## Facts

- Michael E. Zylka owned land at 32nd Avenue North and Douglas Drive in the City of Crystal, zoned “Commercial C-1.”
- Under the city’s zoning ordinance, a gasoline service station was allowed in the district only if the city council issued a special-use permit.
- Zylka and a contract vendee applied for a special-use permit and submitted a plot plan.
- The city engineer reviewed, modified, and approved the plan as compliant with city building and construction regulations.
- The planning commission held a hearing but kept no record, made no findings, and gave no reasons; it recommended denial.
- The city council denied the permit without making findings of fact or giving reasons.
- Zylka sought declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging the denial was arbitrary and unreasonable.
- After trial, the district court found the site suitable for a service station and found the proposed use would not unduly interfere with public health, safety, morals, or welfare; it concluded the council acted administratively and denied the permit arbitrarily, enjoining the city from interference.
- The city appealed from the judgment and denial of its new-trial motion.

## Issues

1. Whether Minn. Stat. § 462.357 implicitly authorizes municipalities to enact special-use (conditional-use) permit provisions in zoning ordinances.
2. Whether the city council’s denial of the special-use permit was arbitrary and unreasonable under the ordinance and the evidence.
3. Whether issuance of a special-use permit for a gasoline station in a district where that use is listed as allowable upon a permit constitutes rezoning.

## Decision

- The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the judgment and order for Zylka.
- The court held that municipal authority to enact special-use permit ordinances is implicit in Minn. Stat. § 462.357.
- The court upheld the trial court’s finding that the denial was arbitrary where the city made no findings and gave no reasons, and the trial evidence did not establish that the proposed station would endanger public health, safety, or general welfare.
- The court held that granting the permit would not constitute rezoning because the ordinance already allowed gasoline stations in the district subject to a special-use permit.

## Legal Principles

- Municipal authority to create special-use (conditional-use) permit procedures may be implied from Minnesota’s zoning enabling statute, Minn. Stat. § 462.357.
- When an ordinance lists a use as allowable in a zoning district upon issuance of a special-use permit, a permit decision is an administrative act implementing the ordinance, not a legislative rezoning action.
- Denial of a special-use permit is subject to judicial review for arbitrariness, caprice, or unreasonableness.
- A municipality must ground denial in the ordinance’s standards and evidentiary support; denial without findings or reasons, and without evidence of threat to public health, safety, morals, or general welfare, is arbitrary.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed an injunction requiring the city to stop interfering with construction, holding that special-use permitting is authorized under Minnesota law, that the council acted administratively, and that denying a conditionally allowed use without findings, reasons, or evidentiary support is arbitrary and unreasonable.


Zylka v. City of Crystal, 167 N.W.2d 45 (Minn. 1969)