MO Court of Appeals Holds Procedures to Approve Rezoning Application Deprived Objectors of Procedural Due Process

This post was authored by Matthew Loeser, Esq.

Landvatter Enterprises, LLC, submitted its application to the the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (PZC) to rezone the tract on which it intended to build the concrete plant. The application sought to convert the “Community Development” zoning district into a “Commercial Activity Community Business” district, which would allow Landvatter to construct the concrete plant on the desired tract. The Commission issued its order adopting the PZC’s recommendation to approve the rezoning application, and Mason and Concerned Citizens appealed the County Commission’s order to the circuit court, which held a hearing and entered judgment in favor of the Commission and Landvatter.
The record demonstrated that the PZC itself referred to its consideration of the Landvatter application as a hearing. Additionally, the PZC solicited input from various interested parties, with the exception of appellants, to assist the PZC in making its decision on whether to recommend approval or denial of the Landvatter application. Furthermore, PZC adhered to Missouri statute section 64.863, which mandates that no county zoning plan or regulation may be amended “without a public hearing and the person or body which conducts the hearing shall give notice, at least fifteen days before the hearing, by regular mail to all owners of any real property located within six hundred feet of the parcel of land for which the change is proposed.”
The court next found that to deny certain interested parties the opportunity to be heard at the critical stage of the zoning amendment process when the PZC was formulating its statutorily-mandated recommendation to be used by the county commission to render its decision on the application, fell short of providing procedural due process because the appellants were denied the opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment of the circuit court, and held that the County Commission’s rezoning order was void.
Mason v County Commission of Franklin County, 551 SW 3d 54 (MO App. 5/15/2018)