OPINION
Under chapter 245 of the local government code, once an application for the first permit required to complete a property-
BACKGROUND
Regulatory backdrop
As a general rule, “the right to develop property is subject to intervening regulations or regulatory changes.” Quick v. City of Austin,
(a) Each regulatory agency shall consider the approval, disapproval, or conditional approval of an application for a permit solely on the basis of any orders, regulations, ordinances, rules, expiration dates, or other properly adopted requirements in effect at the time the original application for the permit is filed.
(b) If a series of permits is required for a project, the orders, regulations, ordinances, rules, expiration dates, or other properly adopted requirements in effect at the time the original application for the first permit in that series is filed shall be the sole basis for consideration of all subsequent permits required for the completion of the project. All permits required for the project are considered to be a single series of permits. Preliminary plans and related subdivision plats, site plans, and all other development permits for land covered by the preliminary plans or subdivision plats are considered collectively to be one series of permits for a project.
See Act of May 11, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 73, § 2, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws 432, codified as amended, Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code
The obvious intent of chapter 245 is to prohibit land-use regulators from changing the rules governing development projects “in the middle of the game,” thereby insulating already-underway development and related investment from the vicissitudes and uncertainties of regulatory decision making and all that may influence it. That intent is further confirmed by the Legislature’s explicit findings regarding chapter 245’s purpose: to combat “administrative and legislative practices that often result in unnecessary governmental regulatory uncertainty that inhibits the economic development of the state[,] increases the costs of housing and other forms of land development!),] and often resulted in the repeal of previously issued permits causing decreased property and related values, bankruptcies, and failed projects.” See Act of May 11, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 73, § 1(b), 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws 432; see also Quick,
The initial permit application
On July 30,1985, the predecessor-in-title to Harper Park Two filed with the City an application for a preliminary plan — an initial step in platting a subdivision — for a subdivision of roughly 98 acres to be known as Harper Park. The property is located along U.S. Highway 290, and is situated to the west of what were then the City’s municipal boundaries. However, because the property came within the City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, it was subject to the City’s limited authority to regulate platting and subdivision of land,
The preliminary plan application proposed that Harper Park would be a mixed-use development of “Condo, Office, Commercial,” and illustrated a configuration of thirteen lots with roads and other infrastructure. There were no metes and bounds descriptions. Each of the lots illustrated on the plan was labeled with a use that included “retail,” “multi-family,” “athletic club,” and “office.” One of these lots, approximately six acres in size and labeled “office,” is at the center of the present dispute.
There is no dispute that the labels on the preliminary plan application were not mandatory and were not binding on the property owner at the time. Under the City’s applicable land-use regulations at the time, which consisted solely of the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances, the labels merely identified “commercial” development that would be subject to the ordinances’ corresponding location and density limitations. As the City concedes, it had no further power to control use of the land, as its zoning authority did not extend beyond its municipal boundaries. For example — and significantly for this case — the City acknowledges that as long as the watershed ordinances were complied with, it could not have prevented construction of a hotel on the six-acre lot instead of an office building.
There is likewise no dispute that the filing of the Harper Park preliminary plan application, from the standpoint of these
Subsequent events
The City approved the Harper Park preliminary plan in November 1985. Later that same year, the City annexed the subdivision, thereby gaining zoning authority over it. The owner requested zoning in 1986. As conditions of the requested zoning, the City insisted that the owner agree to restrictive covenants imposing height limits and building-material restrictions, as well as dedicate streets to public use. Due to financial difficulties encountered by the original owner, the zoning was ultimately not approved until 1992.
In the mid-1990s, the then-owner of the Harper Park subdivision submitted a revised preliminary plan that proposed to use a large portion of the property as a private school campus. Other portions of the preliminary plan — including the six-acre lot labeled “office” — were unchanged. Ultimately, the owner filed and obtained approval for a final plat for “Harper Park Section One,” which encompassed 74 of the 98 acres of the original property. On this portion of the original preliminary plan had been nine lots with indicated uses that included retail, two lots labeled “office,” a lot labeled “athletic club,” and two lots labeled “multi-family.” The final plat replaced this lot configuration (and the only lots in the entire development that had been labeled “retail” or “multi-family”) with two larger lots used solely as a private school campus — that of the St. An
By the time of these filings and approvals, the statutory predecessor to chapter 245 had taken effect. In connection with the filings, the owner requested a determination from the City (termed an “HB 1704” determination, after the statute’s bill number) as to whether the proposed changes were within the scope of the Harper Park “project” so as to retain vested-rights protections and be subject to review under the City’s land-use regulations in effect when the original preliminary plan application was filed, June 30, 1985. The City issued a determination that the property would remain protected.
