City of Hickory v. Catawba Valley MacHinery Co.

BROCK, Chief Judge.

The City of Hickory instituted this action to require defendant to remove a canopy which allegedly violated the City’s zoning ordinance. Prior to trial the parties stipulated: That defendant’s property is zoned "general business”; that such zoning prohibits extensions of canopies or other structures into the “front yard”, the space between the main building and the street or highway; that when the zoning ordinance was adopted in January 1967 defendant already had a canopy which constituted a permissible non-conforming use; that sometime prior to October 1973, defendant…