## 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

1. 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.”
2. 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.”
3. 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.


Phillips Supply Co. v. Cincinnati Board of Zoning Appeals, 17 N.E.3d 1 (2014)