Town of Juno Beach v. McLeod

• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: GROSS, J.
• Citation: Town of Juno Beach v. McLeod, 832 So.2d 864 (Fla. App. 2002)
• Decision Date: 20 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 4D02-624.,4D02-624.
• Parties: TOWN OF JUNO BEACH, a Florida municipal corporation, Petitioner, v. T. Bragg McLEOD, Respondent.

832 So.2d 864

TOWN OF JUNO BEACH, a Florida municipal corporation, Petitioner, v. T. Bragg McLEOD, Respondent.

No. 4D02-624.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

November 20, 2002.

Rehearing Denied January 15, 2003.

Gregory S. Kino and W. Jay Hunston, Jr. of Boose, Casey, Ciklin, Lubitz, Martens, McBane & O'Connell, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.

Thomas J. Baird and Susan A. Kennedy of Thomas J. Baird, P.A., North Palm Beach, for respondent. Daniel K. Corbett, Juno Beach, for Amicus Curiae Celestial Court Partnership.

GROSS, J.

The Town of Juno Beach petitions for certiorari review of a circuit court opinion that granted certiorari and quashed the Town's decision to rezone certain property. We grant the petition and quash the decision of the circuit court.

In March, 1999, Celestial Court Partnership (Celestial) applied to the Town for a zoning change as to an undeveloped parcel of property it owns. The parcel is located on the northeast corner of Olympus Drive and U.S. Highway One; it is 125 feet by 200 feet, with 125 feet of frontage on U.S. One, the property's western boundary, and 200 feet on Olympus Drive.

As to the west 120 feet of the property, Celestial sought to change the zoning from RS-1, residential single family with low density, residential future land use, to CO, commercial office with commercial future land use. The application proposed that the east 80 feet of the property remain single family residential to create a buffer to the adjacent single family area. Celestial desired to develop a mixed-use two story building with professional offices on the ground floor and residential apartments on the second floor.

The application indicated that residential areas lay to the property's north, east, and south, but across the highway to the west was Seminole Plaza, a 60,000 square foot commercial shopping center. Along with the rezoning request, Celestial sought to amend the Town's comprehensive plan, to change the future land use from the existing Low Density Residential to a Commercial future land use classification.

The town staff report recommended granting the request. The report observed that the property was approximately.57 of an acre and that the proposed rezoning would cover the west portion, about .34 of an acre. Staff wrote that the rezoning was consistent with the proposed commercial future land use classification. The report noted that the property to the west was zoned Commercial General (CG), a more intense use than that sought by Celestial. Staff stated that the proposed mixed use project

will provide a consistent transition from the highway and more intensive uses to the west, to a mixed use of less intensive commercial office and residential uses. Further, the proposed mixed use is a much needed element within town. In this general area of town there are two existing mixed use sites, which function and co-exist very well within their neighborhoods.... Mixed uses are transitional uses. Transitional uses are a necessary element for a sustainable community. Transitional uses allow communities to identify themselves as individual places, among a larger sprawl-like general area, such as greater Palm Beach County.

Staff described the proposed use as "an ideal transition use from commercial uses across the highway and single family residential uses to the east."

The town council held two public hearings on changing the land use designation and zoning. The council heard expert and lay opinions on all sides of the proposed changes. The council voted to adopt Ordinance 509, which amended the future land use map of the comprehensive plan for the property from residential use to commercial use. The council voted to approve Ordinance 510 to rezone the property from residential to CO.

Respondent T. Bragg McLeod owns a single family residence 300 feet east of the property at issue. He filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court challenging the rezoning. At the same time, in an administrative proceeding, McLeod and others unsuccessfully challenged the amendment to the future land use map.¹

A three-judge panel of the circuit court granted the petition for writ of certiorari and quashed the town's rezoning decision. The circuit court wrote that "[w]hether the town departed from the essential requirements of law depends largely on what constitutes the `neighborhood' for purposes of rezoning." After observing that there "is no definition of `neighborhood' in the Town's comprehensive plan or in Chapter 163, Part II, Florida Statutes (2000)," the circuit court nevertheless concluded that "existing Florida law does not permit the Town to extend" the commercial use across U.S. Highway One "in the manner that it did." The circuit court also ruled that the town's "action constituted spot zoning." Finally, after a discussion of the conflicting evidence at public hearings, the circuit court concluded that there was "no competent substantial evidence" to support the rezoning.

This court described the two-tier framework for review of a zoning decision in Town of Manalapan v. Gyongyosi, 828 So.2d 1029, 1032 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002):

In the "first-tier" review, a party may seek certiorari review in the circuit court, which is more akin to an appeal and is not discretionary. The court must review the record from the commission decision and determine whether: (1) procedural due process has been afforded; (2) whether the essential requirements of law have been observed; and (3) whether competent substantial evidence supports the commission's judgment. The "competent substantial evidence" standard of review applied to this first-tier review "is tantamount to legally sufficient evidence." On certiorari petition to the district court, "second-tier" review, that court is limited to determining whether procedural due process has been afforded and whether the circuit court applied the correct law. It is not allowed to determine whether the commission decision is supported by competent substantial evidence.

(Citations omitted).

We agree with the Town that the circuit court failed to apply the correct law and failed to apply the correct standard of certiorari review when it substituted its evaluation of competent substantial evidence for that of the Town.

The circuit court applied the wrong law, in that it did not evaluate this zoning request within the context of the Town's comprehensive plan, which designates this property for commercial rather than residential use. Coastal Dev. of N. Fla., Inc. v. City of Jacksonville Beach, 788 So.2d 204 (Fla.2001) (zoning changes are scrutinized by the circuit court on certiorari review to assure strict compliance with comprehensive plan).

The circuit court relied instead on cases which are distinguishable. They were decided long before the adoption of local comprehensive plans pursuant to Chapter 163, Florida Statutes, which governs comprehensive planning. Also, those cases affirmed the local government's exercise of discretion, and, therefore, do not stand for the proposition that the Town acted arbitrarily in this case. City of Miami Beach v. Wiesen, 86 So.2d 442 (Fla.1956) (affirming city's zoning decision by reversing circuit court); City of Miami Beach v. Ocean & Inland Co., 147 Fla. 480, 3 So.2d 364 (1941) (reversing circuit court and affirming city's down zoning); Harris v. City of Coral Gables, 157 So.2d 146 (Fla. 3d DCA 1963) (affirming dismissal of case where property in one city asked to be zoned similarly to adjacent property in different city); Town of Surfside v. Skyline Terrace Corp., 120 So.2d 20 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960) (reversing...