An Iowa Appellate Court recently upheld a lower court’s decision that favored the city of Jefferson.

According to court documents, a zoning request was made by KCG Development for a privately-owned parcel that was southwest of Ace Hardware, on November 18, 2023 to be rezoned from light industrial to multi-family residential, so the company could build a 50-unit structure. Court documents show that following a public hearing on February 13, 2024, the city council then approved the rezoning on March 12th, by a 4-1 vote, with Council member Chad Sloan as the lone no vote. 

Court documents state that a lawsuit was filed on April 10, 2024 by 12 landowners that were within the notified areas as required by law and said that the landowners claimed that the city failed to act in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan, which created nuisance conditions and incompatible land uses by rezoning the property. The lawsuit also alleged that the rezoning was not supported by substantial evidence and it was unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious. Additionally, the lawsuit stated that one of the Council members that voted in favor of the rezoning had a conflict of interest.

The city filed its response on May 1, 2024 and wanted the lawsuit dismissed with one of the reasons being that the landowners failed to provide evidence that they would suffer any injury to passing the rezoning, such as higher taxes or injury to their land. 

Then on June 27, 2024, the district court judge granted the motion to dismiss, saying that there was no link between having the rezoning passed and an injury to those who filed the lawsuit and the landowners failing to demonstrate a special injury or substantial interest that was different from the general public.

Then, an appeal was filed on July 18, 2024 with the appellate court and on November 13, 2025, the appellate judge affirmed the district court ruling to dismiss the lawsuit. City Administrator Scott Peterson says the landowners have 20 days from November 13th to file an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court and that all legal fees with the city are provided by the city’s insurance coverage.