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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ind. Decisions - "Indiana Supreme Court to hear cell tower dispute"

The Supreme Court transfer list from Feb. 23, 2007 notes that the Court has granted transfer in the case of St. Charles Tower, Inc. v. Board of Zoning Appeals of Evansville-Vanderburgh County.

Tom Raithel of the Evansville Courier & Press reports on the story today, Some quotes:

The court has thrown out an appeals court decision in favor St. Charles Tower, Inc., a Missouri-based company that seeks to build the tower the 185-foot tower. Instead the court has granted the request of the Vanderburgh County Board of Zoning Appeals to hear the case. The court will listen to oral arguments by the attorneys on May 3.

The decision is the latest development in a two-year-old battle. St. Charles Tower originally asked the Board of Zoning Appeals in May 2005 to grant it a special-use permit and a variance that were required to build the tower.

After hearing complaints from several neighbors, the board turned down the request for the special-use permit. Some of the neighbors cited a city ordinance that prohibits a tower from being built within 300 feet of a home, or within 2 feet for every one foot of tower height, whichever is greater.

The board never acted on the variance, since that became a moot point when the special-use permit was denied.

St. Charles took the matter to court, where Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge Carl Heldt upheld the Board of Appeals’ decision.

St. Charles then appealed to the Court of Appeals of Indiana. This court ruled in a 2-to-1 decision in October in favor of St. Charles.

The appeals court said that board should not have considered the local ordinance in its decision on the special-use permit. However, it left open the possibility that the ordinance should have been considered in granting the company a variance, which it also needed to build the tower.

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case throws out the earlier decision by the Court of Appeals, said Joseph Harrison, Jr., an attorney representing the Board.

Here is a list of earlier ILB entries referecning cell towers.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 13, 2007 11:14 AM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions