Wedgewood Ltd. Partnership I v. Tp. of Liberty

Decision Date25 September 2008
Docket NumberCase No. C2-04-1069.
PartiesWEDGEWOOD LIMITED PARTNERSHIP I, Plaintiff, v. TOWNSHIP OF LIBERTY, OHIO, et. al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

Bruce Leroy Ingram, Joseph Miller, Kenneth Rubin, Vorys Sater Seymour & Pease, Michele L. Noble, Thompson Hine LLP, Columbus, OH, for Plaintiff.

Michael Wall Currie, O. Judson Scheaf, III, Scott A. Campbell, Thompson Hine LLP, William Lyle Loveland, Loveland & Brosius, Wanda Lee Carter, Christopher E. Hogan, Moots, Carter & Hogan, Columbus, OH, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

ALGENON L. MARBLEY, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter comes before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment by Plaintiff Wedgewood Limited Partnership I ("Wedgewood LP" or "Plaintiff"), and Defendants Holly C. Foust, Robert E. Cape, Peggy Guzzo, and Curt Sybert (collectively, "Trustees"), the Township of Liberty, Ohio, located in Delaware County, Ohio ("Liberty Township"), and the Board of Trustees of Liberty Township ("Board of Trustees") (collectively, "Defendants"). For the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff on its procedural due process (Counts II & VI) and vagueness (Count III & VII) claims, and GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiff's request for declaratory relief (Count IX). Accordingly, Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to Counts II, III, VI, and VII is DENIED, and Defendants' motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part as to Count IX.

II. STATEMENT OF FACTS1
A. Background

The parties' dispute centers on the Defendants' decision to deny zoning approval for Plaintiff's proposed plan to develop a Wal-Mart Supercenter within Liberty Township. Defendants assert that they refused to issue Plaintiff a zoning permit to build the proposed Wal-Mart because the store would not comply with Liberty Township's Zoning Resolution. Plaintiff claims, however, that Defendants' decision to deny the requested zoning permit violated its due process rights and that the Zoning Resolution is an unconstitutionally vague ordinance.

1. The Parties

Plaintiff owns an approximately 34-acre lot located in the "Wedgewood Commerce Center" development (the "WCC"), a 345-acre mixed-use development within Liberty Township. The lot, which is the subject of the instant suit, was platted as lot number 2069 or "subarea 3" in the WCC Section 1 and recorded as such in the Delaware County records. In addition to owning lot number 2069, Wedgewood LP was also one of the original developers of the WCC. Defendants are Liberty Township, the Board of Trustees, and the individual board members in their capacity as Trustees. Also, the Liberty Township/Powell Neighborhood Community Watch Foundation has intervened as a party defendant in the suit.

2. The WCC Development

In June 1991, Plaintiff and others filed an application to amend Zoning Map to Planned Commercial ("PC") to create the WCC, a proposed planned-unit development ("PUD"). On November 18, 1991, the Board of Trustees approved the re-zoning and the parties developed a planned-unit development plan (the "PUD Plan").2 The PUD Plan, and all corresponding plat maps were formally combined into the "Wedgewood Commerce Center Development Standards" ("WCC Development Standards"), which was filed with the Commission on February 2, 1992. Among other things, the WCC Development Standards required the establishment of an "architectural review committee" to "exercise control over the design and final planning of all phases of the development" and to ensure that the proposed structures fit the "rural context of Liberty Township." Further, the WCC Development Standards provided that development would occur in five-year phases and would "proceed as market conditions dictate," estimating that it would take approximately ten to twelve years to finish the project.

Pursuant to the PUD Plan, there were seventeen subareas created with three different types of designated use: commercial, residential, and office. Subareas 3, 8, and 9 were the only subareas zoned for commercial use. Each was allotted a different amount of square feet for commercial use, and when added together, they totaled 499,930 square feet of permitted commercial use within the overall PUD Plan.3 According to the Liberty Township Zoning Resolution, in place at that time, in a Liberty Township PC zone, the developer gets to "craft its own unique zoning that applies only to that developer's parcel." See Zoning Resolution §§ 14.01, 14.06(a)(c) (eff. May 1, 1991). To allow for this "unique zoning," each developer's plan becomes part of an amendment to the Township's zoning code. See id. § 14.06(d) ("The Development Plan as approved by the Township Trustees shall constitute an amendment to the zoning resolution as it applies to the lands included in the approved amendment.") (emphasis added).

