Texas Manuf. Housing Ass'n v. City of La Porte

• Citation: 974 F.Supp. 602
• Decision Date: 08 August 1996
• Docket Number: Civ.A. No. H-94-1066.
• Parties: TEXAS MANUFACTURES HOUSING ASSOCIATION, INC., Plaintiff, v. CITY OF LA PORTE, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

974 F.Supp. 602

TEXAS MANUFACTURES HOUSING ASSOCIATION, INC., Plaintiff, v. CITY OF LA PORTE, et al., Defendants.

Civ.A. No. H-94-1066.

United States District Court, S.D. Texas, Houston Division.

August 8, 1996.

Douglas Brent Wells, Wells & Henry, Houston, TX, for plaintiff.

John Joseph Hightower, Olson & Olson, Houston, TX, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION

ATLAS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Texas Manufactured Housing Association, Inc. ("Plaintiff") has filed a Motion for Reconsideration [Doc. # 51] ("Plaintiff's Motion") of this Court's Memorandum Opinion granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants on all of Plaintiff's claims and denying summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff.¹ Plaintiff's Motion argues strenuously that this Court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants ("City" or "La Porte") on Plaintiff's claims under the Commerce Clause and on Plaintiff's argument that Ordinance 1501 of the City of La Porte is pre-empted by federal law. See City of La Porte Zoning Ordinance 1501 (Exhibit A-1 to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. # 13]) ("Ordinance"). Plaintiff also argues that there is a fact question as to the application of rational basis review under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. Since the City also has addressed this matter, the Court will reconsider its ruling in that regard as well.

For the reasons stated herein, it is now ordered that the Motion for Reconsideration is granted. It is, however, further ordered that Plaintiff's request that this Court vacate its previous Memorandum Opinion is denied. This Order supplements and clarifies the Court's prior Memorandum Opinion.

Federal Pre-emption

Plaintiff argues that summary judgment in favor of Defendants on its claim of federal pre-emption was error.² Specifically, Plaintiff argues that the City's motivation for excluding HUD-code manufactured homes from "R-1" districts in La Porte is "based on the City's preference for structures which are built to its local building code, including modular homes." Plaintiff's Motion, at 19.³

The evidence cited by Plaintiff as supporting its argument concerning the City's actual motivation is as follows: first the City allows modular homes to be placed on individual lots in "R-1" districts; second, modular homes are constructed to La Porte's building code; and third, the City's responses to Plaintiff's requests for admissions and interrogatories demonstrate that the City does not consider HUD-code manufactured homes to be as safe as modular or conventional site-built homes and specifically stated that "[m]odular/industrialized homes are constructed to meet more stringent safety requirements than are HUD-code homes." Plaintiff's Motion, at 20-21.⁴ Plaintiff asserts that this evidence "demonstrate[s] unequivocally" that the City believes that HUD-code homes, because of the building code to which they are built, are not as safe as either modular or conventional site-built homes, and therefore that "it can reasonably be concluded that HUD-code homes are being excluded from R-1 districts because of safety concerns and a preference for the local building code." Id at 21.

As noted in this Court's previous Memorandum Opinion, the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act, 42 U.S.C. § 5401 et seq., states that

no State or political subdivision of a State shall have any authority either to establish, or continue in effect, with respect to any manufactured home covered, any standard regarding construction or safety applicable to the same aspect of performance of such manufactured home which is not identical to the Federal manufactured home construction and safety standard.

42 U.S.C. § 5403(d) (emphasis added). Even assuming arguendo that, as Plaintiff urges, the City's exclusion of HUD-code homes from La Porte's "R-1" districts is based upon a belief that HUD-code homes are not as safe as other types of homes because of the building code to which they are constructed, and even if the City's belief is erroneous such evidence simply does not demonstrate that the City, by the exclusion, has "establish[ed] or continue[d] in effect" a construction or safety standard that applies to manufactured homes.⁵ Indeed, rather than establish construction or safety standards for manufactured homes, La Porte has excluded manufactured homes from its "R-1" districts.⁶

Plaintiff relies heavily on an Eleventh Circuit decision holding that a town's ordinance, which required manufactured homes placed in certain zones to meet local or state building codes, was a safety requirement preempted by federal statute. See Scurlock v. Lynn Haven, 858 F.2d 1521 (11th Cir.1988). However, the Eleventh Circuit's opinion explicitly rejected Plaintiff's contention that regulation of location of manufactured homes is pre-empted, noting that the City of Lynn Haven "[u]ndoubtedly ... could limit Zone R-AA to conventionally-built residences and exclude mobile homes." Id. at 1525.

