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Griffith v. Zoning Hearing Board

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Sep 17, 1987
531 A.2d 121 (Pa. Cmmw. Ct. 1987)

Summary

In Griffith v. Exeter Township Zoning Hearing Board, 109 Pa. Commw. 382, 531 A.2d 121, 123 (1987), petition for allowance of appeal granted, 519 Pa. 656, 546 A.2d 60 (1988), the zoning ordinance required that all properties over 5,000 square feet in an R-6 district be served by public water and sewer.

Summary of this case from Pektor v. Zoning Hearing Board of Williams Twp.

Opinion

Argued April 24, 1987.

September 17, 1987.

Zoning — Variance — Burden of proof — Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805 — Unnecessary hardship — Economic hardship — Cost of water service.

1. Under provisions of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805, a property owner seeking a variance must prove the existence of an unnecessary hardship and that the grant of the variance will not adversely affect public interest. [386]

2. An unnecessary hardship sufficient to justify the grant of a variance from zoning requirements can result from physical characteristics of the property which preclude its use for any permitted purpose or permits such use only at prohibitive expense or from physical characteristics that render the property as zoned of no value or only distress value. [386]

3. Mere economic hardship does not constitute an unnecessary hardship unique to property justifying the issuance of a variance from zoning requirements. [386-7]

4. When public water service is required under a zoning ordinance and such service is available, the fact that the installation of such service would be costly to a property owner is a mere economic hardship, not an unnecessary hardship sufficient to support the grant of a variance from the public water service requirement. [387-8]

Argued April 24, 1987, before Judges MacPHAIL and DOYLE, and Senior Judge BLATT, sitting as a panel of three.

Appeal, No. 297 C.D. 1986, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County in case of Edward C. Griffith and June M. Griffith v. The Zoning Hearing Board of Exeter Township and Kim and Kathy Brautigan, No. 225 September, 1983, AD.

Application for a variance with the Zoning Hearing Board of Exeter Township. Application approved. Protestants appealed. Case remanded to zoning hearing board for additional testimony. Variance approved by zoning hearing board. Protestants appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County. Decision affirmed. SCHAEFFER, P.J. Protestants appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Reversed.

Charles K. Serine, Miller and Murray, for appellant.

Kim Brautigan, pro se.


Edward C. Griffith and his wife (Appellants) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County that affirmed a decision of the Zoning Hearing Board of Exeter Township (Board) granting a variance to Kim Brautigan and his wife (Brautigans). We reverse.

The Brautigans purchased a vacant lot in Exeter Township (Township) in 1983 and subsequently placed a $20,000 mobile home on the property to be used as a residence. The property is located within an R-6 residential zone, and Section 206-2 of the Township Zoning Ordinance requires that all properties over 5,000 square feet in an R-6 district must be served by public water and sewer.

The property involved in this case was not always a vacant lot. Prior to 1978 or 1979, a dwelling was located on the property that used an on-site well. The dwelling was destroyed by fire about that time. The burned-out remains of the dwelling stood on the property for a long period of time until it was ordered torn down by governmental authority. No further activity took place on the land for an additional period due to litigation involving the property.
The Brautigans strenuously argue that the well constituted a nonconforming use. While there may be evidence in the record to support this theory, it was not presented to the Exeter Township Zoning Hearing Board or the common pleas court and is therefore waived. Pa. R.A.P. 302(a).

The Brautigans purchased the property with knowledge of this requirement. In order to comply with Section 206-2, the Brautigans had the Glen Alsace Water Company (Water Company), the public utility with a water main nearest the Brautigans' property, prepare an estimate of the cost of providing water service to the property. The water company estimated that it would have to lay 760 linear feet of pipe and that the total cost would be $23,680.

The Brautigans then filed for a variance from the public water requirement, asking that they be allowed to use a well already on the property. After a hearing, the Board granted a variance to the Brautigans. Appellants appealed, and due to some procedural irregularities not relevant here, the common pleas court remanded the case to the Board for the taking of additional evidence. The Board held another hearing and again granted the variance. Appellants again appealed, and the trial court, without taking additional evidence, affirmed the Board's decision. This appeal followed.

Our scope of review in a zoning case where the trial court takes no additional evidence is limited to determining whether the zoning hearing board committed an error of law or a manifest abuse of discretion. Valley View Civic Association v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 501 Pa. 550, 462 A.2d 637 (1983). A zoning hearing board abuses its discretion when its findings are not supported by substantial evidence. Id.

Section 912 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805, as amended, 53 P. S. § 10912 (MPC) governs the granting of a variance by zoning hearing boards and provides, inter alia, as follows:

The board may grant a variance provided the following findings are made where relevant in a given case:

(1) That there are unique physical circumstances or conditions, including irregularity, narrowness, or shallowness of lot size or shape, or exceptional topographical or other physical conditions peculiar to the particular property, and that the unnecessary hardship is due to such conditions, and not the circumstances or conditions generally created by the provisions of the zoning ordinance in the neighborhood or district in which the property is located;

(2) That because of such physical circumstances or conditions, there is no possibility that the property can be developed in strict conformity with the provisions of the zoning ordinance and that the authorization of a variance is therefore necessary to enable the reasonable use of the property;

. . . .

It should be kept in mind that "[v]ariances should be granted only sparingly and only under exceptional circumstances. . . ." Schaefer v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Pittsburgh, 62 Pa. Commw. 104, 108, 435 A.2d 289, 291 (1981). Furthermore, an applicant for a variance has the burden of proving that the variance will not be contrary to the public interest and that unnecessary hardship will result if it is denied. Sisko v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Pittsburgh, 36 Pa. Commw. 556, 389 A.2d 231 (1978).

