Pfister v. Madison Beach Hotel, LLC

Summary

The court affirmed the judgment rejecting a permanent injunction against a hotel’s use of a town park for free outdoor concerts. It held that the trial court applied an incorrect legal theory by treating the public park as an extension of the hotel’s nonconforming use, and that the park’s grandfathered status permitted recreational uses including concerts without proof that concerts had occurred there before the relevant zoning change. The court also held that the concerts’ commercial benefits to the hotel did not make them impermissible because zoning regulates land use rather than the identity or subjective motives of the user.