Pawn 1st, LLC v. City of Phoenix

Summary

The Arizona Supreme Court reviewed a municipal zoning board’s grant of an area variance allowing a pawn shop to operate subject to a residential setback requirement. The court held that the setback was a technical requirement supporting an area variance, that the property’s unique characteristics constituted special circumstances, and that the applicant’s selection of the property did not make those circumstances self-imposed. The court vacated the court of appeals’ opinion and affirmed the superior court’s judgment upholding the variance.

Holdings

1. The requested variance was an area variance, not a use variance, because a pawn shop was a permitted use in the applicable commercial zoning classification and the 500-foot requirement was a technical setback-type restriction rather than a use regulation.
2. The Board acted within its discretion in finding special circumstances that justified the area variance.
3. An owner's selection of property, even with knowledge that an area variance is required for an intended use permitted on other similarly zoned properties, does not itself constitute a self-imposed special circumstance that bars an area variance.
4. The Board acted within its discretion and authority in granting the variance, and the superior court properly upheld the Board's decision.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the requested variance permitting a pawn shop despite the 500-foot residential setback was an area variance or a use variance.
2. Whether the Phoenix Board of Adjustment had statutory authority to grant the variance.
3. Whether the property had special circumstances creating peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties that justified an area variance.
4. Whether Jachimek's selection of the property, with knowledge that a variance was required for the intended use, constituted a self-imposed special circumstance barring the variance.

Disposition

vacated