Further, we have judicially determined that in order to show unnecessary hardship so as to justify a variance, it must be shown that either (1) the physical characteristics of the property are such that it could not in any case be used for any permitted purpose or that the physical characteristics of the property are such that it could only be arranged for such purposes at prohibitive expense, or (2) the characteristics of the property are such that the lot has either no value or only distress value for any purpose permitted by the ordinance. Philadelphia v. Earl Scheib Realty Corp., 8 Pa. Commw. 11, 17, 301 A.2d 423, 426 (1973). This unnecessary hardship must result from a hardship that is unique or peculiar to the property for which the variance is sought, as distinguished from hardship arising from the impact of zoning regulations upon an entire district or from hardship on the owner of the property. Jasy Corp. v. Board of Adjustment of Upper Moreland Township, 413 Pa. 563, 198 A.2d 854 (1964); Marple Gardens, Inc. v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 8 Pa. Commw. 436, 303 A.2d 239 (1973). Mere economic hardship does not constitute such a unique unnecessary hardship peculiar to the property involved as to itself justify the issuance of a variance. DiSanto v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of Lower Merion Township, 410 Pa. 331, 189 A.2d 135 (1963).

The Brautigans' theory of unnecessary hardship is primarily based on the fact that the cost of providing the water service (approximately $24,000) exceeds the cost of the mobile home that was placed on the property ($20,000) and that they alone would be responsible for the cost. Further, all attempts by the Brautigans to sell the lot were unsuccessful when prospective purchasers learned of the cost to bring public water to the property. Thus, the Brautigans assert that the cost makes compliance with the regulation economically unfeasible. The Board found this argument persuasive.

The cost of having public water provided to their property rests solely with the Brautigans because the Township ordinances do not require that the property owners between the existing water main and the Brautigans' property connect with public water once the system is installed. Therefore, until these landowners and homeowners decide to connect with the public water system, the Brautigans can recover none of the costs of constructing the water system.

While this argument may have strong appeal, we have previously rejected similar arguments in the context of use variances. In Somerton Civic Association v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 80 Pa. Commw. 173, 471 A.2d 578 (1984), and Botula v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Pittsburgh, 69 Pa. Commw. 164, 450 A.2d 316 (1982), we rejected arguments advanced by the landowners in those cases that it was "economically infeasible" to develop their properties in conformity with the applicable zoning ordinance. Here, the hardship to the Brautigans is solely economic, and this fact, without more, is insufficient to support the grant of a variance. Botula. Indeed, the Appellants provided evidence that other houses in near proximity to the Brautigans' lot sold for $85,000 to $90,000.

The Brautigans rely on West Goshen Township v. Bible Baptist Church of West Chester, 11 Pa. Commw. 74, 313 A.2d 177 (1973) for support, but that case is distinguishable. In Bible Baptist Church of West Chester, we upheld a court of common pleas' decision to grant a variance because the landowner could not get off-site water due to the fact that the water authority refused to accept new customers. We noted that the hardship in that case was beyond the landowner's power to remedy because it was not a matter of expending money; no off-site water was available at any price. Id. at 77, 313 A.2d at 179. In other words, where water and/or sewer requirements would render a property totally unusable for a permitted purpose, a variance may be granted. See Appeal of Klock, 51 Pa. Commw. 641, 415 A.2d 705 (1980) (where both public sewers and septic tanks were unavailable, we held it was an abuse of discretion to deny the installation of the sole remaining practical sewage disposal technique needed to develop the property); Voortman v. Bucks County Zoning Hearing Board, 21 Pa. Commw. 129, 343 A.2d 393 (1975) (abuse of discretion to deny on-site septic tank sewage system where other methods of sewage disposal were not legally possible). The issue presented to us now is solely one concerning the cost of installing the water service, not of the availability of the water, and because the hardship in this case is purely economic, we are therefore constrained to conclude that the Board abused its discretion in granting the variance.

We note, however, the anomalous result produced by our decision in this case as the Brautigans' property will be surrounded by nonconforming uses. The fact that the uses surrounding the Brautigans are nonconforming, because of on-site water supplies, does not relieve the Brautigans' however, from complying with the Township zoning ordinance.

Since we have resolved this issue in favor of Appellants, we find it unnecessary to pass on their other contentions.

Accordingly, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County is reversed.

ORDER

NOW, September 17, 1987, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County in the above captioned matter is hereby reversed.


Summaries of

Griffith v. Zoning Hearing Board

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Sep 17, 1987
531 A.2d 121 (Pa. Cmmw. Ct. 1987)

In Griffith v. Exeter Township Zoning Hearing Board, 109 Pa. Commw. 382, 531 A.2d 121, 123 (1987), petition for allowance of appeal granted, 519 Pa. 656, 546 A.2d 60 (1988), the zoning ordinance required that all properties over 5,000 square feet in an R-6 district be served by public water and sewer.

Summary of this case from Pektor v. Zoning Hearing Board of Williams Twp.
Case details for

Griffith v. Zoning Hearing Board

Case Details

Full title:Edward C. Griffith and June M. Griffith, Appellants v. The Zoning Hearing…

Court:Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Date published: Sep 17, 1987

Citations

531 A.2d 121 (Pa. Cmmw. Ct. 1987)
531 A.2d 121

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