct a QuikTrip convenience store on this property.
On June 17, 1988, QuikTrip and Brown Brother's Wrecking Company (a demolition company) applied with the Division of Building and Inspection for permits to demolish each of four buildings which existed on the owners' lots. The division forwarded the applications to the Heritage and Urban Design Commission (hereinafter HUDC) as required by City Ordinance 59030. In pertinent part, this Ordinance provides:
Section Two. The Commission On Heritage And Urban Design ... shall have forty-five (45) working days after receipt of a copy of such application to review same and advise the Building Commissioner in writing of its decision ... Failure to notify the Building Commissioner in writing by the end of said forty-five (45) day period shall constitute an approval of said application.
HUDC scheduled a hearing for July 17, 1988, to discuss the demolition permits. This meeting was deferred until August 4, 1988, in order to give QuikTrip time to discuss their plans with local merchants and residents. At the August 4 hearing, testimony was taken but a further hearing was scheduled for August 18, 1988, because the City Alderman who represented the area where the demolition was to occur requested more time to consult with his constituents. QuikTrip, at the August 4 meeting, stated that they had no objection to the subsequent August 18 meeting. On August 24, 1988, HUDC sent its recommendation to the Building Commissioner that the demolition permits be approved, provided certain conditions were met.
QuikTrip appealed this decision to the Board of Building Appeals pursuant to Ordinance 24.14.040. 1 QuikTrip objected to the authority of HUDC to place conditions on its recommendations and challenged three of the restrictions substantively. The Board of Building Appeals conducted a hearing on September 22, 1988. On September 26, 1988, the Board removed all of the conditions that HUDC had imposed and denied the demolition permit altogether.
Meanwhile, QuikTrip also applied for a building permit to enable them to construct their convenience store. This application was filed on June 6, 1988, and began its trek through the various city departments. 2 The Department of Public Safety, which keeps track of the building permit application process, notified QuikTrip by letter dated June 15, 1988, that their building permit application was reviewed by the Minimum Exterior Review Committee pursuant to Ordinance 57986. This letter also informed QuikTrip that the Committee needed a landscape plan and needed HUDC approval for demolition.
The Chief Plan Examiner of the Public Safety Commission testified that in order for QuikTrip to obtain a building permit the demolition permit would have to be approved. After conditionally approving QuikTrip's demolition application, HUDC requested the Public Safety Commission to send them QuikTrip's construction plans for the store. HUDC wanted the plans because one of their conditions for demolition approval was that full construction plans be provided. This "transfer" apparently took place sometime in September of 1988.
On November 3, 1988, HUDC held a meeting at which they voted to disapprove the proposed building permit because they determined that it did not comply with the minimum appearance standards. On November 7, 1988, HUDC forwarded this recommendation to the Public Safety Commission. 3
According to the trial testimony of the Chief Plan Examiner of the Public Safety Commission, at the time of trial, QuikTrip's building permit application could not be further processed because it had yet to pass scrutiny with the street department or meet certain air pollution standards and because the demolition permit was denied. Despite HUDC's purported denial of the building permit, trial testimony indicated that the building permit application was still pending; having never been denied.
On October 21, 1988, respondents filed their five count petition in the circuit court. In Count I, respondents claimed that Ordinance 59030 did not contain standards to guide HUDC in evaluating demolition applications and, therefore, was void for vagueness. Count II averred that HUDC considered irrelevant evidence and failed to issue a detailed reason for its conditional approval of the demolition permit. Count III alleged that, since HUDC did not report its recommendation for conditional approval to the Building Commissioner within forty-five days as required, HUDC was deemed to have unconditionally approved it. Finally, in Count IV, respondents claimed that Mayor Schoemehl improperly directed the Building Commissioner to deny QuikTrip's building and demolition permits.
Counts I, II and IV claimed that respondents were deprived of due process of law under Art. I, sec. 10 of the Missouri Constitution, the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution and that appellants' actions were actionable under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. Count III merely alleged that HUDC improperly denied the demolition permit under Ordinance 59030. Respondents sought equitable relief requiring the Building Commissioner to approve the demolition and building permits. 4 Respondents also sought damages for the failure of the City to approve the permits. Count V of the petition sought administrative review of the demolition and building permit applications pursuant to RSMo § 536.100 (1986).
The trial court conducted a hearing on December 8, 1988, and on January 27, 1989. The court's order, issued January 12, 1990, granted virtually all of the injunctive relief respondents requested and granted respondents $42,000.00 in attorneys' fees against the City of St. Louis.
Relevant to our purposes, the trial court ordered as follows:
ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that plaintiffs, ... have judgment against defendants, ... on counts I through IV of the petition as amended, and that Ordinance 59030 of the City of St. Louis be and the same hereby is declared to be unconstitutional, illegal, void and of no effect; and it is
FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that defendants herein named, ... are permanently restrained and enjoined from denying to plaintiffs herein named ... the demolition permits applied for by or in behalf of said plaintiffs ... dated June 17, 1988, and said defendants are further restrained and enjoined from delaying, hindering, interfering with or otherwise preventing demolition of the buildings described in such demolition permit applications, provided that demolition is carried out in accordance with all applicable codes, ordinances and regulations ... and it is
FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the decisions of the Board of Building Appeals of the City of St. Louis ... be and the same are hereby reversed, and the matter of the demolition permits at issue in said appeals is remanded to the said Board with instructions that said Board immediately direct the Building Commissioner of the City of St. Louis to issue the demolition permits applied for by or in behalf of said plaintiffs by Brown Brothers; and it is
FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that defendants City of St. Louis and Martin P. Walsh, Jr., in his capacity as Building Commissioner of the City of St. Louis, be and they are hereby enjoined and restrained from denying the building permits applied for by or on behalf of plaintiffs by plaintiff QuikTrip under applications dated June 6, 1988 on account of any decision of the defendant Heritage and Urban Design Commission or its members denying demolition permits or disapproving the building permits applied for under date of June 6, 1988, and, further, that defendants, City of St. Louis and Martin Walsh, their agents, servants, employees and those acting under their direction shall complete review of the building permit applications and notify plaintiffs of the decision concerning grant or denial of said permits within ten (10) days of the date hereof; but that, with regard to all other claims concerning building permits, said claims are dismissed without prejudice; ...
The trial court further ordered that "the judgments entered herein ... are certified as final and appealable, there being no just reason for delay ..."
On appeal, appellants raise four points. Point one of appellants' brief asserts that the trial court erred in reviewing the building permit application. The remainder of appellants' points claim error in the trial court's treatment of the building permit...
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