Citations
- 340 Ill. 284
Full opinion text
Mr. Justice Farmer
delivered the opinion of the court:
On July 8, 1929, the commissioner of buildings of the city of Chicago granted to John F. Cuneo a permit to erect at the northeast corner of Michigan avenue and Randolph street a sixty-story office building, to be constructed of steel, concrete, terra cotta and brick in accordance with certain plans submitted therefor. The building as designed was to be 440 feet high at the street line, with a tower thereon having a further height of 193 feet. It was to occupy a frontage of about 89 feet on Michigan avenue and approximately 69 feet on Randolph street. Three separate appeals from the decision of the commissioner of buildings were taken to the board of appeals under the zoning ordinance of the city of Chicago. One of the parties appealing was the Michigan-Lake Building Corporation, which owns improved property on the west side of Michigan avenue in the block immediately north of Randolph street; another party appealing was the John Crerar Library, which owns a building directly across Michigan avenue from the Cuneo site, and the third party appealing was H. C. Edmonds, trustee, who owns property on the east side of Michigan avenue and in the same block as the Cuneo property. The appeals were heard as one case by the board of appeals and the decision of the building commissioner was affirmed. Separate writs of certiorari were sued out of the circuit court of Cook county and the cases were consolidated for hearing. The circuit court on December 10, 1929, reversed the decision of the board of appeals and revoked the building permit issued to Cuneo. The latter prayed and perfected an appeal from that judgment, and the trial judge certified the validity of a municipal ordinance was involved and the public interest required that the appeal be taken direct to this court. By order of this court the cases, designated here as Nos. 20057, 20058 and 20059, have been consolidated and will be disposed of in one opinion.
The city council of the city of Chicago, under authority of the statute on zoning, created a zoning commission, which made an exhaustive study and careful survey in furtherance of the problem of zoning the entire city of Chicago. The matter was under consideration for about two years. Among the important questions and problems considered and determined at that time was the height and bulk of buildings. Many meetings were held with numerous organizations and associations and several hearings had before the commission made its report and recommendations to the city council. As a result of the work of the zoning commission and persons interested a comprehensive zoning ordinance was passed by the city council during April, 1923, whereby the city was divided into four kinds of use areas or districts, namely, residence, apartment, commercial and manufacturing, and into five volume districts, in each of which districts the height and bulk of buildings to be constructed on lots therein and the use of lot areas are limited and regulated. Under that ordinance the property involved in this litigation was zoned for commercial use and as fifth volume district. Sections 20 and 21 of the 1923 zoning ordinance contain the provisions concerning the limitations applicable to property in the fifth volume district. Prior to the amendment of June 14, 1929, which is the part of the ordinance here involved, sections 20 and 21 of the ordinance provided, in substance, that, a building in the fifth volume district, which comprises most of the “loop” and down-town business property in Chicago, could be constructed Jiaving a maximum street line height of 264 feet, plus an allowance of 16 feet in height for a sloping roof and plus the allowance for a superstructure or tower, which could not occupy more than twenty-five per cent of the area of the lot or exceed in volume one-sixth of the volume of the main building permitted on the premises. During May, 1929, an amendment to the 1923 zoning ordinance was introduced in the city council and referred to its committee on buildings and zoning. The important part of the amendment was as follows:
“Section 21, paragraph (