About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

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

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most