Hunter v. Richter

9 Pa. D. & C.2d 58, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 7
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County
DecidedMay 3, 1955
Docketno. 5
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 9 Pa. D. & C.2d 58 (Hunter v. Richter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunter v. Richter, 9 Pa. D. & C.2d 58, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 7 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1955).

Opinion

Dannehower, J.,

Plaintiffs, property owners in Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, have filed this action in equity seeking a [60]*60preliminary injunction and, after hearing, a permanent injunction, enjoining and restraining defendants from operating and using their property as a trailer park or camp on the grounds that such use is in violation of the Hatfield Township Zoning Ordinance of 1951, which prohibits trailer camps of any nature and that such use is not in conformity with R-100 residential district zoning requirements.

In their answer, defendants allege that their trailer camp constitutes a nonconforming use as of the effective date of the zoning ordinance, that because of the expenditure of large sums of money they have a vested right to use and complete their trailer park and that both the ordinance prohibiting trailer camps and the application of residential requirements to trailers are unreasonable and discriminatory and, therefore, unconstitutional.

After a preliminary hearing, a preliminary injunction was granted restricting the number of trailers in the park to 22 (the number then parked) “so as to preserve the status quo until final hearing”. Later a final hearing was held.

The Issues Raised Are as Follow:

I. Where defendants did not lease a parking lot to the first trailer until 11 months after the effective date of a township zoning ordinance (which prohibits trailer camps and all forms of business in R-100 residential districts and provides for only single-family dwellings with a minimum frontage of 100 feet and lot area of 15,000 square feet) does the construction of a road, two lakes, a utility house, an electric line, laying of water and sewer pipe, septic tanks, etc., constitute a nonconforming use in existence prior to the effective date of the zoning ordinance?

II. Did defendants acquire a vested right to develop and complete a large trailer camp with a capacity of [61]*61150 trailers at a cost of $150,000 in violation of a township zoning ordinance by expending certain sums of money over a period of two or three years prior to the effective date of the zoning ordinance?

III. May a township, in the exercise of its police power, prohibit any but temporary use of trailers for living purposes within its borders without violating the Constitution?

IV. Does a provision in a zoning ordinance requiring a minimum lot area of 15,000 square feet and a minimum frontage of 100 feet in a residential district apply to house trailers brought into a trailer camp after the effective date of said ordinance?

After a careful review of the testimony taken at the hearings, the many exhibits in the evidence, and briefs filed by both parties, the chancellor makes the following

Findings of Fact

1.

Plaintiffs are residents and taxpayers of Hatfield Township, and are owners in fee of properties located on Hatfield Valley Road (also known as Cowpath Road).

2.

Defendants are the owners in fee of a tract of ground, containing approximately 52 acres, on Hatfield Valley Road in Hatfield Township, which they purchased in 1939.

3.

Plaintiffs’ premises, those properties which are contiguous to defendants’ property, and all the premises on both sides of Hatfield Valley Road on which defendants’ property fronts, are wholly occupied by single homes between Orvilla Road and Moyer Road (except for a church property located near the intersection of Hatfield Valley Road and Orvilla Road).

[62]*624.

The properties owned by plaintiff Hunter and plaintiff’s witnesses Melvin W. Keyser et ux. were sold out of defendants’ tract. The properties of the plaintiffs front on Hatfield Valley Road.

5.

When defendants sold a lot to plaintiffs, Hunters, in 1948, they represented that the balance of the tract would be used for building lots for single homes, and imposed building restrictions on lots carved out of. their tract in deeds to the Hunters, Keysers, Alexander Shucks and Gandys (later acquired by the Keysers) to the effect that only one single house should be erected on any 100-foot wide lot, to cost not less than $5,000, having a cellar, not a flat roof, and not erected nearer the property line than 50 feet.

6.

The premises of both plaintiffs and defendants are designated on the zoning map, which is attached to and made a part of the Zoning Ordinance of Hatfield Township, as being within an R-100 residential district.

7.

The Zoning Ordinance of Hatfield Township became effective on June 13, 1951.

8.

Article V, secs. 501 to 504, of the Zoning Ordinance of Hatfield Township (hereinafter referred to as the zoning ordinance) establishes R-100 residential districts and sets forth the regulations applicable thereto. Under its terms, land in such districts may only be used for single-family dwellings, municipal buildings and a telephone central office. All forms of business are prohibited. Each lot in an R-100 residential district must have a minimum frontage of 100 feet and a minimum area of 15,000 square feet.

[63]*639.

Article X, sec. 1006, of the said zoning, ordinance prohibits trailer camps in any district, and further provides that a trailer may not be used as a place of residence in any district for a longer period than 14 days in any 12 consecutive months.

On May 10, 1952, 11 months after the effective date of the zoning ordinance, defendants leased a parking plot to a trailer owner and the first trailer moved onto defendants’ tract. In the winter of 1952, defendants leased parking lots on their premises to two more trailer owners. In March of 1953, 12 trailers were parked in the trailer camp, and that number increased to 15 by Friday, May 1, 1953, the date when the hearing on the preliminary injunction was originally scheduled. On the morning of the actual hearing, Tuesday, May 12, 1953, 19 to 22 trailers were parked in the camp.

11.

In August of 1948 defendants started the construction of a lane from Cowpath Road through the center of the tract. The lane is 33 feet wide on paper. It is improved for a width of 22 feet with a base or footing of 18 inches of red shale and a blue stone top. It extends into the tract for a depth or distance of 800 feet.

12.

The excavation of two lakes or ponds on the tract was started in the summer of 1948 which supplied the red shale for the base of the lane. The purpose of the lakes is to beautify the park. They are formed by two dams. The said lane crosses the dam of the upper lake to give access to the rear of the tract which is 26 acres in area.

[64]*6413.

The excavation contractor and defendants had a working agreement whereby the contractor dug the excavations (as well as any other holes, pits, or trenches which defendants requested) without charge, but reserved the right to sell the shale which he removed from defendants’ premises and retain the proceeds.

14.

Defendants’ total expenditure on the tract in question during the year 1948 amounted to $207 for bulldozing, digging and grading the roadway.

15.

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Related

Boyd Appeal
67 Pa. D. & C.2d 1 (Beaver County Court of Common Pleas, 1974)
Anstine v. Zoning Board of Adjustment
190 A.2d 712 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Pa. D. & C.2d 58, 1955 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunter-v-richter-pactcomplmontgo-1955.