BLDG. INDUSTRY ASS'N v. Manheim Tp.

710 A.2d 141
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 14, 1998
StatusPublished

This text of 710 A.2d 141 (BLDG. INDUSTRY ASS'N v. Manheim Tp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BLDG. INDUSTRY ASS'N v. Manheim Tp., 710 A.2d 141 (Pa. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

710 A.2d 141 (1998)

BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY, Appellant,
v.
MANHEIM TOWNSHIP.
BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY
v.
MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Appellant.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued September 13, 1996.
Decided April 14, 1998.

*142 Loudon L. Campbell, Harrisburg, for appellant.

William C. Crosswell, Lancaster, for appellee.

Before DOYLE and LEADBETTER, JJ., and MIRARCHI, Jr., Senior Judge.

DOYLE, Judge.

The Building Industry Association of Lancaster County (BIA) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, dismissing BIA's declaratory judgment action, challenging an ordinance of Manheim Township which imposed an impact fee on developers. Manheim Township cross appeals from the order, challenging dicta in the common pleas opinion indicating that, if BIA had standing to bring its claim, common pleas would be inclined to rule in its favor.

*143 On December 9, 1991, Manheim Township enacted an impact fee ordinance (Ordinance)[1] in accordance with the enabling section of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC).[2] The Ordinance requires developers to pay a tax, based in part, on the amount of vehicular traffic a proposed development would generate.

On October 14, 1993, BIA filed a complaint against Manheim Township under the Declaratory Judgments Act[3] seeking an order declaring that the Ordinance violates the MPC, as well as an order requiring a refund of all impact fees collected under the Ordinance. BIA's complaint in Common Pleas made the following averments relating to its standing to represent its members:

1. Plaintiff Building Industry Association of Lancaster County is a Pennsylvania non-profit corporation with offices at 1794 Oregon Pike, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601.
2. Plaintiff is a trade association whose members include building contractors and real estate developers who do business throughout Lancaster County, including members who own real estate, develop land and build residential, commercial and industrial buildings in Manheim Township.
3. Members of Plaintiff are subject to the Manheim Township Impact Fee Ordinance and will be required to pay fees thereunder, have had fees calculated thereunder, and have paid fees thereunder.

(Complaint at 1; Reproduced Record (R.R) at 4a.) (Emphasis added.)

The complaint contained six legal issues upon which BIA's demands were based:

44. The Manheim Township Impact Fee Ordinance, 1991-24, as amended, is invalid in that:

A. The Land Use Assumptions were illegally modified by defendant by including growth which previously occurred, rather than limiting it to projected future growth as required by section 504-A(c) of Act 209, 53 P.S. § 10504-A(c).

B. The Roadway Sufficiency Analysis was not adopted by defendant by resolution as required by section 504-A(d)(2), 53 P.S. § 10504-A(d)(2), prior to the enactment of the Manheim Township Impact Fee Ordinance.

C. The Roadway Sufficiency Analysis and the calculation of impact fees fails to include the effect of `pass-through traffic' as defined in section 502-A of Act 209, 53 P.S. § 10502-A.

D. The impact fee is calculated by including costs for improvements to state highways in excess of the amounts which can legally be spent on such projects pursuant to section 504-A(e)(2) of Act 209, 53 P.S. § 10504-A(e)(2).

E. Ordinance 1991-24 is invalid to the extent it imposes or imposed impact fees on projects for which plats were submitted for preliminary or tentative approval prior to December 9, 1991, the effective date of the ordinance.

45. The defendant's application of the impact fee ordinance is illegal and invalid in that it requires that the impact fee per peak-hour trip generated by new development be multiplied by the number of average daily trips generated by new development in violation of section 505-A of Act 209, 53 P.S. § 10505-A.

(Complaint at 7-8; R.R. at 10a-11a.) The Township answered paragraphs two and three of the Complaint as follows:

2. Admitted on information and belief that Plaintiff is a trade association whose members include building contractors and *144 real estate developers. Manheim Township does not know the identities of the members of Plaintiff Association and, therefore, denies the allegations of doing business in Lancaster County and Manheim Township.
3. Denied for the reasons set forth in answer to paragraph two.

(Township's Answer at 1; R.R. at 79a.) (Emphasis added.)

The Township further asserted in New Matter that: (1) BIA lacked standing to challenge the ordinance because it had not paid any tax itself and was, therefore, not a real party of interest, (2) BIA failed to exhaust its administrative remedies by appealing any assessments to the Township Commissioners, and (3) the statute of limitations had expired as to both a challenge to the procedure by which the ordinance was enacted and any challenge to the amount of any assessment.

After the pleadings were closed, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment and submitted supporting affidavits in support of their motions. Common Pleas granted Manheim Township's cross motion for summary judgment concluding that: (1) the defense of laches barred the portion of BIA's challenge to the ordinance seeking a refund of monies already paid; and (2) BIA lacked standing to challenge the legality of the ordinance because BIA was a non-profit organization that had not itself paid any impact fees and, therefore, did not suffer any direct, immediate and substantial injury. Notwithstanding these determinations, Common Pleas went on to opine that if BIA did have standing, it might be able to prevail in seeking a refund of the impact fees. This appeal followed.

Our appellate review of an order granting summary judgment is limited to a determination of whether the trial court committed an error of law or abused its discretion. Rothermel v. Department of Transportation, 672 A.2d 837 (Pa.Cmwlth.1996). Of course, summary judgment may only be granted where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Pa. R.C.P. No. 1035(b). Therefore, we must view the record in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, in this case BIA, accepting as true all well-pled facts and inferences to be drawn from those facts. Rothermel.

We first address the issue of BIA's standing to challenge the validity of the ordinance. In a cursory manner, Common Pleas concluded that, because BIA had not paid any impact fees under the ordinance, BIA lacked standing to challenge the ordinance. Although it is certain that BIA did not pay any impact fees under the ordinance, we disagree with the notion that that fact alone is dispositive on the issue of standing because it ignores the concept of organizational standing. BIA's standing as an organization to challenge the ordinance requires a showing that its members have standing individually to challenge the ordinance. In essence, BIA must establish that at least one of its members has or will suffer a direct, immediate or substantial injury as a consequence of the challenged action.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Warth v. Seldin
422 U.S. 490 (Supreme Court, 1975)
Mahanoy Area School District v. Budwash
604 A.2d 1156 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)
Sprague v. Casey
550 A.2d 184 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1988)
South Whitehall Township Police Service v. South Whitehall Township
555 A.2d 793 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1989)
Class of Two Hundred Administrative Faculty Members v. Scanlon
466 A.2d 103 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1983)
Costopoulos v. Thornburgh
409 A.2d 848 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)
Weinberg v. Commonwealth, State Board of Examiners of Public Accountants
501 A.2d 239 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1985)
Commonwealth v. Creighton
639 A.2d 1296 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1994)
Faden v. Philadelphia Housing Authority
227 A.2d 619 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1967)
Wm. Penn Parking Garage, Inc. v. City of Pittsburgh
346 A.2d 269 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1975)
Drummond v. University of Pennsylvania
651 A.2d 572 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1994)
Rothermel v. Commonwealth, Department of Transportation
672 A.2d 837 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
Building Industry Ass'n of Lancaster County v. Manheim Township
710 A.2d 141 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1998)
National Solid Wastes Management Ass'n v. Casey
580 A.2d 893 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
710 A.2d 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bldg-industry-assn-v-manheim-tp-pacommwct-1998.