The present dispute
Four lots, including the six-acre tract at issue here, were not part of Harper Park Section One; they remained an unfinished part of the project. In 2007, appellant Harper Park Two applied for a final plat of the six-acre lot, which it called “Harper Park Section Two.” The application described the use of the property as “Commercial-Retail.” Harper Park Two also requested a vested-rights determination that its final plat applicatibn would, pursuant to chapter 245, be reviewed under the City’s land-use regulations in effect on July 30,1985. The City rejected the application, asserting that the label “office” on this area of the 1985 preliminary plan precluded retail uses. In order to get the final plat approved while maintaining the right to develop the property under the 1985 regulations, Harper Park Two revised its application to eliminate the reference to “retail” use, instead specifying “Commercial-Office.” As both parties acknowledge, the terms “Commercial-Retail” and “Commercial-Office” do not appear anywhere in the City Code and are merely shorthand descriptions of intended land uses. Harper Park Two also emphasizes that the label “office” was not included on the final plat, and that plat note 14 specifies that the property shall be developed in accordance with the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances — which, as previously noted, define commercial development to include all development other than one-and two-family homes — “or such other water quality ordinance as may be agreed upon between the owner and the City at time of site plan approval.” See Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 41A, art. I, § 41A-101.4(b) (1981); Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 9-10, art. V, § 9-10-305(b) (1982). The City approved the final plat for Section Two in December 2007.
In October 2009, Harper Park Two submitted a site plan application to build a hotel on Section Two. Harper Park Two sought to have the site plan reviewed under the regulations in effect as of June 30, 1985. However, the City asserted that a hotel was a different “project” from the one initiated by the 1985 preliminary plan application and that only an office could be developed on Section Two under the 1985 regulations. If Harper Park Two desired to construct a hotel on the lot, the City maintained, the development would have to comply with the City’s current land-use regulations, which are more restrictive than those in effect in 1985.
Harper Park Two sued the City and its Director of Planning and Development Review Department, in his official capacity, seeking a declaratory judgment that it “is entitled to develop [Section Two] as a hotel or any other commercial or office use” consistent with the rules, regulations, ordi
Following trial, Harper Park Two moved for new trial or to reopen the evidence based on the allegation that it had since uncovered a City document that had been responsive to its discovery requests but that the City had failed to produce. The document was a 1995 memorandum from the City’s then-director of planning and development, titled “SB 1704 Guidelines,” consisting of instructions to City staff concerning their implementation of chapter 245’s statutory predecessor. The SB 1704 Guidelines directed staff that, with respect to development projects initiated in the City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, a “new project” would be presumed if there had been a change between two “major use categories.” Those two “major use categories” were — consistent with the basic regulatory structure of the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances — -(1) “Single family/duplex”; (2) “All others.” Following a hearing, the district court denied the motion. This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
Harper Park Two brings two issues on appeal. In its first issue, Harper Park Two challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the district court’s legal conclusion that the relevant “project” on the date the initial preliminary plan application was filed (July 30, 1985) was solely an office, such that the vested-rights protections of chapter 245 would extend only to that sort of development and not to the desired hotel building. In its second issue, Harper Park Two urges in the alternative that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to reopen the evidence or grant a new trial in light of the late-discovered 1995 “SB 1704 Guidelines” memorandum. We need only address the first issue.
Although couched as an evidentia-ry-sufficiency complaint, Harper Park’s first issue turns principally on construction of chapter 245 of the local government code and its application to undisputed material facts. Statutory construction presents a question of law that we review de novo. State v. Shumake,
Our primary objective in statutory construction is to give effect to the Legislature’s intent. See Shumake,
The parties’ dispute centers on the meaning of “project” as used in chapter 245. Chapter 245 defines “project” as “an endeavor over which a regulatory agency exerts its jurisdiction and for which one or more permits are required to initiate, continue, or complete the endeavor.” Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.001(3). The “endeavor” that characterizes a “project,” the parties agree, would necessarily be reflected in the contents of the initial permit application, here the 1985 preliminary plan application. However, the parties differ, as a threshold matter, as to whether we are to look to the entirety of the endeavor contemplated in the application or solely to the portion of the plan relating specifically to the six-acre lot at issue. Harper Park Two urges the former interpretation, while the City, insisting that the preliminary plan application identified multiple, separate “projects” applicable to individual lots, asserts the latter view. Only Harper Park Two’s construction finds support in the statutory text.
Relatedly, Harper Park Two urges that the “office” label on the six-acre lot in the 1985 preliminary plan application does not, as a matter of law, limit the nature of the relevant “project” solely to an office building. What mattered instead, Harper Park Two asserts, was the application’s characterization of the overall development as mixed-use “Condo, Office, Commercial.” It also emphasizes that under the City’s land-use regulations applicable at the time — the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances — offices, hotels, and other forms of development other than single and two-family residential units all came within a single regulatory classification of “commercial” development. See Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 41A, art. I, § 41A-101.4(b) (1981); Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 9-10, art. V, § 9-10-305(b) (1982). Assuming the “commercial” development was constructed in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances, as Harper Park Two observes, the City had no authority at the time to control whether the development was an office, a hotel, or some other type of commercial development. The City, in fact, acknowledges that the use labels on the preliminary plan application were not mandatory or binding and that it had no authority on June 30, 1985, to prevent construction of a hotel rather than an office on the six-acre lot.
