217 Conn. 447 | Conn. | 1991
The issue in these consolidated appeals is the extent of local authority to amend zoning regulations so as to prohibit the accessory processing of earth products excavated beyond town limits. Following the adoption of such amendments by the planning and zoning commission of the town of Beacon Falls (commission), the plaintiffs, D & J Quarry Products,
As the trial court found in its memorandum of decision, the plaintiffs are operators of mining, excavation and gravel processing facilities located in industrial and industrial park zones within the town of Beacon Falls. In their processing operations, they have increasingly utilized sand, gravel and stone (hereinafter earth products) that have been excavated outside of the town. Between late 1987 and 1988, D & J Quarry Products processed only earth products imported from other
The sole issue before the trial court was the facial validity of amendments to the town’s zoning regulations enacted by the commission, following a public hearing on September 7,1988, in order to address local concerns about perceived changes in the nature of earth products processing operations in Beacon Falls. As the trial court acknowledged, the commission, acting in a legislative capacity, had broad authority to adopt the amendments. See Primerica v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 211 Conn. 85, 96, 558 A.2d 646 (1989); Burnham v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 189 Conn. 261, 265, 455 A.2d 339 (1983). The trial court properly refused to substitute its judgment for that of the commission and limited its review to a determination of whether the record reasonably supported the commission’s decision to adopt the amendments. See Primerica v. Planning & Zoning Commission, supra; Burnham v. Planning & Zoning Commission, supra; Calandro v. Zoning Commission, 176 Conn. 439, 440, 408 A.2d 229 (1979).
The record before the trial court manifested itself in the form of a preamble to the amendments. The preamble articulated the commission’s findings that: (1) dust, smoke, noise and vibrations from the processing operations were having an adverse impact upon the health
The zoning regulations, as amended, prohibit all earth products processing in all districts. The amendments also make accessory processing operations established prior to the effective date of the amendments nonconforming uses, subject to the requirements of § 64.11 of the regulations. The amendments do not expressly address the status of formerly principal processing operations, a deficiency that the plaintiffs contend is fatal to their validity.
The authority for local enactment of zoning regulations is found in General Statutes § 8-2. Relying on the provision of § 8-2 that “[zoning] regulations shall not prohibit the continuance of any nonconforming use . . . existing at the time of the adoption of such regulations,” the plaintiffs argued that the amended regulations precluding the further processing of imported materials exceeded the commission’s statutory authority. The trial court agreed and held that the aforementioned amendments were invalid to the extent that they
The commission’s appeal challenges both of the trial court’s grounds for invalidating the zoning amendments. On the issue of the preservation of nonconforming uses, the commission maintains that the amendments are valid under § 8-2 because, without infringing upon any preexisting principal or accessory processing use that the plaintiffs may be able to establish, they purport only to ensure that accessory uses do not become principal uses through the importation of earth products after local mines have been depleted. With respect to the validity of distinctions based upon the geographical source of the processed earth materials, the commission maintains that its actions were authorized by the general police power conferred upon municipalities by General Statutes § 7-148 (c) (8) (C).
I
Before proceeding to the merits of the commission’s appeal, we first consider the scope of our review. Each of the briefs contains considerable argument about the status of the various plaintiffs’ processing operations under the town’s zoning regulations prior to their amendment in 1988. Furthermore, the commission argues here, as it did at trial, that, even prior to the amendments, earth products processing had enjoyed
Because this challenge to the facial validity of the amended zoning regulations does not involve their specific application to the processing operations of the plaintiffs, these questions are beyond the scope of our review in this case. The trial court correctly did not decide whether processing had been a principal or accessory use under the town’s zoning regulations prior to their amendment, or whether the plaintiffs’ processing operations constitute valid nonconforming uses. None of the parties has contested, on this appeal, the trial court’s determination that it lacked the requisite factual record to resolve these matters. A fortiori, such issues must await another day.
