Lang v. Linn County Bd. of Adjustment

Property owners (Owners) had a lengthy dispute with Linn County over whether houses they had built were subject to the County’s zoning and subdivision ordinances. In two separate decisions, the Linn County Board of Adjustment (Board) (1) denied an agricultural exemption for a six-acre parcel that included Owners’ residence, and (2) denied an agricultural exemption for a second house on a forty-three-acre parcel that Owners argued was an additional farmhouse. The district court found that substantial evidence support both decisions of the Board and denied Owners’ petitioners for writ of certiorari. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that substantial evidence supported the Board’s determinations that the houses at issue were not “primarily adopted, by reason of nature and area, for use for agricultural purposes.”

Lang v. Linn County Bd. of Adjustment