The North Dakota Supreme Court has never ruled on the legality of contract zoning, and they found no reason to do so recently since they found no evidence of it in the case presented. The Court explained that contract zoning is present where a local government “contracts away its zoning power or obligates itself by an advance contract to provide a particular zoning for the benefit of a private landowner.” Noting that contract zoning requires a private agreement between parties, the Court said that in the present case there was no evidence of any agreement between the parties and no evidence that the City made any promises to a private party to amend the zoning map. Meetings between the applicants and the City to discuss concerns about zoning proposals do not, without more, constitute contract zoning.
Further, in denying the applicants’ request for amendments to the area growth plan and zoning map to rezone property from agricultural to general commercial, the Court found that the City Commission’s decision was the product of a rational mental process and that the Commission followed all appropriate processes and complied with all relevant statutes.
Hector v. City of Fargo, 2009 ND 14, 760 N.W.2d 108 (2/3/2009).
The opinion can be accessed at: https://www.ndcourts.com/_court/opinions/20080177.htm
