Tri-State Generation and Transmission Co. v. City of Thornton, TRI-STATE

• Decision Date: 06 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81SA269,TRI-STATE,81SA269
• Citation: 647 P.2d 670
• Parties: GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION COMPANY, Gerico, Inc., and Frostline, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF THORNTON, a municipality, and the Mountain States Telephone andTelegraph Company, a Colorado corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 670

647 P.2d 670

TRI-STATE GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION COMPANY, Gerico, Inc. and Frostline, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF THORNTON, a municipality, and the Mountain States Telephone andTelegraph Company, a Colorado corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 81SA269.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

July 6, 1982.

David Berger, Kent Denzel, Commerce City, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Katherine T. Coolidge, City Atty., Thornton, Leonard McCain, Brighton, for The City of Thornton.

Cheryl T. Flanagan, Bruce Smith, Mountain Bell Law Dept., Denver, for Mountain States Tel. and Tel. Co.

LOHR, Justice.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Company; Gerico, Inc.; and Frostline, Inc., seek review of a judgment of the Adams County District Court dismissing their complaint, brought after the City of Thornton (Thornton) granted the application of The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company (Mountain Bell) for rezoning of a parcel of land as a Planned Unit Development (PUD) district. The complaint sought review of the action of the Thornton City Council, challenged the constitutionality of the Thornton PUD ordinance, and requested injunctive relief prohibiting construction of the Mountain Bell building because it allegedly would violate protective covenants applicable to the site. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

In early 1979 Mountain Bell applied to the Thornton City Council for rezoning of approximately twelve acres of land located in the Washington Square Business Park. At the time of the application most of the subject property was zoned as Industrial District 1 (I-1); the remainder was in a Restricted Service District (C-4) zone. Mountain Bell sought reclassification of the entire parcel as a PUD district.

Mountain Bell proposed to use the site for construction of a corporate processing center. The Mountain Bell PUD application reflects that the center was to be a seven-story structure approximately 120 feet in height, and was to have 505 parking spaces and employ 884 people. The proposed Mountain Bell facility would have conflicted with the height limitations and parking requirements applicable to the C-4 and I-1 zones. In a C-4 zone the height limitation is 60 feet and in an I-1 zone the maximum permissible height is 40 feet. Under the applicable zoning regulations, a structure of the size and type proposed by Mountain Bell also would have been required to include 735 parking spaces rather than the 505 spaces proposed by Mountain Bell. ¹ However, Mountain Bell's PUD plan also provided for a greater setback of the structure from the site's property lines than that specified in C-4 and I-1 zones, and included design amenities not required by Thornton's zoning regulations.

The Thornton Planning Commission held a hearing on Mountain Bell's PUD application. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Company, which occupied a three-story office building located in the business park appeared at the Thornton Planning Commission hearing and objected to the proposed PUD plan. It argued that the planned Mountain Bell building was incompatible with existing development of the surrounding area and that the building would violate protective covenants applicable to the site. Those covenants allegedly limited the permissible height of any structure and prescribed certain requirements to avoid noise, glare and traffic problems. A planner for the City of Thornton responded that use of the site as a commercial office building was consistent with applicable zoning regulations and the Thornton comprehensive plan. He also stated that the height of the building was necessary to achieve the economies that can be realized by "stacking" of the computers to be installed in the Mountain Bell structure, and that the proposed use of the site would not create a traffic congestion problem. At the conclusion of the hearing the Planning Commission recommended approval of Mountain Bell's application.

Hearings were then held before the Thornton City Council. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Company was again represented at these hearings and was joined by Gerico, Inc., and Frostline, Inc., which also occupied buildings in the Washington Square Business Park. The objectors centered their opposition on the height of the Mountain Bell building, but also argued that adoption of the Mountain Bell PUD proposal would constitute illegal spot zoning. After the hearings the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 887, approving Mountain Bell's application.

