Renshaw v. Coldwater Housing Commission
| Decision Date | 03 March 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 18,18 |
| Citation | 381 Mich. 590,165 N.W.2d 5 |
| Parties | Oscar RENSHAW and Mary Renshaw, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. COLDWATER HOUSING COMMISSION, a Municipal Corporation, and William Grimes, Building Commissioner of the City of Coldwater, Defendants and Appellees. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
Daniel Hodgman, Detroit, for plaintiffs and appellants.
Richard F. Biringer, Coldwater, for defendants and appellees.
Clay T. Brockman, Coldwater, for Coldwater Housing Commission.
Before BRENNAN, C.J., and DETHMERS, KELLY, BLACK, THOMAS M. KAVANAGH, ADAMS and THOMAS GILES KAVANAGH, JJ.
Two ordinances of the city of Coldwater, conflicting as the parties agree, frame the issue decided below and brought here on appeal. The first, enacted in 1961 on authority of P.A.1921, No. 207 (C.L.1948, § 125.581 et seq; Mich.Stat.Ann. 5.2931 et seq), zoned the area adjacent to and including plaintiffs' residence so as to exclude construction and occupancy as in the second ordinance provided. The second ordinance was enacted in 1965 on authority of P.A.1933, No. 18 extra session, C.L.1948, § 125.651 et seq; Mich.Stat.Ann. 5.3011 et seq. This last cited statute is known generally as the housing and slum clearance act of 1933.
Both the title and certain sections of the act of 1933 have been amended from time to time. We are concerned presently and particularly with sections 2, 3, 7 and 39 thereof. The pertinent portions of those sections are arrayed below.
* * *.' C.L.S.1961, § 125.653.
'Sec. 7. Such commission shall have the following enumerated powers and duties:
(a) To determine in what areas of the city or village it is necessary to provide proper sanitary housing facilities for families of low income and for the elimination of housing conditions which are detrimental to the public peace, health, safety, morals, and/or welfare; * * *.' C.L.1948, § 125.657.
Coldwater proceeded under the 1965 ordinance to create such a municipal housing commission. The commission planned and commenced construction of a 4-story, 100-unit federally financed unit, designed to house non-transient persons aged 62 or over, in the aforesaid zoned area. The necessary building permit was issued, the construction contract was let, and construction commenced July 31, 1967.
August 2, 1967 plaintiffs filed complaint in the local circuit, alleging that the proposed unit if constructed would violate the zoning ordinance as that ordinance stood prior to enactment of certain enabling 1967 amendments thereof (which amendments we assume but do not decide were invalid). Injunctive relief was prayed for and denied. Summary judgment, that plaintiffs' complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, was entered. Appeal having been taken to the Court of Appeals, this Court granted bypass under GCR 1963, 852.
On appeal plaintiffs rely upon Taber v. City of Benton Harbor, 280 Mich. 522, 274 N.W. 324. There it was held that Benton Harbor, planning at the time to construct a municipal...
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