Over the course of the next thirteen years, in accordance with standard Liberty Township zoning procedure,4 significant development occurred within the WCC. Some of this development differed from what was set forth in the PUD Plan. For instance, although the PUD Plan designated subareas 4, 5, 6, and 10 for "suburban office use" only, owners of each of these subareas sought approval for and were granted permits to build retail and/or commercial structures. Accordingly, subareas 4, 5, 6, and 10 now comprise approximately 248,000 square feet of "commercial" development, rather than the suburban office space for which they were initially zoned. Plaintiff asserts that it had no involvement or input in Liberty Township's approval of these zoning changes.

In October 2003, Plaintiff submitted an application to the Commission for six area variances, to construct a Wal-Mart Supercenter on WCC lot number 2069. The parties do not dispute that the proposed Wal-Mart store complies with the definition of "commercial" use under the Liberty Township Zoning Resolution. After conducting a public hearing on the matter, however, the Commission denied Plaintiff's variance applications, and Plaintiff subsequently withdrew them.

Soon after Plaintiff's variance applications were denied, the Homeowners Associations of Wedgewood, Campden Lakes, Wedgewood Hills, Falcon Ridge, Braemar, the Barringtons at Wedgewood Villa Condominium Association, Big Bear Farms, and Grandshire,5 detailed their concerns over what they deemed inconsistencies in the PUD Plan. The Board of Trustees then ordered the Zoning Inspector, Holly Foust, to study the history of the administration of the PUD Plan to alleviate a number of concerns over its application.

On January 19, 2004, following the Zoning Inspector's study, the Trustees issued a Public Statement (the "January 19 Instructions"), which now governs the procedural administration of the WCC by the Commission. Importantly, the January 19 Instructions concluded that the PUD Plan imposed a so-called "floating cap" of 500,000 square feet of commercial property (the "floating cap") on all development within the WCC. Accordingly, the Board of Trustees instructed the Zoning Inspector to refrain from issuing any Zoning Certificates for additional commercial development that would surpass the 500,000 square foot floating cap within the WCC, unless or until the PUD Plan had been modified or amended pursuant to procedures for modifications set forth in the Liberty Township Zoning Resolution. The Board of Trustees further indicated that any future applications for commercial development would be subject to a "two-step major deviation" development Plan modification.6

Plaintiff did not submit Zoning Applications under this heightened "major modification" process. Instead, on June 29 2004, Plaintiff, using standard Liberty Township procedure, applied for zoning permits to build an approximately 220,598 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Murphy Oil gas station in subarea 3. On September 30, 2004, the Zoning Inspector denied Wedgewood LP's permit applications explaining that, in light of the January 19 Instructions, the applications: (1) failed to meet the requirements for development plans; (2) exceeded the acreage allowed under the floating cap; (3) were incomplete because they had neither been submitted for approval nor approved by the WCC architectural review committee; and (4) were inconsistent with both the Zoning Resolution and the PUD Plan.

On October 20, 2004, Plaintiff appealed the Zoning Inspector's denial to the Liberty Township Board of Zoning Appeals ("BZA"). At the same time, Plaintiff also submitted a revised site plan and a letter withdrawing its permit application for the Murphy Oil gas station. In its appeal, Plaintiff stated that the Zoning Inspector had acted improperly in finding that the proposed construction would exceed the maximum square footage limitations because the January 19 Instructions, which served as the basis for the Inspector's decision, were inaccurate. Further, Plaintiff asserted that the Zoning Inspector had incorrectly stated that she could not issue a Zoning Certificate without the architectural review committee's approval as such approval had not been required in the thirteen years since the PUD Plan had been approved. Finally, Plaintiff argued that the Zoning Inspector had mistakenly deemed its applications incomplete for allegedly failing to meet variance requests.

The parties currently dispute multiple details of the PUD Plan. Defendants contend that prior to the Board of Trustees' final approval of the PUD Plan, the Trustees held a public hearing on November 11, 1991, where it was decided that the WCC would be limited to the density of one million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail space, and 750 residential units. Further, Defendants assert that on November 15, 1991, an amendment was made to the PUD Plan that commercial construction could not exceed 500,000 square feet; and that an addendum (...

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