We agree with Harper Park that the “project” identified in the 1985 prelimi
In advocating a different conclusion, the City insists that determination of the nature or scope of the relevant “project” turns instead on a fact-intensive assessment of the owner or developer’s subjective intent or state of mind at the project’s outset and whether the specific development later attempted was specifically contemplated at the project’s inception. It suggests that the first-hand testimony of the original owner or developer would be the best evidence of that intent, but barring that, a fact-finder could glean indicia of intent from permit applications and other filings. Under this analysis, the City insists that the “office” labels over the six-acre lot in the 1985 preliminary plan application and 1997 revised plan that preceded the Harper Park One plat can be considered evidence of specific intent to develop the lot solely as an office building and nothing else. As an additional layer of the analysis, the City further reasons that ascertainment of the owner or developer’s subjective intent might well turn on the individualized perceptions of whichever City staffers examined the filings (a view that the City offers in downplaying the significance of the 1995 SB 1704 Guidelines memo and its 1997 determination that a private school was part of the original “project” even while a hotel was not in 2009). But the Legislature followed a different approach in chapter 245, looking instead to objectively ascertainable standards — the legal implications of the initial permit filing under the “orders, regulations, ordinances, rules, expiration dates, or other properly adopted requirements” in effect at the time. Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.002(b). We would further observe that the City’s approach strikes at the heart of a statute that, as previously noted, is intended to combat regulatory uncertainty.
Beyond this, the City insists that “project” under chapter 245 must be construed “narrowly,” and a “narrow” construction, it urges, compels the conclusion that a “project” that includes an office building is not the same as one that includes a hotel. In support, it cites En Seguido, Ltd,.,
The question in En Seguido was whether En Seguido, the landowner, could subdivide a 27-acre, single-lot tract it had purchased into 154 lots and still maintain vested rights in the “project” for which the initial owner had filed a subdivision plat in 1971. Id. at 239 — 40. In addition to supplanting a single lot with a great many more, the changes entailed adding a considerable number of roads and other infrastructure. The trial court nonetheless granted summary judgment in favor of En Seguido, declaring that the regulations dating back to 1971 would control development of the 154-lot subdivision. Id. at 239. The court of appeals reversed the summary judgment on the basis that “genuine issues of material fact were raised with regard to the nature of En Seguido’s vested rights.” Id. at 245. However, as Harper Park Two observes, the court’s disposition indicates that on a different summary-judgment record, the 154-lot subdivision might have been considered the same project as the original single-lot development, notwithstanding the dramatic changes. Nothing in this analysis adopts a “narrow meaning” of “project.” At most, En Seguido merely restates the basic proposition that whatever a “project” was at its inception is entitled to chapter 245 protection. The same is true of the attorney general opinion. See Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. No. JC-0425 at 3.
In any event, we are to construe chapter 245 in a manner consistent with the Legislature’s intent, and whether that leads to a particularly “narrow” or “broad” application is entirely a function of the words the Legislature has chosen. See DeQueen,
Finally, both parties emphasize events subsequent to the filing of the 1985 preliminary plan application. Harper Park Two emphasizes the 1992 zoning of the six-acre lot as Community-Commercial — a classification that, again, would allow a hotel— suggesting that it was entitled to “take advantage” of the zoning “without forfeiting any rights under this chapter.” Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.002(d). Because we have already held that the original 1985 “project” was “commercial” development that would encompass a hotel, we need not reach whether the 1986 zoning would have independently conferred those development rights if the filing of the preliminary plan application had not. However, we note that because the then-owner voluntarily accepted the 1992 zoning and related restrictive covenants, those limitations, along with the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances, will govern development
In addition to citing various perceived indicia of the owner or developer’s subjective intent to build only an office on the six-acre lot (an approach that, again, misses the point of chapter 245), the City suggests that Harper Park Two would have waived any vested rights in regard to the lot by applying for a final plat that designated the lot’s use as “Commercial-Office.” The district court did not make findings to support the City’s waiver theory; consequently, it was not preserved. See Fielder v. Abel,
In sum, based on our construction of chapter 245 and the undisputed facts that are material to its application here, Harper Park Two’s proposed hotel development is within the same “project” that was initiated by the 1985 filing of the preliminary plan application — “commercial” development, as defined under the Barton Creek Watershed ordinances. Consequently, chapter 245 requires the City to apply the same “orders, regulations, ordinances, rules, expiration dates, or other properly adopted requirements in effect” on July 30, 1985, “the time the original application for the first permit ... [was] filed ... [as] the sole basis for consideration of all subsequent permits required for the completion of the project,” along with the zoning and restrictive covenants that were voluntarily imposed on the property between 1986 and 1992. Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.002(b). The district court erred in declaring otherwise. We sustain Harper Park Two’s first issue, reverse the district court’s judgment, and render judgment declaring that Harper Park Two is entitled to develop Section Two as a hotel, office, or any other commercial use consistent with the rules, regulations, ordinances, and requirements in effect on July 30, 1985, and the aforementioned zoning and restrictive covenants.
