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Parker v. Town of Milton12/18/1998
Parker v. Town of Milton (97-422)
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.
On Appeal from Chittenden Superior Court
Linda Levitt, J.
Plaintiffs, six individual Vermont residents and two labor unions, appeal a superior court order dismissing their complaint. Plaintiffs opposed the construction of a bridge in the Town of Milton and alleged violations of the public trust doctrine, their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the laws, and the Vermont Administrative Procedures Act. The superior court dismissed thier complaint for lack of standing with respect to their declaratory judgment action, and failure to state a claim with respect to their constitutional and statutory causes of action. We affirm.
The Town of Milton (Town) applied for a required encroachment permit to build a bridge across Arrowhead Mountain Lake that would connect Route 7 with a town highway and an industrial site owned by Husky Injection Moldings. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) held a public information meeting concerning the Town's permit application after a petition was presented pursuant to 29 V.S.A. §405(a). The DEC subsequently issued an encroachment permit to the Town of Milton on June 6, 1997, which allowed construction of the proposed bridge.
On July 25, 1997, plaintiffs filed an action in superior court arguing that because the public trust doctrine prevents the Legislature from granting rights in the public trust property for private use, see State v. Central Vt. Ry., Inc., 153 Vt. 337, 344, 571 A.2d 1128, 1131 (1989), the Legislature therefore has a non-delegable duty to determine whether the bridge at issue in this case in fact serves a public use. Specifically, plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment stating that, in addition to obtaining an encroachment permit, the Town of Milton is required to obtain (1) a legislative grant of airspace over the lake and (2) a legislative determination that the bridge is a "public use" within the meaning of the public trust doctrine.
Plaintiffs also claim they were denied their rights under the United States Constitution to procedural due process and equal protection because their representative was not allowed to present their interests at the public hearing. Plaintiffs allege that others in attendance at the hearing shouted to prevent their representative from speaking and the DEC officer conducting the hearing ruled their representative out of order. Finally, plaintiffs allege that the encroachment permit violated the Vermont Administrative Procedures Act, 3 V.S.A. §§ 801-849 (VAPA), because it was issued without a "contested case" hearing, which plaintiffs allege is required by 3 V.S.A. § 801(b)(2).
The superior court dismissed plaintiffs' challenge to the encroachment permit, finding that plaintiffs did not have standing to mount such a challenge because they merely asserted the legal Conclusion that the public trust was being derogated and did not describe any actual injury, only generalized grievances. The trial court further found that plaintiffs had not alleged elements sufficient to sustain an equal protection claim and were not "aggrieved persons" within the meaning of the VAPA, and therefore dismissed the constitutional and VAPA-based causes of action for failure to state a claim.
I. The Standing Requireme
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