{
  "id": 2855546,
  "name": "State Street Properties, Inc. et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The Zoning Board of Appeals et al., Defendants-Appellants",
  "name_abbreviation": "State Street Properties, Inc. v. Zoning Board of Appeals",
  "decision_date": "1973-05-18",
  "docket_number": "No. 56885",
  "first_page": "98",
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    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
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    {
      "cite": "69 Ill.App.2d 248",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. App. 2d",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:56:16.526311+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "State Street Properties, Inc. et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The Zoning Board of Appeals et al., Defendants-Appellants."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. JUSTICE LORENZ\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nDefendants appeal from an order of the trial court which reversed a decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the City of Chicago. The Board had denied plaintiffs a permit to change the lettering in lights on a double faced electric sign affixed to its building in the downtown area of Chicago. The Board\u2019s actions affirmed an identical decision by the City\u2019s Zoning Administrator. Plaintiffs then sought an Administrative Review of the Board\u2019s ruling in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The trial judge reversed the Zoning Board\u2019s decision. Defendants appealed from that judgment order directly to the Supreme Court and that Court transferred the case here.\nOn appeal defendants contend that the Zoning Board\u2019s decision does not violate due process of law. Specifically they are (1) that the proposed lettering change was prohibited by the zoning ordinance, (2) that plaintiffs did not overcome the presumption of the validity of the ordinance, (3) that the City has statutory authority to regulate the space over tire public way and therefore plaintiffs have no vested rights in the sign, (4) that this prohibition is a reasonable regulation related to the public health, safety, comfort, morals and welfare and is not unreasonably discriminatory, and (5) that the decision of the Zoning Board was not based on extraneous considerations.\nThe facts are essentially undisputed. Plaintiff, Karoll\u2019s Inc., leases a ground floor store in a building at the southwest corner of Washington and State Streets in the City of Chicago from plaintiff, State Street Properties, Inc. In 1948 (15 years prior to Karoll\u2019s lease) with authority of the City Council, a fifteen by seventeen foot double faced advertising sign was affixed at a right angle to the Washington Street side of the building, thus projecting some fifteen feet over the public sidewalk. Through the years several changes in the message on the sign were authorized by permits issued by the City. The most recent change occurred in 1961 when the message on the sign was changed to read \"Rae Me Shops \u2014 Handbags and Jewelry\u201d by authority of a City permit dated April 13, 1961. Rae Me Shops was a tenant and occupant of the ground floor shop over which the sign was affixed. In January, 1963, plaintiff, Karoll\u2019s Inc., took over the space occupied by Rae Me Shops and was given the right to use, operate and maintain the sign pursuant to the terms in its lease.\nOn August 20, 1963, Karoll\u2019s applied for a permit to change the lettering on the sign to read \u201cKaroll\u2019s Men\u2019s Wear\u201d or \u201cMen\u2019s Wear by Karoll\u2019s\u201d or \u201cMen\u2019s Wear Karoll\u2019s.\u201d The Chicago Zoning Administrator noted that the sign was located in a B6-7 Central Business District. The application was denied on the ground that the proposed change did not, in the Administrator\u2019s opinion, conform to Section 8.9 \u2014 6(2) (a) of article 8 of Chicago\u2019s Zoning Ordinance, as amended in 1957 and again in 1963. That added section provides:\n\u201cIn the B6 \u2014 6 and B6 \u2014 7 Districts, non-flashing business signs are permitted, subject to the following:\n# * #\n(2) (a) Existing non-conforming projecting signs which project more than 12 inches across the property line into the public way shall not be enlarged, altered or structurally repaired.\u201d\nPlaintiffs appealed the Zoning Aidministrator\u2019s decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals.\nIn October, 1963 the Board of Appeals conducted an extensive hearing to review the Zoning Administrator\u2019s decision. The Chief of Chicago\u2019s Bureau of Electrical Inspectors, William P. Hogan, testified that he had drafted ordinance section 8.9 \u2014 6(2) (a). He stated that, in his opinion, a change in lettering would constitute a prohibited alteration. On the other hand, the plaintiffs produced two expert witnesses whose testimony differed from Hogan\u2019s. Rubin J. Baer, a licensed structural engineer who specialized in sign design, testified that in his opinion changing the lettering on the face of an outside sign cannot be a \u201cstructural alteration\u201d because no changes occur to the signs load carrying members. Another expert witness, Carmen Montello, supervising engineer for the Federal Sign Company of Chicago, also stated that a lettering change would not be a \u201cstructural alteration\u201d because the existing circuits and transformers could be used to accomplish the proposed change. Montello stated, however, that the change would technically be considered an \u201calteration\u201d requiring a rewording permit from the City of Chicago. Sam Karoll, an officer and director of plaintiff corporations, testified that the sign was a valuable asset of the building and identified a photographic exhibit which showed similar signs in the same block.