Highway 100 Auto Wreckers, Inc. v. City of West Allis

This is a problem of licensing and regulating an occupation. It is not a zoning case, but the zoning classifications in which plaintiffs’ properties are located indicate the environment where plaintiffs’ businesses are conducted. Plaintiff Wauwatosa Auto Salvage, Inc., is in a “Heavy *641Commercial District,” a zone which does not permit salvage and wrecking establishments, but its occupation there antedates the zoning ordinance and its continuation is permitted as a nonconforming use. The properties of the other two plaintiffs are in a “General Manufacturing” zone, and these salvage and wrecking…