In re Falls Township Trailer Ordinance

89 Pa. D. & C. 203, 1954 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 390
CourtBucks County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedJanuary 8, 1954
DocketNo. 2; misc. dkt. no. 5
StatusPublished

This text of 89 Pa. D. & C. 203 (In re Falls Township Trailer Ordinance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Bucks County Court of Quarter Sessions primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Falls Township Trailer Ordinance, 89 Pa. D. & C. 203, 1954 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 390 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1954).

Opinion

Satterthwaite, J.,

As authorized by section 702, clause XLI of the Second Class Township Code, as revised and codified by the Act of July 10, 1947, P. L. 1481, 53 PS §19093-702, clause XLI, the owners of three trailer parks or camps, stipulated to be persons aggrieved, have complained in this court against the legality of an ordinance licensing and regulating trailer parks adopted by the Supervisors of Falls Township on August 12, 1952. Although the complaint and an answer thereto were timely filed, for reasons not apparent to the court the matter did not come on for hearing until March 20, 1953, and briefs were not filed until July 7, 1953, and December 7, 1953, respectively. The appeal is now finally ripe for decision.

The first section of the ordinance in question contains definitions; the second, third and fourth require and make provision for licenses for trailer parks; the fifth and sixth create and define the duties of a “Park Inspector” to administer the ordinance. Sections 7 through 31 set forth the specifications and regulations for trailer parks, covering such matters as location, [205]*205over-all area, occupied and open area requirements for individual trailer sites, automobile parking, size and maintenance of driveways, lighting facilities, sewage and garbage disposal systems, fire protection devices, electrical service outlets, location and particular specification of service buildings and the sanitary and other facilities to be provided therein, control of domestic animals, register of occupants, and other similar provisions. Section 32 contains a severability clause and provides penalties, and section 33 is a general repealer.

The occasion for this ordinance is quite apparent. As of a date prior to the hearing in this case, Fails Township had 335 house trailers within its limits, most of which were located in 19 trailer parks subject to the ordinance, in numbers varying from 2 to 48 per park. The extraordinary and unprecedented industrial expansion and other activity in the area and the consequent sharp limitation of housing facilities, particularly for those of limited financial means or those whose employment in the construction industry requires their presence for temporary (but not necessarily short) periods of time, quite obviously attract these mobile, modern-day housing units in great numbers. The result has been a series of colonies of trailers, lacking any substantial degree of permanence of location, and containing sanitary and other types of conveniences which, although for the most part quite modern, comfortable and satisfactory within themselves, are necessarily dependent upon facilities provided for them, not by public authority, but by other private individuals and beyond the control of the trailer occupant. Such a peculiar and unusual nature of occupancy, together with the concentration of relatively large numbers of persons living in close proximity to each other for greater or lesser periods of time, would necessarily pose a threat to the health and safety of the inhabitants of the township as a whole in the absence of reasonable [206]*206safeguards as to sewage disposal, fire protection, and other similar matters. Unfortunately, probably because of the divided areas of responsibility and control, human nature predicts, and actual experience in Falls Township demonstrates, that even minimum precautions to guard against such matters may sometimes not be taken, either by the trailer occupants, who apparently have no real concern about or control of the situation surrounding them, or by some less conscientious or even irresponsible trailer camp operators who can apparently rent their trailer sites without too much conscience as to the services provided in view of present local conditions and demand. What is everyone’s concern has in some cases, as often is true, turned out to be the concern of none.

We therefore must reject complainants’ contention that the supervisors have no power to enact this type of ordinance since the local situation would seem to justify them in so doing, a matter for their determination, and they do have express authority, under section 702, clause XXIX, of the Second Class Township Code, supra, “to make such regulations, by ordinance, not inconsistent with State laws and regulations, as may be necessary for the promotion of the health, cleanliness, comfort and safety of the citizens of the township”.

To the degree reasonably necessary for these purposes, the supervisors do have the right and duty, not under their inherent police powers as they contend, but pursuant to and hence limited by this express statutory provision, to impose standards and regulations for both the occupants of the trailers and those making a business of catering to them.

It does not follow, however, that they may create restrictions and conditions which, while both they and the courts may think desirable, are not reasonably necessary for the purposes stated in the statute. The [207]*207within ordinance, in our opinion, in several respects as pointed out by complainants, and possibly in others not specifically mentioned, does go beyond such limitations and, to the extent hereinafter mentioned, is invalid in part as constituting an unreasonable, unlawful and unauthorized interference with the right of private property.

Although the supervisors apparently do not now rely thereon, it is obvious that this ordinance was drawn as a purported exercise of the powers given them by section 702, clause LI, of the Second Class Township Code authorizing them to regulate and govern “construction, alteration, repairs, occupation, maintenance. sanitation, lighting, ventilation, water supply, toilet facilities, drainage, use and inspection of all buildings or parts of buildings constructed, erected, altered, designed, or used in whole or in part for human habitation, and of the sanitation and inspection of land appurtenant thereto”. (Italics supplied.)

A house trailer is undoubtedly a dwelling and hence subject to a generally applicable building code: Lower Merion Township v. Gallup, 158 Pa. Superior Ct. 572; Commonwealth v. McLaughlin, 168 Pa. Superior Ct. 442, nevertheless, this legislation is no authority for singling out merely one type of abode since it authorizes only the regulation of all dwellings within the township. Particularly is this true since no authority is conferred even to classify particular types of uses in this statutory provision. Compare Lower Merion Township v. Harrison, 84 Pa. Superior Ct. 574. It is clear that the legislative grants of power, including the police power, are especially restricted in the case of second class townships: Falls Township Trailer Ordinance Case, 84 D. & C. 199.

Palumbo Appeal, 166 Pa. Superior Ct. 557, and Cloverleaf Trailer Sales Company v. Pleasant Hills Borough, 366 Pa. 116, both involving a somewhat similar borough ordinance under substantially the same legis[208]*208lative provision as clause LI, are not inconsistent with these views for the simple reason that the trailer ordinance there in question was adopted contemporaneously with and as a concomitant incident of a generally applicable sewage ordinance. Judge Hirt in the Palumbo opinion expressly pointed out, at page 564, that the power vested in the borough by such legislation was general and not specific except as to over-all subject matter. See also Francis v. Neville Township, 372 Pa.

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Related

Cloverleaf Trailer Sales Co. v. Pleasant Hills Borough
76 A.2d 872 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Francis v. Neville Township
92 A.2d 892 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1952)
Commonwealth v. McLaughlin
78 A.2d 880 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1951)
Palumbo Appeal
72 A.2d 789 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Lower Merion Township v. Gallup
46 A.2d 35 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1945)
Township of Lower Merion v. Harrison
84 Pa. Super. 574 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 Pa. D. & C. 203, 1954 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 390, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-falls-township-trailer-ordinance-paqtrsessbucks-1954.