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4 Zoning Dig. 1 (1952)

handle is hein.journals/planevirw4 and id is 1 raw text is: ZONING DIGEST Published by AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANNING OFFICIALS 1313 EAST 60TH STREET, CHICAGO 37, ILLINOIS Volume 4 January, 1952 Pages 1-16 UNNECESSARY HARDSHIP At a recent state meeting of planning officials, this edi- tor heard an assistant city attorney say that if a man owned a parcel of property, and if it was the only parcel of prop- erty that he owned, and if his livelihood depended upon the utilization of that parcel of property, and if the commercial use of that property in the residential area wouldn't hurt the neighbors, that was an unnecessary hardship, and the man was entitled to a variance. Apparently, my interpretation of what this assistant city attorney said was the interpreta- tion of a number of others, because several people were shocked. This city attorney lives in a state where the su- preme court generally has emphasized the importance of protecting individual property rights in zoning, as against the rights of a number of individuals (community). One be- gins to understand why the supreme court has taken the at- titude exhibited in a number of zoning cases if the interpre- tation of this assistant city attorney has been presented to the courts. The only conclusion I could reach was that the attorney can't read, or refuses to read. On the basis of what I found to be a shocking interpreta- tion of unnecessary hardship, I decided to write an editorial on the subject, but fortunately for me, the Supreme Court of Delaware has saved me that task, because in an excellent opinion which appears immediately following this note, the Supreme Court of Delaware has clearly described and defined an unnecessary hardship. In the New York case of Levy v. Board of Standards and Appeals, 267 N.Y. 347, decided many years ago, the court said that the powers of the board of standards and appeals Digitized from Best Copy Available