BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, A POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, L. A. HESTER, BROWARD COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR, GERALD F. THOMPSON, HUGH ANDERSON, R. B. BARKELEW, KEN JENNE, ANNE KOLB, JACK L. MOSS AND J. W. STEVENS, AS MEMBERS OF THE BROWARD COUNTY COMMISSION AND CONSTITUTING THE BROWARD COUNTY COMMISSION, JAMES V. DENKENBERGER, JR., COUNTY SURVEYOR OF BROWARD COUNTY, AND JOHN M. GERREN, JR., DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION AND PLANNING OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLANTS, CASE NO. 76-1920,
v.
NARCO REALTY, INC., A PENNSYLVANIA CORPORATION LICENSED TO DO BUSINESS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE, CASE NO. 76-1920, APPELLANT, CASE NO. 77-868

Fla. 4th DCA | 1978-05-23
Nos. 76-1920, 77-868
DAUKSCH, J., concurs., CROSS, J., concurs specially, with opinion.
359 So. 2d 509 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1978) Negative Treatment
Cited by 25 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Broward County appealed a writ of mandamus requiring it to approve a subdivision plat filed by Narco Realty, Inc. The court held that when a property owner complies with all statutory requirements for plat approval, the county's approval becomes a ministerial act that can be compelled by mandamus, not a discretionary act.


Holding

Once a property owner has complied with all legal requirements for plat approval under Chapter 177 of the Florida Statutes and the Broward County Plat Act, the county's approval becomes a ministerial act that can be compelled by writ of mandamus. The county has no discretion to refuse approval when all statutory requirements are satisfied.


Headnotes

[1] A writ of mandamus may compel the approval of a subdivision plat when the subdivider has complied with all statutory and ordinance requirements for plat approval, renderi…

[2] A county commission's discretion to approve or deny a subdivision plat vanishes once the applicant has met all legal requirements for platting land.

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Key Quotes

“All persons similarly situated should be able to obtain plat approval upon meeting uniform standards. Otherwise, the official approval of a plat application would depend upon the whim or caprice of the public body involved.”

Establishes the core principle that plat approval based on statutory compliance is not discretionary but ministerial

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Facts & Procedural History

Narco Realty owned land in the City of Parkland, Florida and submitted a subdivision plat to Broward County Commission for approval, which was refused…

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Opinion of the Court
DOWNEY, Chief Judge.

DOWNEY, Chief Judge.

Broward County and certain officials thereof filed a plenary appeal in Case No. 76-1920 to review a Peremptory Writ of Mandamus commanding appellants to approve a subdivision plat of land located in the City of Parkland, Broward County, Florida.

Narco Realty, Inc., has filed an interlocutory appeal in Case No. 77-868 to review an order which denied appellant’s (Narco Realty) motion for contempt and partially granted Narco’s motion to compel.

Narco Realty, Inc., owns a tract of land in the City of Parkland which it proposes to subdivide. In furtherance of this plan Nar-co submitted its subdivision plat to the County Commission of Broward County for approval which was refused. Thereupon, Narco filed a Petition for Writ of Mandamus against the County and various county officials seeking to require them to approve the proposed plat so that it could be recorded. The plenary appeal by the County, et al., is from the granting of the Peremptory-Writ.

While the plenary appeal was pending, this court entered an Order requiring the County to post a supersedeas bond if it wished its appeal to supersede the Peremptory Writ. However, the County chose not to post the supersedeas bond, whereupon Narco asked the trial court to hold the County and its officials in contempt for refusing to follow the commands of the Peremptory Writ. Narco also requested the court to compel the County to approve the plat for record. The trial court denied the motion for contempt and ordered the County to approve the plat with certain conditions. The interlocutory appeal from that Order has been consolidated with the plenary appeal.

With regard to the full appeal from the issuance of the Peremptory Writ, the main thrust of appellant’s attack is that the approval of a plat by the County Commission is a discretionary act and cannot be made the subject of a Writ of Mandamus. The appellant relies heavily upon our decision in State ex rel. Zuckerman-Vernon Corp. v. City of Miramar, 306 So. 2d 173 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974), to support that principle.

Appellee contends, on the other hand, that its Petition for Writ of Mandamus and the stipulation of counsel at the hearing which gave rise to issuance of the Peremptory Writ demonstrate that there was no discretion remaining in the Commission in this case. The petition and stipulation show that all of the legal requirements for approval of a plat for recordation have been met. Those legal requirements are contained in Chapter 177, Florida Statutes (1975) and the Broward County Plat Act.1

It appears to be the County’s contention that, even though Narco has complied with all of the legal requirements for platting land contained in the general law and Special Act, the County Commission still has the discretion to approve or to refuse approval of any plat, because both Chapter 177 and the Special Act provide for approval by the County Commission. We reject the County’s construction that those provisions of the statutes give the County unbridled discretion to deny approval.

All persons similarly situated should be able to obtain plat approval upon meeting uniform standards. Otherwise, the official approval of a plat application would depend upon the whim or caprice of the public body involved. Yokley, in his work, Law of Subdivisions, § 52, states:

“Thus, while public policy requires municipal control of such development, nevertheless, the authority of a town to deny a landowner the right to develop his property by refusing to approve the plat of such development is, by statute, made to rest upon specific standards of a statute or implementing ordinances. Thereafter, the approval or disapproval of the plat on the basis of controlling standards becomes an administrative act.”

