E:\Exams\BERNHA~1\Property 2

Bernhardt Final Exam
Property B (Night) May 2000

PART B - ESSAY

This part constitutes 25%-33% of the exam. There is one essay question on this page. The events have no special location. Abbreviate where appropriate.

Read the facts carefully. An answer based on incorrect facts is treated as an incorrect answer. If you think that important facts are missing or ambiguously stated, make reasonable and explicit assumptions about them; do not make assumptions that make the entire problem vanish. Also note the call of the question. Answering who wins, for instance, if I have asked what facts you need to look for, is not answering my question. In any event, do resolve the issues; don't just discuss them for a while and then drop them without any conclusion. Write legibly. I do not read illegible answers.

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As more and more dot.com businesses move into town, its employees are complaining that there are not enough cybercafes around the meet their needs. (Cybercafes are coffeehouses with computer terminals and internet hookups at each table so that the patrons can do their work there while having coffee rather than having to go to the office. You can refer to them as "CCF"s.) These cybercafes have apparently not been financially successful because they have been going out of business at a rapid rate. The city council is sympathetic to the dot.com industry's problem and proposes to enact the following two ordinances:

1. The Cybercafe Preservation Ordinance. (CPO). Under this ordinance all cybercafes would be declared to be endangered historical uses. Thereafter, the cessation or alteration of business by any PCF would constitute a violation of the preservation ordinance unless the owner thereof had first obtained from the Zoning Commissioner a Certificate of Public Nonnecessity (CPN). No CPN could be granted by the Zoning Commissioner unless she first found that another cybercafe existed within three blocks of the cybercafe seeking the certificate. Furthermore, even when such a certificate is granted and the cybercafe does go out of business, any new activity carried on at this location which is open to the public must include at least 5 computer and internet hookups for the public.

2. The Coffeehouse Solution Ordinance. (CSO) This ordinance would create a new zoning commercial classification, known as "CH" which would be applied to any commercial food or drink premises which derives at least 30% of its income from the sale of coffee-flavored drinks. All existing and future coffeehouses are declared to constitute CH uses. All CH activities are declared to constitute public nuisances and are to be abated within six months unless the owner thereof: a) agrees to hook up computer/Internet terminals at no less than 33% of its tables, or b) can show that there within three blocks of the coffee house another coffeehouse or cybercafe performing the same function, or c) agrees to donate one computer to the poor annually for each table in the coffeehouse.

While the dot.com industry supports these ordinances, the Council has received many letters from existing cybercafe owners, coffeehouse owners, and the landlords of the buildings where these activities are or might be situated claiming that these ordinances are illegal and threatening to sue the city if they are enacted. The Council ask you - as city attorney - to opine as the validity of the two ordinances.