Facts
- City Gospel Mission (Gospel) operated a homeless shelter and sought to relocate it to a new facility on Dalton Avenue in Cincinnati.
- Gospel also sought to operate related services on a nearby property on York Street.
- Both properties were located in Cincinnati’s Manufacturing General (MG) zoning district.
- Because the MG district did not allow the proposed shelter use as a matter of right, the city enacted an ordinance approving the operation of a “special-assistance shelter” on the Dalton Avenue property.
- After the ordinance, the city issued building permits for work related to Gospel’s plans at both the Dalton Avenue and York Street properties.
- At the Dalton Avenue shelter, Gospel planned to offer a daily 45-minute chapel service; the chapel area would occupy about 4.4% of the building’s square footage.
- At the York Street property, Gospel planned to provide services guided by religious principles, but the services themselves were described as a program providing recreation, food services, and employment counseling for homeless persons.
- Phillips Supply Company (Phillips), a nearby business, appealed the issuance of the permits to the Cincinnati Board of Zoning Appeals (Board).
- Phillips argued that the Dalton Avenue site’s principal use was a prohibited “religious assembly” in the MG district and that the York Street site’s principal use was a prohibited “community-service facility” in the MG district.
- The city code defined a “special-assistance shelter” as a facility for short-term housing of homeless individuals who may require special services, and defined “religious assembly” as an establishment for religious worship.
- The Board upheld the permits, finding that the Dalton Avenue site fit the definition of a special-assistance shelter and that the York Street site consisted of individual uses that were permitted in the MG district.
- Phillips appealed to the trial court, which affirmed the Board’s decision, and Phillips then appealed that judgment.
Issues
- Whether the trial court erred in affirming the Board’s decision upholding the Dalton Avenue permit by classifying the proposed shelter as a “special-assistance shelter” rather than a prohibited “religious assembly.”
- Whether the trial court erred in affirming the Board’s decision upholding the York Street permit by treating the site’s activities as permitted individual uses rather than a prohibited “community-service facility.”
- Whether the Board’s determinations were unreasonable, arbitrary, or unlawful under the applicable standard for administrative zoning appeals.
Decision
- The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment upholding the Board’s approval of the permits.
- The court agreed that the Dalton Avenue facility fell within the zoning code’s definition of a “special-assistance shelter” and that the planned chapel service, occupying a small portion of the building, did not change the site’s principal use to a prohibited religious assembly.
- The court accepted the Board’s approach to the York Street property, where the planned activities—though religiously motivated—were treated as separate, function-based uses that were permitted in the MG district rather than as a single prohibited “community-service facility.”
Legal Principles
- In an administrative appeal from a zoning board decision, the common pleas court reviews whether the board’s order is supported by a preponderance of reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and is not unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, or unsupported by that evidence.
- On further appeal, the court of appeals reviews the common pleas court’s judgment for abuse of discretion, rather than reweighing evidence.
- Land-use classification turns on the zoning code’s defined use categories and the site’s principal or primary use; an incidental or small-scale component generally does not control the classification of the entire facility.
- A limited worship component within a larger housing-and-services operation may be treated as incidental where the dominant activity fits an allowed or approved category such as a special-assistance shelter.
- When a project involves multiple activities on a site, a zoning board may evaluate the activities as separate uses where the zoning code and the evidence support that treatment, rather than automatically combining them into one prohibited use label.
Conclusion
The court affirmed the trial court and the Cincinnati Board of Zoning Appeals, holding that the Dalton Avenue project qualified as a special-assistance shelter despite brief daily chapel services occupying a small share of the building, and that the York Street project could be classified based on its individual, permitted activities rather than as a prohibited community-service facility.