City of Corpus Christi v. Unitarian Church of Corpus Christi

OPINION

The Unitarian Church of Corpus Christi as the owner of certain property, applied to the City of Corpus Christi for a building permit to improve its property for church purposes. The Church was told by a city department employee that the church property would have to be platted prior to the issuance of the permit. The Church prepared a plat of the property, outlining the boundaries of its lot, designating utility easements and submitted it to the City Planning Commission for approval. After a hearing on the church’s application, the Commission conditionally approved the church’s plat. Approval was subject to the church dedicating a strip of their land, 25 feet by 630 feet for the purpose of widening an easement so that an existing street could be extended. The church was dissatisfied and appealed this decision to the City Council seeking approval of their plat without the requirement of street dedication. After a hearing, the City Council denied the relief sought by the church. The church then filed suit in the district court seeking a declaratory judgment: that the City had no authority under the applicable statutes, charters, and ordinances to require the church to file a map or plat of its property as a condition to granting the building permit. The church sought additionally, the issuance of a writ of mandamus to compel the City to approve their submitted plat. The trial was had before the court without a jury, resulting in a judgment granting the writ of mandamus against the City and ordering approval of the plat as submitted by the Church. The City has perfected its appeal. The Church, although not dissatisfied with the judgment of the court, files its cross appeal from the order of the court denying all other relief which included the City’s right to require the Church to file for approval, any plat of the lot involved.

The Unitarian Church of Corpus Christi is a non-profit religious corporation which acquired title to a certain lot which is a 2½ *926 acre tract of land. The church’s lot was a portion of lot 6 in Section “B” of the Paisley Subdivision which was originally platted into lots and blocks in 1896. Lot 6 of this subdivision was further subdivided prior to the time the Paisley subdivision was annexed into the City of Corpus Christi. The church’s grantor purchased one of these re-subdivided lots or tracts prior to its annexation, although the church itself purchased the subject lot, after the same was brought into the city limits. Situated on the lot is a small existing building which the church sought to improve as a part of its building program. The church’s lot faces a major dedicated city street (Carroll Lane) on the southeast side. The lot was and is presently served with public utilities. Adjoining the church’s property on the northeast side is a tract of land (also acres) called the Hancock Tract which has heretofore been platted. The owners of the Hancock Tract had dedicated to the City a strip of land 25 feet by 630 feet, being one half of the proposed extension of Kay Street. 1 The City by its present action would require the Church to dedicate the other half of the Kay Street extension as a condition to the approval of the plat and the subsequently granting of a building permit. See the following diagram.