Ligo v. Slippery Rock Township

936 A.2d 1236, 2007 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 630
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 29, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 936 A.2d 1236 (Ligo v. Slippery Rock Township) 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
Ligo v. Slippery Rock Township, 936 A.2d 1236, 2007 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 630 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION BY

Judge COHN JUBELIRER.

Appellants N. Lee Ligo and Richard P. Lednak (Appellants) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County (trial court) affirming the decision of the Slippery Rock Township Board of Supervisors (Supervisors) that granted the Application (Application) submitted by Paul E. Kiebler, TV (Developer) for a Planned Residential Development (PRD). The following facts give rise to this appeal.

On February 23, 2006 Developer submitted to Supervisors an Application to implement a PRD known as the Slippery Rock Quadrangle (Quadrangle) on a 42.76 acre tract of land (Property) that abuts Slippery Rock University (SRU). 1 The Quadrangle would consist of “19 residen *1239 tial buildings, a clubhouse, and a small maintenance building,” (Narrative Statement, R.R. at 32a), containing 244 dwelling units and would be used to house SRU students. The Quadrangle would have “outdoor common areas for active and passive recreational amusement.” (Narrative Statement, R.R. at 32a.) The buddings, themselves, were arranged in a way to highlight features of the SRU campus from the Quadrangle, and the materials to be used on the outside of the buildings were designed to blend in with the surrounding area:

The architectural design is influenced by the historic buildings of [SRU], specifically Old Main and its clock tower. The residential buildings in the center of the development will be three stories tall and constructed of brick in the Georgian-style. They will be arranged around a large, central quadrangle, reminiscent of the Old Main quadrangle. [SRU] and the Old Main clock tower will be directly on axis with the new quadrangle. The landscape plan will feature a double row of Sycamore trees along each side of the quadrangle to emphasize the view back to the campus. Closer to Kiester Road, the buildings will change in character, becoming more residential, and will be finished with clapboard siding similar to the residences and farms adjacent to the development. Around the periphery will be a heavily landscaped buffer. In addition, no buildings along Kiester Road will be more than two stories high.

(Narrative Statement, R.R. at 31a-32a.) Similarly, the Quadrangle calls for landscaping and open space to blend the Quadrangle in with the surrounding community:

To the east of the residences, there will be a 10.5-acre area preserved as open green space.... The location of this area was chosen to provide an additional buffer to the residential and agricultural areas adjoining the property. The retention pond, which will be designed as an amenity, will be integrated into the landscape in an environmentally-sensitive manner.

(Narrative Statement, R.R. at 32a.)

In addition to the Application, Developer submitted a request for a modification from the density requirements of the Zoning Ordinance of the Township of Slippery Rock (Ordinance). Section 309K(6) of the Ordinance provides, in relevant part, that “[b]uildings containing multifamily units shall have no more than four (4) units/dwellings.” (Ordinance § 309(K)(6), Original Record at 31.)

The Supervisors granted the request for modification from the density requirements and also approved the tentative PRD for the Quadrangle. The Supervisors addressed the density of the units within the PRD by acknowledging that, while the PRD departs from the four (4) dwelling units per building limitation of Section 309(K)(6) of the Ordinance, the proposal was “less dense than the ordinance would otherwise allow” because the 42.76 acre site “could be divided into multiple lots, each of which could be developed with apartment buildings, ultimately resulting in a greater number of dwelling units.” (Supervisor’s Decision (Decision) Finding of Fact (FOF) ¶ 20.) The Supervisors also noted that the PRD, by clustering the buildings close together rather *1240 than spreading them out throughout the Property, creates a greater buffer for adjoining properties, (Decision FOF ¶ 20), and creates 37% more open space than the Ordinance would require. 2 (Decision FOF ¶ 21.) The Supervisors also attached eighteen (18) conditions to their approval and required an Application for final approval within fifteen (15) months of the Decision.

In addition, the Supervisors expressed several reasons why the Quadrangle was consistent with the Township Comprehensive Plan. In particular, the Supervisors noted that the Quadrangle would address a concern, expressed in the Comprehensive Plan, about the need for additional student housing because of the expansion of SRU and its increasing enrollment. The Supervisors found that: “this denser student housing plan will help address the demand for student housing and accomplish the Township’s goal of discouraging the conversion of single family homes into multifamily student units, and to prevent further erosion of quality in rental housing.” (Decision FOF ¶ 19(b).) The Supervisors also noted that the Quadrangle was consistent with the Comprehensive Plan because “[t]he Comprehensive Plan encourages future development and expressly provides that high density developments within the Township should expand outward from the Borough as the hub. The site in question abuts [SRU] and is in close proximity to the Borough.” (Decision FOF ¶ 19(a).) The Supervisors also thought that the Quadrangle was consistent with the Comprehensive Plan because “it is in keeping with the Township’s stated desires to permit planned residential developments to ‘encourage the flexibility in the design and development of land in order to promote its most appropriate use.’” 3 (Decision FOF ¶ 19(a).)

Appellants appealed the Decision to the trial court, raising fifteen bases for objection. The trial court, without taking additional evidence, issued an opinion, which rejected each of Appellants’ objections and affirmed the tentative approval of the PRD. Appellants appealed the trial court’s decision to this Court and submitted a concise statement of matters complained of on appeal. 4 The trial court issued an opinion pursuant to Pa. R.A.P.1925(a) in which it rejected each of these arguments and recommended that this Court dismiss Appellants’ appeal.

*1241 Before this Court, Appellants argue that PRDs are conditional uses that must satisfy each of the requirements in the PRD sections of the Ordinance. Appellants contend that several of those PRD requirements were not met: (1) the Quadrangle calls for an insufficient peripheral buffer zone and minimum frontage; (2) the Quadrangle violates the Ordinance by fading to include single family housing; (3) the Quadrangle calls for development that is denser than is allowed by the Ordinance; and (4) the Quadrangle fails to satisfy the Ordinance’s PRD requirement that the density of residential units shall generally decrease from the interior to the exterior. Developer challenges Appellants’ arguments. We first provide some background on PRDs before addressing each of these arguments in order. 5

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936 A.2d 1236, 2007 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ligo-v-slippery-rock-township-pacommwct-2007.