Another Veil of Protection for Exclusionary Zoning Ordinances: Warren v. Municipal Offices of Gorham

In Warren v. Municipal Officers, the Maine Law Court refused to alter the rules it articulated eighteen years ago for reviewing municipal zoning decisions and reaffirmed the application of a narrow standard of review of allegedly exclusionary zoning ordinances. The plaintiffs asserted that the Gorham zoning ordinance, which prohibited them from locating a single-unit modular home' on their land and restricted such units to mobile home parks, unconstitutionally discriminated against them. On appeal of the denial of a permit for the Warrens to place their modular home on their property, the Superior Court held that state statutes regulating the construction of manufactured housing in Maine required a change in the mode of judicial inquiry into the actions of municipal zoning bodies. But the Law Court rejected the attempt to revise the standard of review and, in so doing, indicated that municipalities have considerable control over the location of manufactured housing within their borders.