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Constitutional – Appeals – Municipal – Zoning – Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
Town of Boone v. State (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-06-1028, 4 pp.) (Order of the Court) Appealed from a three-judge panel in Wake County. N.C. S. Ct. Holding: G.S. § 7A-27(a1) allows appeals only from orders that hold an act of the General Assembly to be facially unconstitutional. Where the three-judge panel’s denial of defendants’ motion […]
Zoning – Municipal – Civil Practice – Standing – ‘Contract Zoning’ – No Reciprocal Obligations – County Development Partnership – Appeals – Attorney’s Fees
Morgan v. Nash County The plaintiff-city does not have standing to contest the defendant-county’s rezoning of county land to allow industrial uses, potentially including a poultry processing plant. Although the proposed sprayfields for the potential processing plant are located in the watershed from which the city draws half its water supply, the land for the proposed sprayfields was no[...]
Municipal – Zoning – Nonconforming Use – Alterations ‘Required by Law’ – Civil Practice – Appeals – Notice – Email
MNC Holdings, LLC v. Town of MatthewsThe superior court correctly interpreted the respondent-town’s zoning ordinance as allowing a property owner with a nonconforming use to make alterations “required by law” in general – not just alterations required to ensure the structure’s safety.
Municipal – Zoning – Conditional Use – Harmony & Conformity – Apartment Complex – Highway Business District
Affordable Housing Group of North Carolina, Inc. v. Town of Mooresville The respondent-town rejected petitioners’ application for a conditional use permit to build an apartment complex in a Highway-Business zone in part because the project would not be in conformity with the town’s comprehensive plan.
Real Property – Zoning – Special Use Permit — Municipal – Franchise – Landfill – Constitutional – Taking Claim
Griffin Farm & Landfill, Inc. v. Town of Unionville Three authorizations are required to build and operate a construction and demolition (C&D) landfill: local zoning approval, a local government franchise, and a permit from the state. Where plaintiffs stopped accepting C&D waste seven months before their franchise expired, and where the defendant-town exercised its discretion in denying p[...]
Municipal – Zoning – Real Property – Value – Insufficient Showing – Cell Phone Tower
American Towers, Inc. v. Town of Morrisville In order to get a special use permit to erect a cell phone tower in the respondent-town, petitioner was required to show that the tower would not substantially injure the value of adjoining property. Petitioner’s real estate expert failed to make that showing; therefore, the superior court properly upheld the denial of petitioner’s applicat[...]
Zoning – Public school construction – Adequate public facilities fees – Development – Voluntary mitigation payments
Mardan IV, LLC v. Cnty. of Cabarrus For the reasons stated in Lanvale Properties, LLC v. Cnty of Cabarrus, above: Absent specific authority from the General Assembly, Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (APFOs) that effectively require developers to pay a fee to obtain development approval are invalid as a matter of law.
Zoning – Public school construction – Adequate public facilities fees – Development – Voluntary mitigation payments
Craft Dev., LLC v. Cnty. of Cabarrus For the reasons stated in Lanvale Properties, LLC v. Cnty of Cabarrus, above: Absent specific authority from the General Assembly, Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (APFOs) that effectively require developers to pay a fee to obtain development approval are invalid as a matter of law.
Local government authority – Zoning – Public school construction – Adequate public facilities fees – Development – Voluntary mitigation payments
Lanvale Properties v. Cnty of Cabarrus Absent specific authority from the General Assembly, Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (APFOs) that effectively require developers to pay a fee to obtain development approval are invalid as a matter of law.
Civil Practice – Standing – Zoning – Municipal – Proposed Poultry Plant
Morgan v. Nash County The plaintiff-city seeks to challenge the county’s re-zoning of a farm for industrial use as a poultry processing plant. The city mounts this challenge because a separate piece of property, which would be used as a sprayfield for treated wastewater from the processing plant, is in the city’s watershed.
Real Property – Billboard Lease – Municipal — Zoning – Special Use Permit
MCC Outdoor, LLC v. Town of Wake Forest Plaintiff’s forecast of evidence indicates that the defendant-town caused plaintiff’s billboard to be removed since the only reason the new landowner did not extend plaintiff’s lease was because the town’s special use permit forbade it. However, the town’s forecast of evidence indicates that the new landowner would not have allowed the bil[...]
Municipal – Zoning – Conditional Use – Group Home – Neighbors’ Fears
Livingston v. Robeson County (Lawyers Weekly No. 12-16-0764, 15 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) Appealed from Robeson County Superior Court. (Robert F. Floyd Jr., J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: The denial of petitioner’s application for a permit to operate a group home was based entirely on evidence of the generalized fears of neighbors; therefore, the denial of the conditional use permit was not[...]
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