Miami-Dade County v. Omnipoint Holdings, Inc.

Omnipoint Holdings, Inc. (Omnipoint) (defendant) filed an unusual-use zoning exception application with the Miami-Dade County (Miami-Dade) (plaintiff) zoning board to build a telecommunications tower in an area zoned for limited business use. At a hearing before the zoning board, ample evidence was presented in support of Omnipoint’s exception application; local homeowners opposed the construction for largely aesthetic reasons. The zoning board denied Omnipoint’s application. Omnipoint filed a certiorari petition with the appellate division of the circuit court contesting the denial. Neither Omnipoint nor Miami-Dade raised issues regarding procedural due process, and Omnipoint did not challenge the constitutionality of Miami-Dade’s zoning regulations. The circuit court reversed the zoning board’s denial, holding that (1) the denial was unsupported by the evidence; and (2) violated the federal Telecommunication Act’s prohibition barring discrimination among telecommunications companies providing equivalent services. Miami-Dade appealed to the district court, arguing that the circuit court’s ruling did not apply the correct law. On appeal, the district court affirmed the circuit court’s decision but did so on different grounds. The district court, of its own volition, held that Miami-Dade’s zoning regulations for unusual-use exceptions were unconstitutional because the regulations lacked sufficient objective applicability criteria. Miami-Dade appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, arguing that the district court’s ruling exceeded the allowable scope of second-tier certiorari review.