Anstine v. Zoning Board of Adjustment

190 A.2d 712, 411 Pa. 33, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 474
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 30, 1963
DocketAppeal, 4
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 190 A.2d 712 (Anstine v. Zoning Board of Adjustment) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anstine v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 190 A.2d 712, 411 Pa. 33, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 474 (Pa. 1963).

Opinions

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Benjamin R. Jones,

This is an appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of York County which affirmed a decision of the York Township Zoning Board of Adjustment (Board) refusing to grant to Dale D. Anstine and Vivian D. Anstine (appellants) a variance from the terms of the York Township Zoning Ordinance of 1960.

The appellants purchased approximately two acres of land in York Township on December 19, 1959. At the time of purchase, the land was improved with a two-story block building, formerly used as a chicken house and hog pen. On February 2, 1960, York Township (Township) adopted a zoning ordinance, effective February 15, 1960, designating the zone in which appellants’ land was located as an “R-Residential” district. This ordinance prohibited the location of trailers1 within an “R-Residential” district except in an authorized trailer camp.

On February 27,1960, the appellants placed on their land a mobile-home or trailer and used it as a dwelling house. They applied to the Board on October 24, 1961 for a variance to continue to use and occupy the trailer or mobile-home as a residence and to improve it by placing it on a concrete foundation and adding to its exterior a patio, awning and other decorative features. A hearing was held and testimony was taken. The variance was refused because, according to the Board, appellants had failed to show that the ordinance would work an unnecessary hardship upon them. Appellants then appealed the Board’s decision to the Court of Common Pleas of York County and that court, without taking testimony, sustained the refusal of the variance [36]*36and the validity of the ordinance. From that order this appeal has been taken.

The sole issue before this Court is whether this zoning ordinance operates in such an arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory or confiscatory manner so as to unconstitutionally deprive the appellants of the use of their property. Section 704.1 of the York Township zoning ordinance of 1960 states: “Insofar as the provisions of this ordinance are concerned, within an R-Residential District a trailer shall he considered as a particular type of dwelling use, and shall be located only within a permitted trailer camp. In all other districts, a trailer shall he considered as a single family detached dwelling, and it shall conform to all regulations applicable to a single family dwelling for the district in which it is located.” (Emphasis supplied) Section 301.1 of the ordinance sets forth the use regulations within an R-Residential district as: “A Building may be erected or,used, and a lot or land may be used or occupied for any of the following purposes, and no other: 1. Single Family Detached or Semi-Detached Dwelling.” The effect of such ordinance provisions is to permit the location of a trailer or mobile home on single lots anywhere within the Township, except in an “R-Residential” district where they may be located only in trailer camps. Trailer camps may be located any where, in the township, provided certain conditions are met.

The burden of proving clearly and unmistakably the unconstitutionality of a legislative enactment is upon the person so asserting: Best v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 393 Pa. 106, 141 A. 2d 606; Archbishop O'Hara's Appeal, 389 Pa. 35, 131 A. 2d 587; Loomis v. Philadelphia School District Board of Education, 376 Pa. 428, 103 A. 769; Flynn v. Horst, 356 Pa. 20, 51 A.2d 54. Accompanying this burden is the rule that ". . . where the constitutionality of zoning ordinances has been attacked, we have presumed that the munici[37]*37pal [or township] legislative body acted with purpose to serve the public welfare and that all intendments are in favor of their action." Bilbar Construction Co. v. Easttown Twp. Board of Adjustment, 393 Pa. 62, 71, 141 A. 2d 851; Liggett's Petition, 291 Pa. 109, 139 A. 619; Whitpain Township v. Bodine, 372 Pa. 509, 94 A.2d 737. The burden of proof in an attack on the constitutionality of a zoning ordinance, although heavy, can be maintained. In Archbishop O'Hara's Appeal, supra (p. 57), quoting from Lord Appeal, 368 Pa. 121, 81 A.2d 533 and White's Appeal, 287 Pa. 259, 134 A. 409, it was stated (pp. 57, 58): "`". . . all property is held in subordination to the right of its reasonable regulation by the government clearly necessary to preserve the health, safety or morals (or general welfare) of the people . . . . There is one matter that is quite certain, the power to thus regulate does not extend to an arbitrary, unnecessary or unreasonable intermeddling with the private ownership of property, even though such acts be labeled for the preservation of health, safety, and general welfare . . ."'" In Schmalz v. Buckingham Twp. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 389 Pa. 295, 132 A.2d 233, the Court held that it was the duty of a court, before which the reasonableness of a zoning ordinance has been questioned, to determine whether that ordinance constituted a valid exercise of the police power. While the courts are bound to accept the judgment of the legislative body concerning the necessity for zoning classifications, however, the courts may inquire as to whether or not a particular zoning classification bears a substantial relationship to the public health, safety, morals or general welfare. Bilbar Construction Co. v. Easttown Twp. Board of Adjustment, supra; Best v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, supra; Tidewater Oil Co. v. Poore, 395 Pa. 89, 149 A. 2d 636.

Section 101 of the township ordinance provides, inter alia: “This ordinance is enacted for the purpose of [38]*38promoting the health, safety, morals and the general welfare of the inhabitants of York Township . . . .” Included specifically among the objects of this ordinance are the elimination of conditions inimical to the community’s health and safety, the encouragément of the most appropriate use of land, the conservation of property values and aesthetic considerations.

The burden was on appellants to show that the maintenance of their mobile home, improved as proposed, would not be- inimical to the “health, safety, morals and general welfare of the- inhabitants of York Township . . . .” The record shows that appellants’ mobile home is S' wide and 41' long and has, accordingly, 328 square feet of living space; a housing construction expert testified that the average conventional-dwelling house contains 720 square feet, but he classified appellants’ dwelling as “a small home, but not an extremely small one.” The interior height of their dwelling is T 2" and there is a structural steel frame with an exterior siding of aluminum; an expert witness compared the construction of the frame of appellants’ dwelling to that of a conventional home and declared them to be structurally similar. Likewise, the interior plywood covering on the walls and floor of appellants’ dwelling and the insulation between the exterior covering and the interior covering are basically similar to the building materials which would be used in a conventional dwelling house.

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Bluebook (online)
190 A.2d 712, 411 Pa. 33, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anstine-v-zoning-board-of-adjustment-pa-1963.