There's a little puzzle question in the comments here, right at the end

I'm off to Greece with my family. DIRT management has been turned over and there will be no DD's for about ten days.

Daily Development for Friday, July 19, 2002

By: Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
Elmer F. Pierson Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law
Of Counsel: Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin
Kansas City, Missouri
prandolph@cctr.umkc.edu

ZONING AND LAND USE; VARIANCES; LARGE PARCELS:

Fact that parcel proposed for variance is quite large is not an obstacle to granting of variance, and a zone change is not necessary, and a variance is appropriate based upon the fact that other parcels in the area are zoned for a more intense use, rending the zoning limitations on the subject parcel inconsistent with the area and a limit on value.

Janssen v. Holland Charter Twp. Zoning Board of Appeals, 2002 Westlaw 1494081, No. 226452, LC NO. 990032727-AZ (Mich. App. 7/12/02)

The proposal was for 250 units on two contiguous parcels totaling 200 acres, currently zoned agricultural. Applicant had already sought and been denied a zone change for this parcel. Subsequently, in negotiations with zoning officials, applicant modified the proposal and sought instead a variance. Opponents argued that the only appropriate course of action was to seek a zone change, as by definition the "special circumstances"

necessary to support a variance would not exist throughout a vacant 200 acre parcel and the impact on the community would necessarily be too great to support a variance of this size, and that a variance under such circumstances was de facto rezoning..

The Zoning Board of Appeals granted a use variance. The court here upheld that decision, indicating that there was no authority stating that size per se was an obstacle to the use of the variance technique.

The court noted further that the "unnecessary hardship" standard applied here because the income derived from the property was about $19,000 per year while the taxes were about $7900. The ZBA concluded that this did not yield a "reasonable economic return." It pointed out that the property in the general neighborhood had largely been put to more intense residential uses because, before a general rezoning that created the agricultural zone, the area had largely been zoned industrial, but the master plan support conversion to residential.

Comment: This strikes the editor as a rather generous variance opinion, particularly on the question of justification for the variance. The editor is familiar with lots of folks who are holding agricultural zoned properties leased for farming uses that return no better than the figures discussed by the court here. They'd be delighted to learn that they were suffering "economic hardship" sufficient to warrant the granting of a zoning variance for more intense uses?

The court tells us nothing about how it measure the question of "reasonable economic return" and whether the price the owner paid, which undoubtedly was a speculative price based upon the possibility of getting modification of zoning restrictions, established the basis for this determination.

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