Section 79 Method of Review

• Library: Urban Development Subdivisions, and Annexations (2011 Ed.)

The available method for judicial review ofa city's land use decision depends on several factors, including whether the action under review is legislative or administrative. Generally speaking, declaratory judgment is only an option when no other remedy is available—and when the challenge is solely to the legality of the ordinance or regulation under which the action was taken with no facts in dispute that would be subject to an otherwise required administrative process. For the most part, administrative zoning actions of a city are reviewable only via a writ of certiorari (with no ancillary requests for injunctive or declaratory relief) in accordance with § 89.110, RSMo 2000. A court ordinarily cannot simultaneously exercise its statutory jurisdiction and its general jurisdiction under both § 89.110 and a declaratory judgment under Rule 87. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church v. City of Ellisville,122 S.W.3d 635, 640–41 (Mo. App. E.D. 2003) (in discussing a claim for declaratory judgment and one...