CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - ZONING - AMENDMENT OF ZONING ORDINANCE AS IMPAIRING VESTED RIGHTS

Authors

Ralph Winkler, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

The town plan commission amended the municipal zoning ordinance to permit the erection of an incinerator in a class C residence district. The particular tract upon which the incinerator was to be located had been a municipal garbage dump, and as such, a non-conforming use under the zoning ordinance. The board of health by ordinance declared the garbage dump to be a nuisance. The facts revealed there was an immediate need to dispose of the garbage, etc.; that the erection of an incinerator was the best means of so doing; that the proposed site was a suitable location; that the commission acted fairly following a careful investigation of the problem; that the particular site would have been undesirable for residential purposes because of the previous user; and that the proposed structure and cleaning up of the dump would enhance property values in the district. The plaintiffs, residents of the district, contended that they obtained a vested interest in the zoning ordinance as determined by the standard of a class C residence zone apart from actual conditions, and that the change in the ordinance constituted a taking of their property without due process of law. Held, the action of the commission was a reasonable exercise of police power, even assuming the premise asserted by the plaintiffs. De Palma v. Town Plan Commission of Greenwich, (Conn. 1937) 193 A. 868.

Recommended Citation

Ralph Winkler, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - ZONING - AMENDMENT OF ZONING ORDINANCE AS IMPAIRING VESTED RIGHTS, 36 Mich. L. Rev. 487 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol36/iss3/14