Krause v. City of Royal Oak

The plaintiffs challenged their property’s present zoning both on the ground that it bears no substantial relationship to public health, morals, safety, or general welfare and on the ground that it deprives the property of any reasonable use. Holding for the plaintiffs on both grounds, the trial judge found the zoning both irrational and confiscatory.

Concluding that at best plaintiffs’ evidence presented nothing more than a “debatable question” on the rationality of present zoning, the majority reverses the trial judge. However, even if zoning is entirely reasonable in the sense it bears a…