Within thirty days from adoption of the rezoning ordinance, Tri-State, Gerico and Frostline (collectively referred to as Tri-State) filed a complaint in district court attacking the validity of the City Council's approval of the Mountain Bell PUD application. Named as defendants were the City of Thornton, Mountain Bell and Washington Square Development Company. ² The complaint contained three claims for relief, seeking C.R.C.P. 106 review of the City Council's action, a declaratory judgment, and injunctive relief. In its first claim, Tri-State alleged that the City Council's action was arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion; that the adoption of the rezoning ordinance constituted spot zoning; and that the Council's action effected the grant of a variance, which was beyond its jurisdiction. In the second claim for relief Tri-State alleged that the Thornton PUD ordinance is unconstitutional because it lacks sufficient standards to guide and constrain the Council's review of PUD applications. The third claim for relief alleged that the height of the proposed Mountain Bell building and the provision of only 505 parking spaces in connection with that structure would violate the protective covenants applicable to the site, and requested an injunction to prohibit these violations.

The defendants moved to dismiss Tri-State's complaint, asserting that the City Council and its individual members were indispensable parties, and that the failure to join them within 30 days of the Council's final action as mandated by C.R.C.P. 106(b) required dismissal of the complaint. The trial court denied the motions.

After a hearing on the first two claims for relief, the district court vacated its earlier order denying the defendants' motions to dismiss and entered an order of dismissal. ³ The court found that Dahman v. City of Lakewood, Colo.App., 610 P.2d 1357 (1980), a case decided by the Colorado Court of Appeals subsequent to the denial of Tri-State's motions to dismiss, was controlling. Relying on that case, the trial court concluded that the Thornton City Council was an indispensable party and that the failure to join the Council was a jurisdictional defect requiring dismissal.

Thereafter, Tri-State attempted to amend its complaint to include a fourth claim for relief requesting a declaratory judgment that the Council's Ordinance No. 887 was invalid because the legal description contained in the ordinance failed to describe the subject property accurately and the ordinance did not adequately detail the nature of the PUD project. Tri-State also attempted to add the City Council as a defendant and filed a motion for new trial which asserted various errors including the trial court's dismissal of its action for failure to join an indispensable party.

On July 10, 1980, the trial court conducted a hearing on the plaintiffs' pending motions and took evidence on the breach of protective covenants issue, the third claim for relief in the plaintiffs' complaint. As a result of that hearing, the trial court entered an order rejecting the plaintiffs' argument that the court had erred in dismissing their C.R.C.P. 106(a)(4) claims for failure to join an indispensable party. However, it indicated that the plaintiffs' second claim for relief, which challenged the constitutionality of the Thornton PUD ordinance on its face, might be properly before the court as an independent declaratory judgment action. Consequently, it reserved judgment on the propriety of its earlier dismissal of that claim. The court also reserved judgment on the fourth claim for relief asserted in the plaintiffs' amended complaint. Finally, the court concluded that the proposed Mountain Bell building was not in violation of the protective covenants applicable to the property. The court held that the covenants required only that the proposed development comply with currently applicable city zoning ordinances and receive prior approval by the Washington Square Business Park Architectural Control Committee. Since these requirements had been met, it dismissed the plaintiffs' third claim for relief.

On September 16, 1980, the trial court entered an additional order. With respect to the plaintiffs' fourth claim for relief, the court held that the motion to amend the complaint should be denied as untimely, and that, in any case, the legal description contained in Ordinance No. 887 was adequate. The court next held that the plaintiffs' second claim for relief, challenging the constitutionality of the Thornton PUD ordinance, had been improperly dismissed in its earlier order. It concluded that such a challenge was properly brought pursuant to C.R.C.P. 57 and was not governed by the requirements of C.R.C.P. 106. Although the court believed that there were a number of procedural irregularities as to the plaintiffs' second claim for relief, it elected to deal with the merits of the issue and held that the PUD ordinance was constitutional.

In summary, as a result of its July 21 and September 16 orders, the trial court held: (1) that the plaintiffs' C.R.C.P. 106 claims contained in their first claim for relief were properly dismissed for failure to join an indispensable party; (2) that Tri-State's second claim, requesting a declaratory judgment that the Thornton PUD ordinance was unconstitutional, should be denied; (3) that the plaintiffs' third claim for relief should be dismissed because the Mountain Bell building...