As the Court held in the previous Memorandum Opinion, La Porte's exclusion of manufactured housing from "R-1" districts, which is merely a restriction on location of manufactured housing, is not pre-empted by federal statute. Therefore, the Court's prior order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants will not be vacated.

Rational Basis (Due Process and Equal Protection)

A legislature "does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect." Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 473, 111 S.Ct. 2395, 2407, 115 L.Ed.2d 410 (1991) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); see also Richard v. Hinson, 70 F.3d 415, 417 (5th Cir.1995), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 116 S.Ct. 2522, 135 L.Ed.2d 1047 (1996). The Supreme Court has recently recognized that "most legislation classifies for one purpose or another, with resulting disadvantage to various groups or persons." Romer v. Evans, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 116 S.Ct. 1620, 1627, 134 L.Ed.2d 855 (1996) (citing Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 271-72, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2292-92, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979)). Under the Court's rational basis test, which is applied when a classification neither burdens a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class, "a law will be sustained if it can be said to advance a legitimate government interest, even if the law seems unwise or works to the disadvantage of a particular group, or if the rationale for it seems tenuous." Id. (citing cases). The Equal Protection Clause "is not a license for courts to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices," and those challenging the rationality of a legislative classification have the burden to negate "every conceivable basis" which might support it. Federal Communications Comm'n v. Beach Communications, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313-16, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 2101-02, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993). Moreover, the absence of legislative facts explaining a classification has no significance in the rational basis analysis, since the classification "may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or empirical data." Id. at 314-16, 113 S.Ct. at 2102.⁷

Under the Due Process Clause, local zoning ordinances are unconstitutional only if they are "clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, having no substantial relation to the public safety, morals, or general welfare." Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395, 47 S.Ct. 114, 121, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926). Zoning ordinances are entitled to the same deference as state statutes, and constitutional challenges are evaluated under the rational basis test. Horizon Concepts, Inc. v. City of Balch Springs, 789 F.2d 1165, 1167 (5th Cir.1986); Shelton v. City of College Station, 780 F.2d 475 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 477 U.S. 905, 106 S.Ct. 3276, 91 L.Ed.2d 566 (1986).

Plaintiff's Motion, while requesting reconsideration of the Court's application of the rational basis test and referring generally to the existence of questions of fact, provides no argument on this point. The Court therefore refers to Plaintiff's original summary judgment response, in which Plaintiff argued that there is no rational basis for La Porte's differential treatment of manufactured housing.

Defendants have argued that the crucial difference, between manufactured homes and industrialized homes is that "manufactured homes are designed and constructed for permanent transportability and other forms of housing, including industrialized housing, are not," and therefore that manufactured housing may lead to a decrease in property values. Defendants' Response to Plaintiff's Motion for Reconsideration [Doc. # 55] ("Defendants' Response").⁸ La Porte argues, as it did in its original summary judgment motion, see Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. # 13] ("Original Motion"), at 4-6, that it is rational for city officials to conclude that owners of manufactured homes, "who can literally pick up their houses and move them if their neighborhood declines," will have reduced economic interest in the viability of their neighborhood and city. Defendants' Response, at 5.⁹ Indeed, although Janet Stevenson, formerly a plaintiff in this action, stated in her affidavit that "[i]f [she] had been allowed to replace [her] manufactured home, [she] intended to place it on a permanent foundation which would have been bolted or welded to piers buried deep in the ground," Stevenson Affidavit (Exhibit B to Original Response), at 3, her affidavit also supported Defendant's position. Stevenson stated that one of the reasons she had chosen to live in a manufactured home was that "[i]f [she] needed to move away from the area, [she] could take [her] home with [her] without losing [her] investment in it" and that "[i]f in the future [she] needed a larger home or a home with more bathrooms or other features, [she] could sell [her] manufactured home and replace it with...