Several residents, including named plaintiff Catherine Lakey, owned property abutting a parcel owned by Puget Sound Energy, Inc. (PSE) in the City of Kirkland, Washington. PSE had operated an electrical substation there for over 50 years, and constructed a new substation on the parcel in 2008, with additional transformers to provide redundancy. In order to […]
Darren and Marlene Thomas, individuals of African American and Puerto Rican descent, respectively, purchased a Hicksville, NY, home in 2007. The home was set up as a two-family home and had been operated as such since 1922, prior to the Town of Oyster Bay’s enactment of a zoning ordinance designating the neighborhood in which the […]
Hoping to use three separate structures on a 9-acre lot to build and operate a Hyatt-brand hotel, with a restaurant and banquet facility and a wine shop, AVN Holdings, Inc. applied to the Township of Cranbury Board of Adjustment (“the Board”) for preliminary and final site plan approval, with several exceptions, and a use variance […]
Stagecoach Trails MHC, LLC (“Stagecoach”) operated a 50-space manufactured home park in Benson, Arizona. In 1998, the City amended its zoning regulations, increasing the size and setback requirements for spaces in a manufactured home park. Although it was not going to be applied retroactively, the City maintained that it would apply the new regulations when […]
Parvati Corporation owned a hotel in Oak Forest, Illinois. Parvati sought sell the hotel in order to convert it to a retirement home, likely occupied primarily or exclusively by black people. The City refused to permit the sale, so Parvati sued alleging racial discrimination in zoning and that the City’s zoning ordinance was unconstitutionally vague. […]
In April 2008, Starship Enterprises — a business selling a variety of novelties, tobacco products, books, and some sexually explicit materials — leased a commercial space in an unincorporated area of Coweta County, Georgia. The space had formerly been used as a gym; Starship planned to renovate the facility into a retail space. In May […]
The Sixth Circuit recently held that the Younger abstention applies to claims made under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, but found that a district court lacks authority to dismiss damages in such a claim, and can merely stay the claim pending resolution of the related state claim. The case arose out of a conflict between business […]
Joseph and Larraine Stainslaw have owned and operated a car dealership in Thetford Township, Genessee County, Michigan, for over twenty years. They obtained a license to operate a vehicle dealership from the Thetford Township in July 1983, despite the fact that the property did not have proper zoning and zoning approval was typically required before […]
Brookside Congregational Church, owner of a 10.04-acre, residentially-zoned property on which it had operated a preexisting, non-conforming church use since 1958, sought to allow self-help organization Granite Pathways to use the Church’s carriage house for the organization’s work-based program. Abutting neighbors, Stephen Bartlett and others, opposed the project. When Brookside applied to the City of […]
been held in common since 1916. One lot contained a residence, and the other a garage. Both lots became pre-existing nonconforming lots in 1940 when the City of Newton, Mass, adopted frontage and lot size requirements. Current zoning requires that such lots have at least 80 feet of frontage, at least 10,000 square feet of […]
In July 2009, the Town of Monterey, Massachusetts, applied to the Monterey Zoning Board of Appeals for a change in use from residential to municipal use for a former residence it owned on New Marlboro Road. The ZBA granted the change, but included a condition which stated that the authorized change in use was meant [...]
Dale and Kay King have owned two adjoining parcels in the Latimore Township, Pennsylvania, on which they have operated chicken houses since the 1960s. Since the 1990s, the Kings’ chicken operation took place in five chicken houses which were capable of raising 24,000 to 34,000 chickens each. Zoning on the properties, prior to 2008, was [...]
In May 2011, Hendry County, Florida, adopted an Ordinance rezoning 3,127 acres of agricultural land to a planned unit development in order to allow for the construction of a natural gas power plant and solar energy farm. In September 2011, the Seminole Tribe of Florida petitioned for a writ of certiorari in Florida Circuit Court [...]
In January 2006, the Town of Hempstead passed an ordinance prohibiting check cashing establishments in any zone but those reserved for industrial and light manufacturing, and requiring that check cashing establishments currently operating in other zones relocate their operations within five years. The Town based its decision on a memorandum written four weeks prior to [...]
Between 2006 and 2007, Settles Bridge Farm LLC purchased 36 acres of property in a low-density residential zone in the City of Suwanee, Georgia, with plans to construct a residential subdivision there. In Dec. 2006, a 41-lot subdivision plan was submitted to the City, and several variances to make way for the development were issued. [...]
