CITY OF JACKSONVILLE, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
PATRICK S. GOODBREAD ET AL., APPELLEES
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The court held that the City of Jacksonville's ordinance establishing unequal distance limitations for liquor licenses from schools and churches based on zoning districts is arbitrarily discriminatory and void.
[1] A zoning ordinance establishing different distance limitations for liquor licenses from schools or churches based solely on the zone classification is arbitrarily discrim…
[2] A zoning ordinance's distance limitations for liquor licenses from schools or churches are unconstitutionally discriminatory if they do not operate equally upon all perso…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePlaintiffs sought to open a liquor-serving establishment in a Commercial Intensive zone within the General Services District (GSD Zone). The GSD Zone …
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SWIGERT, Associate Judge.
The City of Jacksonville appeals from a Final Judgment of the Circuit Court of Duval County, holding that Section 708.-906(c)(2) of the Ordinance Code of the City of Jacksonville is arbitrarily discriminatory and void. The Ordinance Code in issue is a section of the comprehensive zoning code of the City of Jacksonville and governs the distance limitations from schools and churches for liquor licensees. The code established 3 alcoholic beverage zones governing the issuance of liquor licenses as aforesaid. A relevant portion of the Ordinance provides in part as follows:
708.905 ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE ZONES. For the purposes of this Part, there are established three Alcoholic Beverage Zones wherein locations for liquor licenses shall be approved only in compliance with restrictions of this Part as applicable to such zones:
(a) DOWNTOWN ZONE—All of that area of land encompassed by the following boundaries:
Beginning at the intersection of the cen-terline of the St. Johns River with the John E. Mathews Bridge; thence Southerly and Westerly along the centerline of the St. Johns River to its intersection with the Florida East Coast Railway Bridge; thence Northerly and Westerly along the centerline of the Florida East Coast Railroad to its intersection with the Interstate 95 Expressway; thence Northerly along the centerline of the Interstate 95 Expressway to its intersection with Old Kings Road (North); thence Southerly and Easterly along the center-line of Old Kings Road (North) to its intersection with State Street; thence Easterly along the centerline of State Street to its intersection with Washing ton Street; thence Easterly along the centerline of the Expressway (Alternate U.S. 1 and Alternate U.S. 90) to the John E. Mathews Bridge; thence along the centerline of the John E. Mathews Bridge to the point of beginning; all such streets, railroads, rivers, bridges and other physical features used in such description to be as in existence on October 1, 1971.
(b) USD 1 ZONE—All of that area of land within the First Urban Services District as it existed on April 10, 1969 and which is not included in the Downtown Zone.
(c) GSD ZONE—All of that area of land within the General Services District which is not included in any Urban Services District. USDs 2-5 EXCEPTED. (Ord. 72-136-66, Sec. 2)
Section 708.906 of said Zoning Code governs the distance limitations for liquor licensees from churches and schools and provides;
708.906 DISTANCE LIMITATIONS. Except as provided in Sections 708.909 and 708.910, no location shall be approved for a liquor license unless such location is not less than the distance limitations as required by this section.
(a) DOWNTOWN ZONE (1) One thousand feet from any other location where there exists a current liquor license, or (2) One hundred fifty feet from any established school or church.
(b) USD 1 ZONE (1) Three thousand feet from any other location where there exists a current liquor license.
(2) Two hundred feet from any school or church.
(c) GSD ZONE (1) Three thousand feet from any other location where there exists a current liquor license.
(2) Two thousand five hundred feet from a school or church.
The part of said Ordinance that is in issue herein is that which provides that no location shall be approved for liquor license unless such location is not less than two thousand five hundred feet from a school or church. The Trial Court held this section unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs claimed that said section was arbitrary and discriminatory and is unconstitutional because it is not uniform and it is discriminatory against Plaintiffs and does not operate equally upon all persons.
The Defendant City alleged that the purpose of the different zones is to protect the health and welfare of the City, by and large the residential community, and that this was the philosophy underlying the comprehensive zoning plan of the City of Jacksonville. The City further alleged that the core City comprising the Downtown Zone is more intensively developed than the General Services District and that preservation of the residential integrity of the General Services District is the reason for the differentiation in distance requirements. Further, the high density of Downtown Jacksonville is an area that has very little residential character as opposed to the General Services District.
The evidence showed that the Good-breads owned property in Block 2, Riverside Gardens, located within a GSD Zone. The property is further identified as being located at the intersection of Highway and Cassat Avenues, and is in a highly developed commercial and industrial area. It is zoned Commercial Intensive (Cl). A permitted use of property so zoned is shown in Section 708.314, sub-paragraph 7, of the Code, as follows:
“Establishments or facilities for the retail sale and service of all alcoholic beverages, either for on-premises or off-premises consumption, or both.”
The evidence further showed that the Cassat Avenue Baptist Church is located 445 feet from the nearest section of the Goodbreads’ property.
It is our opinion that an establishment retailing alcoholic beverages from a location in a Cl Zone within 150 feet of a church or school in the GSD Zone can have no more harmful effect than such an establishment within 150 feet of a church or school in the Downtown Zone. Here the Code establishes three different and unequal distance limitations within the City of Jacksonville upon the location of a liquor license within the single uniform zoning classification of Commercial Intensive. We hold that said classification is arbitrary and discriminatory and, therefore, void. Dade County v. Keyes, 141 So. 2d 819, Fla.App. (D.C.A. 3d 1962). While it is not the function of the Court to rezone property or to usurp the legislative powers of government, it is the Court’s function to determine at which point zoning restrictions become arbitrary. William Murray Builders, Inc. v. City of Jacksonville, 254 So. 2d 364, Fla.App. (D.C.A. 1st 1971).
AFFIRMED.
RAWLS, Acting C. J., and SMITH, J., concur.
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Effie, Inc. v. City OF Ocala, 438 So. 2d 506 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983)…s should not depend on the whim or caprice of the permitting authority. This principle is applicable equally to a highly regulated business such as the one involved here, ABC Liquors v. City of Ocala, supra; City of [*509] Jacksonville v. Goodbread, 331 So. 2d 350 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); or to businesses not so closely regulated. Eskind v. City of Vero Beach, 159 So. 2d 209 (Fla.1863); Broward County v. Narco Realty, Inc., 359 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978). In Drexel v. City of Miami Beach, 64 So. 2d 317 (Fla.1…
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ABC Liquors, Inc. v. City OF Ocala, 366 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979)…may not refuse the application. Any standards, criteria or requirements which are subject to whimsical or capricious application or unbridled discretion will not meet the test of constitutionality. This court, in City of Jacksonville v. Goodbread, 331 So. 2d 350 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976) held invalid ordinances of the City of Jacksonville which divided the City into different zones and then established differing distance requirements for the location of liquor licenses in the several zones. We there said: “ * *…
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Bennett v. Walton Cnty., 174 So. 3d 386 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015)…llenge in its beach communities. The judiciary’s role in cases like this [*400] one is simply to ensure governmental actions do not cross the line into arbitrariness, a low threshold for government to overcome. See City of Jacksonville v. Goodbread, 331 So. 2d 350, 352 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976) (“While it is not the function of the Court to rezone property or to usurp the legislative powers of government, it is the Court’s function to determine at which point zoning restrictions become arbitrary.”). Rather than dec…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- William Murray Builders, Inc. v. City OF Jacksonville, 254 So. 2d 364 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971)
- Dade Cnty. v. Keyes, 141 So. 2d 819 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962)