\nOn November 7, 1983, the Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals requested an opinion from the Corporation Counsel of tire City of Chicago regarding the nature of the instant sign. Initially the Corporation Counsel was of the opinion that plaintiffs had a right to change the sign. On March 2, 1965, however, he withdrew his opinion. Subsequently, the Zoning Board affirmed the Zoning Administrator\u2019s opinion.\nPlaintiffs took the matter to the Circuit Court of Cook County. The trial judge found that the Zoning Board\u2019s action was both, unreasonable and arbitrary, as well as against the manifest weight of the evidence. The judge also found that the Board\u2019s ruling deprived plaintiffs of the protection of due process of law. Accordingly, the court reversed the Board\u2019s decision and entered judgment for plaintiffs, instructing the City of Chicago to issue permits for the proposed lettering change. Defendants appeal this judgment order.\nOPINION\nSince the instant appeal focuses on the statutory construction and constitutionality of section 8.9: \u2014 6(2) (a) of the Chicago Zoning Ordinance, we will deal directly with that matter. Section 8.9 \u2014 6(2) (a) provides that:\n\u201cExisting non-conforming projecting signs which project more than 12 inches across the property line into the public way shall not be enlarged, altered or structurally repaired.\u201d (Emphasis added.)\nThe present lessee of a premises to which is affixed an existing nonconforming sign projecting more than 12 inches across the property line into the public way now proposes to alter the electric light lettering thereon. In our opinion, the words of the ordinance expressly forbid such a change. We are fully aware of the provisions of Article 6 of tire Zoning Ordinance regarding Non-conforming Buildings, Structures and Uses including section 6.3 regarding non-conforming signs being subject to amortization only as provided for in section 6.4 \u2014 8 and including section 6.4 \u2014 1 regarding permissible alterations in non-conforming buildings and structures. Notwithstanding these provisions, we believe section 8.9 \u2014 6 (2) (a) prohibits the proposed change. This section was added to tire ordinance by amendment subsequent to the writing of the rest of the ordinance. The section does not use the words \u201cstructurally altered\u201d (to which term plaintiffs\u2019 two experts directed their testimony); it uses the single word \u201caltered\u201d which by common usage means \u201cchanged.\u201d Moreover, section 8.9 \u2014 6(2) (a) applies specifically to existing non-conforming projecting signs, not to non-conforming uses generally. The specific controls the general.\nAlthough plaintiffs assert that if the ordinance were construed to prohibit the instant alteration it would be unconstitutional, we cannot agree. Statute authorizes the elimination of non-conforming uses. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1963, ch. 24, sec. 11 \u2014 13 \u2014 1.) The ordinance expresses such an intent. Such provisions have been held to be constitutional where related to the public interest. (Village of Gurnee v. Miller (1966), 69 Ill.App.2d 248, 215 N.E.2d 829.) Here the instant sign is suspended above the public way. The public must walk below it. This situation is hazardous to the public welfare and the City is totally within its authority to eliminate such potential hazards. (1426 Woodward Avenue Corp. v. Wolff (1945), 312 Mich. 352, 20 N.E.2d 217.) Moreover, the City has a duty to keep the public way free from obstructions which tend to delay or obstruct traffic or annoy the public in the use of the streets. (E.g., People ex rel. Armanetti v. City of Chicago (1953), 415 Ill. 165, 112 N.E.2d 616.) The fact that the City has chosen to eliminate such hazards by creating an incentive for the owner to remove them by prohibiting alterations is not constitutionally significant. Furthermore, plaintiff is not being deprived of any right. It may, and does, advertise its name by use of a sign which lies flat against the building and does not project more than 12 inches into the public way.\nFor the above reasons, the decision of the Circuit Court of Cook County is reversed and the decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals is reinstated.\nReversed.\nDRUCKER, P. J., and ENGLISH, J., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. JUSTICE LORENZ"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Richard L. Curry, Corporation Counsel, and Price, Cushman, Keck & Mahin, both of Chicago, (Edmund Hatfield and Daniel Pascale, Assistant Corporation Counsel, and Robert S. Cushman and Wesley S. Walton, of counsel,) for appellants.",
      "Arvey, Hodes & Mantynband, of Chicago, (J. Herzl Segal and Walter V. Lesak, of counsel,) for appellees."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "State Street Properties, Inc. et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The Zoning Board of Appeals et al., Defendants-Appellants.\n(No. 56885;\nFirst District (5th Division)\nMay 18, 1973.\nRichard L. Curry, Corporation Counsel, and Price, Cushman, Keck & Mahin, both of Chicago, (Edmund Hatfield and Daniel Pascale, Assistant Corporation Counsel, and Robert S. Cushman and Wesley S. Walton, of counsel,) for appellants.\nArvey, Hodes & Mantynband, of Chicago, (J. Herzl Segal and Walter V. Lesak, of counsel,) for appellees."
  },
  "file_name": "0098-01",
  "first_page_order": 118,
  "last_page_order": 122
}