II
Our function on appeal is to determine whether the trial court correctly concluded that the town’s amended zoning regulations are facially invalid because they illegally infringe upon nonconforming uses, or discriminate based on the source of materials, in contravention of § 8-2. See Whittaker v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 179 Conn. 650, 654, 427 A.2d 1346 (1980) (judicial review limited to determination of whether zoning authority’s action was arbitrary, illegal or an abuse of discretion); Bogue v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 165 Conn. 749, 752, 345 A.2d 9 (1974). On the present record, we cannot agree with the trial court’s conclusion.
In evaluating this challenge to the 1988 amendments, we must first determine what is really at issue. The plaintiffs contend that, since they have alleged that
Consistently with its contention that under the zoning regulations earth products processing has always been permitted only as an accessory use,
The plaintiffs do not dispute the premise upon which the amendments were adopted. Nonetheless, they argue that the amendments are facially suspect because they fail expressly to excuse principal nonconforming uses from the prohibition on processing of imported materials. We are unpersuaded.
In construing the amended regulations in accordance with the commission’s stated intent, we give effect to the purpose for which the amendments were enacted. We must presume that the commission intended to undertake a valid exercise of the authority conferred upon it by § 8-2. Faced with one interpretation of a legislative act that renders its enactments valid, and an alternative that renders them invalid, we adopt the former. Planning & Zoning Commission v. Gilbert, 208 Conn. 696, 706, 546 A.2d 823 (1988); Maciejewski v. West Hartford, 194 Conn. 139, 151-52, 480 A.2d 519 (1984); Verrastro v. Sivertsen, 188 Conn. 213, 220-21, 448 A.2d 1344 (1982); Muller v. Plan & Zoning Commission, 145 Conn. 325, 331, 142 A.2d 524 (1958).
We conclude, therefore, that §§ 64.11.5 (f), 41.1.3 and 42.1.1, although lacking an express exemption for nonconforming principal processing uses, implicitly exempt such uses. Thus, to the extent that the plaintiffs, or any other processing facility operator, can prove that their processing uses are nonconforming principal uses, they are free to use imported materials in their operations. The amendments, however, are not invalid on their face.
The regulations similarly are not facially invalid even though, in specifically affording nonconforming use status to preexisting accessory processing uses, they limit
On the present record, it would be speculative and premature to conclude that the 1988 zoning amendments violate the strictures § 8-2 against impairment of nonconforming uses. Because the amendments are facially valid, the trial court’s holding to the contrary cannot stand.
Ill
The commission maintains that the trial court was equally incorrect in concluding that the 1988 zoning amendments violated § 8-2 by illegally discriminating between processing operations on the basis of the source of the earth materials used by the processing facilities. We agree with the commission for the same reasons that we concluded in Part II that the amendments do not infringe upon nonconforming accessory uses. As we previously stated, the purpose of the challenged amendments is to prevent accessory process
The judgment is reversed and the cases are remanded with direction to render judgment dismissing the plaintiffs’ appeals.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.
The plaintiffs also raised other statutory and constitutional claims in their initial appeal to the Superior Court. The plaintiffs failed to brief, or argue, a number of these claims at trial, and the court therefore deemed them abandoned. Because the appeal challenged the facial validity, and not an application, of the zoning amendments, the court declined to consider D & J Quarry Products’ claims that the amendments constituted an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation. The court also rejected D & J Quarry Products’ claim that the amendments were void for vagueness.
General Statutes § 8-2 provides in pertinent part: “[Zoning] regulations shall not prohibit the continuance of any nonconforming use, building or structure existing at the time of the adoption of such regulations.”
By motion to the Appellate Court, Hamden Sand and Gravel Company represented that it no longer had an interest in, and would not defend against, the appeal.
The plaintiffs challenge the propriety of the commission’s invocation of General Statutes § 7-148 (c) (8) (C) on the ground that that section was not appropriately raised either at trial or in the commission’s preliminary statement of issues on appeal. See Practice Book § 4185. We need not resolve this procedural objection in light of our determination that the commission’s appeal can be sustained under General Statutes § 8-2.
See text at Part I of this opinion, supra.