FLB Lawyers Successful Before Commonwealth Court in Significant Land Use Matter
Center Valley, PA – June 18, 2009 - Recently, two of Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba’s attorneys, Emil W. Kantra II and Marie K. Rudzinski, were successful before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in obtaining a decision upholding the prior favorable decision of the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County in a land use matter of state wide significance. In 2007, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided the case of Glen-Gery Corporation v. Zoning Hearing Board of Dover Township, holding for the first time that there is no statute of limitations applicable to challenging land use ordinances of a municipality if there were procedural defects of a constitutional nature in the process of enacting the challenged ordinance or ordnances. One of the possible defenses which the Supreme Court noted to such a procedural challenge to a land use ordinance would be if the citizenry of the municipality has relied upon the challenged ordinance in question for a significant period of time. However, the Supreme Court did not discuss the reliance defense in any great detail because it was not presented in the case before it.
In the case handled by FL&B’s attorneys, Geryville Materials, Inc., v. Lower Milford Township, the reliance defense was asserted before the Zoning Hearing Board on behalf of the Township by its Solicitor, Attorney Kantra. In that regard, evidence was presented to demonstrate that the Township had applied the challenged ordinances to over 2,000 different land use and zoning applications over a period of 20+ years prior to Geryville Materials bringing its procedural challenge. The Zoning Hearing Board found the reliance defense persuasive and the Board’s decision was upheld by the Court of Common Pleas. Thereafter, Geryville took an appeal to the Commonwealth Court and the Commonwealth Court affirmed the decision of the lower court based upon the reliance defense. Geryville Materials has sought discretionary review of the Commonwealth Court’s decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The ultimate decision in this case will have statewide significance since there are a number of procedural challenges pending across the state of Pennsylvania to the land use ordinances of various municipalities based upon the original precedent of the Glen-Gery decision.
Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba, P.C., is a full-service law firm providing quality legal services in real estate, land use, business, commercial litigation, health care, estate planning & taxation, employment, bankruptcy, family law and related areas.
<< return to press releases |
|  |