In the event we so held, Harper Park Two has requested that we also reverse the district court’s take-nothing judgment on its attorney’s-fees claim and remand the
Having sustained Harper Park Two’s first issue, we need not address whether the district court' abused its discretion in denying Harper Park Two’s motion to reopen the evidence or for new trial. See Tex.R.App. P. 47.1.
CONCLUSION
We reverse the district court’s judgment and render judgment declaring that Harper Park Two is entitled to develop Section Two as a hotel, office, or any other commercial use consistent with the rules, regulations, ordinances, and requirements in effect on July 30, 1985, and the zoning and restrictive covenants that the then-owners of the property voluntarily assumed between 1986 and 1992. We also reverse the district court’s take-nothing judgment on Harper Park Two’s attorney’s-fees claim and remand that claim for reconsideration in light of our judgment.
Notes
.Amendments in 2005 added language elaborating that vested rights are triggered by the filing of a permit application "for review for any purpose, including review for administrative completeness" or a "plan for development of real property or plat application" that "gives the regulatory agency fair notice of the project and the nature of the permit sought,” and further providing that an application or plan is considered filed on the date sent by certified mail. See Act of Sept. 1, 2005, 79th Leg., R.S., ch. 6, § 2, 2005 Tex. Gen. Laws 5-6, codified at Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.002(a), (a-1) (West 2005). Both parties cite the current version of the statute and neither party suggests on appeal that the 2005 amendments would have any substantive impact on our analysis. On the other hand, in the district court, the City, responding to Harper Park Two’s arguments that the initial permit application gave the City "fair notice” of a "project” that could include a hotel, emphasized that "the fair notice provision didn’t apply until 2005,” suggesting a view that the amendment, if anything, would have inured to Harper Park Two’s benefit. However, the amended language, strictly speaking, is not before us. See id. § 245.002(g) (West 2005) (specifying that 2005 amendments to section 245.002, subsection (a), and addition of subsection (a-1) "apply only to a project commenced on or after the effective date” of those amendments).
. Certain types of regulations, none of which are at issue here, are exempted from chapter 245’s limitations. See id. § 245.004 (West 2005).
. Vested rights attaching to a "project” may also be lost if a "project” is deemed "dormant.” See id. § 245.005 (West 2005). That provision is not at issue here.
. See House Research Organization, Bill Analysis, Tex. H.B. 1704, 3-4, 76th Leg., R.S. (2005).
. See Tex. Loc. Gov't Code Ann. § 212.002 (West 2008).
. Including impervious cover restrictions.
.Defined as including "buildings and other structures; construction; and excavation, dredging, grading, filling, and clearing or removing vegetation.” Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 41A, art. I, § 41A-101.4(b) (1981); Austin, Tex., City Code ch. 9-10, art. V, § 9-10-305(b) (1982).
. See Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. §§ 245.001(1) (defining "permit” as "a license, certificate, approval, registration, consent, permit, ... or other form of authorization required by law, rule, regulation, order, or ordinance that a person must obtain to perform an action or initiate, continue, or complete a project for which the permit is sought”), (4) ("regulatory agency” is “the governing body of, or a bureau, department, division, board, commission, or other agency of, a political subdivision acting in its capacity of processing, approving, or issuing a permit”), .003 (chapter applies to "project” in which a "permit” application had been filed or a permit issued before September 1, 1997, and was still in progress as of that date) (West 2005).
. The Austin City Council adopted first-reading zoning ordinance approval for the property in 1986. However, the owner, who had taken bankruptcy in late 1980, could not execute the restrictive covenants and street deeds on which the City had conditioned its zoning approval. As a result, it was not until 1992, when a subsequent owner — a bank — executed the covenants, that the ordinance received its third and final reading, at which point the zoning requested in 1986 was approved by adoption of zoning ordinance 920123-E.
. Harper Park insists that imposition of the current regulations — particularly, the current impervious cover limitations — would effectively preclude any commercial development of the six-acre lot, given the relatively small dimensions of the property.
. Chapter 245 waives a political subdivision's governmental immunity from suit to the extent of a suit for declaratory, injunctive, or mandamus relief to enforce the statute’s protections. See Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 245.006 (West 2005).
. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 37.009 (West 2008).