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Whitelaw, III v. Denver City Council

COLOCTAPPApril 6, 2017No. Court of Appeals 16CA0920Cited 174 times
Defendant WinDenver City Council

Case Details

Judge(s)
Taubman, Navarro, Plank
Status
Published
Procedural Posture
appeal from district court affirmance

Related Laws

No specific laws identified for this ruling.

Outcome

The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's rejection of neighbors' challenge to Denver City Council's rezoning decision, finding no violation of due process rights despite undisclosed communications between a developer's lobbyist and a Council member.

Excerpt

CRCP 106(a)(4) —Rezoning Decision—Due Process—Spot Zoning. Plaintiffs Whitelaw, III and various neighbors (the neighbors) sought judicial review of the rezoning decision of defendant Denver City Council (the Council). Cedar Metropolitan LLC (Cedar) applied to rezone a 2.3-acre parcel. To build an "age-targeted" apartment complex on the site, Cedar sought to tear down a blighted church and rezone the parcel from single family home to a zone district that allowed three-story apartment buildings. The neighbors are property owners who live in the neighborhood near the parcel. They challenged the rezoning efforts, asserting it would hurt their property values, create traffic and parking problems, cause hazards to pedestrians, and degrade the character of the surrounding neighborhood. Following an eight-hour hearing, the Council granted the request to change the zoning. The neighbors challenged the rezoning in district court under CRCP 106(a)(4). The district court rejected all of their claims. On appeal, the neighbors asserted various claims, principally violation of their right to due process. They made five due process arguments. The Court of Appeals will affirm a rezoning decision unless the governmental entity exceeded its jurisdiction or abused its discretion, which occurs if the body misapplied the law or no competent evidence supports its decision. The neighbors first argued that a lobbyist for Cedar communicated before the hearing with Council member Susman, in whose district the parcel lies, through her private email account and by phone. They alleged that the failure to disclose these communications to the public before the hearing deprived them of their due process rights because they did not have notice and an opportunity to rebut the information on which the Council may have impermissibly relied in making its determination. Despite evidence of approximately 50 pages of such emails, the neighbors pointed to no evidence that they had a "substantial prejudicial

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