Likewise, in Section 53 of the same work, the author states:

“When the statutes and ordinances have been complied with in making a plat of a subdivision, the active approval by a village board has been held to be ministerial, and such act may be enforced by a writ of mandamus.”

“Mandamus to compel plat approval has been successful where the court, applying common-law principles, determined that when a subdivider has complied with all of the standards for plat approval, such approval is a ministerial act which the court may compel through a writ of mandamus . ..”

There are numerous cases which apply this same principle, among which are: Knutson v. State, 239 Ind. 656, 157 N.E. 2d 469 (1959); People ex rel. Jackson & Morris, Inc. v. Smuczynski, 345 Ill.App. 63, 102 N.E. 2d 168 (1951); People v. Village of Deerfield, 50 Ill.App.2d 349, 200 N.E. 2d 120 (1964); Kling v. City Council of City of Newport Beach, 155 Cal.App.2d 309, 317 P. 2d 708 (1957). Section 14 of the Broward County Plat Act, which pertains to the granting of approval of a plat provides that such approval may be “subject to such conditions as the governing body of the municipality and/or the Boards of County Commissioners or Public Instruction may deem to be in the best interest of the public.” Without pursuing the validity of that provision which has not been attacked here, we hold that, having met all of the legal requirements for obtaining plat approval, the county must approve Narco’s plat so that it can be recorded. Inasmuch as Narco has met all of the legal requirements for platting land, the county had no discretion to refuse this plat approval and the trial court was correct in issuing the Peremptory Writ of Mandamus.

We would distinguish our case of State ex rel. Zuckerman Corp. v. City of Miramar, supra. In Zuckerman the court expressly held:

“Here, clearly, the consideration of the plan involved the exercise of judgment and discretion. Did the plan meet the zoning requirements? Were the zoning requirements legal and binding? What was the effect of certain condemnation proceedings and other changes upon density requirements? Was the City es-topped?” Id. at 175.

Whereas, in the case at bar, the property owner has done all the law required of him to entitle his plat to be recorded. At that point any discretion in the County Commission vanished. There are some rather broad statements in Zuckerman which might lead one to conclude that mandamus never lies to require approval of a plat. While Zuckerman is clearly correct on its facts, to the extent it might be interpreted to hold that mandamus will never lie to require approval of a plat, we recede therefrom.

Upon remand the county shall approve the plat in question in accordance with the Peremptory Writ of Mandamus issued August 16, 1976, and such approval shall not contain any conditions relative to this litigation as were contained on the plat approval in the resolution of the County Commission dated March 1, 1977, and recorded in Official Records Book 6927, page 518, of the Public Records of Broward County.

Our disposition of the plenary appeal in case No. 1920 renders the issues raised in the interlocutory appeal No. 868 moot. Accordingly, the interlocutory appeal is dismissed.

DAUKSCH, J., concurs.

CROSS, J., concurs specially, with opinion.

. Chapter 28946, Laws of Florida, Special Acts, 1953, as amended.

Footnotes
4 Anderson, American Law of Zoning (Second Edition) § 26.04, (1976) states:
Concurrence
CROSS, Judge,

CROSS, Judge,

concurring specially:

I concur in the conclusion reached by the majority only because the parties to the instant appeal have stipulated that all necessary standards prescribed by law for subdivision plats have been met by the appel-lee.

I perceive broad areas of discretion granted to the Board of County Commissioners which in ordinary circumstances would render the remedy of mandamus inappropriate. E. g., Section 14, Ch. 28946, Laws of Florida, Special Acts 1953. Moreover, I see no reason to recede from State ex rel. Zuckerman-Vernon Corp. v. City of Miramar, 306 So. 2d 173 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974). That case dealt with the situation wherein the petitioner sought mandamus before any action, either for or against the proposed subdivision, was undertaken by the city council. Even so, the court therein recognized that mandamus would lie to compel action, but could not mandate the course of such action where discretionary matters remained unresolved. The Zucker-man-Vernon case has no application to cases such as that sub judice where all prerequisites established by law for the approval of subdivision plats have been met and the approving body has withheld its approval arbitrarily.


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Cited By (13 total)

  • City OF Lauderdale Lakes v. Corn, 427 So. 2d 239 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)
    …site plans.” Appellant cites State ex rel. Zuckerman-Vernon Corp. v. City of Miramar, 306 So. 2d 173 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974) in support of its proposition that mandamus is not available under such circumstances. In Broward County v. Narco Realty Inc., 359 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978) we receded from any suggestion which might be taken from the language in Zuckerman-Vemon Corp. that mandamus never lies to require approval of a plat. We specifically held in Narco Realty Inc. that where all of the legal requirem…
  • Effie, Inc. v. City OF Ocala, 438 So. 2d 506 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983)
    …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.1953), permits for parking garages could only be issued after a public hearing at which “due consideration” was to be given to the “effect upon traffic.” In determining that t…
  • ABC Liquors, Inc. v. City OF Ocala, 366 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979)
    …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, [citation omitted]” (331 So. 2d at page 352) In Broward County v. Narco Realty, Inc., 359 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), our Sister Court of the Fourth District considered a case wherein Narco Realty had complied with all of the legal requirements for platting certain land but the County Commission refused to approve the subdivision plat, contendi…

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