Overstreet v. Zoning Hearing Board

618 A.2d 1108, 152 Pa. Commw. 90
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 3, 1992
Docket2562 and 2564 C.D. 1991
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 618 A.2d 1108 (Overstreet v. Zoning Hearing Board) 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
Overstreet v. Zoning Hearing Board, 618 A.2d 1108, 152 Pa. Commw. 90 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

CRAIG, President Judge.

In this zoning case, mobilehome park owners, James K and Evelyn Overstreet (Overstreets), appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County dated October 31, 1991, as amended by the court’s order of November 27, 1991, which affirmed the Schuylkill Township Zoning Hearing Board’s decision to deny the Overstreets’ request to invalidate the township’s zoning ordinance on constitutional grounds: Because the zoning hearing board made no errors of law nor abused its discretion, we affirm.

HISTORY OF THE CASE

The Overstreets’ attempts to expand their mobilehome park began in 1969 when they first applied to the board for permission to add seventy mobilehome units in the eastern portion of their 15.5 acre tract, as a continuation of a legal nonconforming use or by a variance. This request was denied by the board, the trial court, and by this court in Overstreet v. Zoning Hearing Board of Schuylkill Township, 49 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 397, 412 A.2d 169 (1980).

The entire tract in question is zoned for residential use, with 20,000 square foot minimum lots (approximately one-half acre), formerly R-3 and now called an R-2 Residential District, according to the Schuylkill Township Zoning Ordinance of 1955, as amended (the Ordinance). Although individual mobilehomes are permitted in residential districts as long as *94 they comply with the area and other requirements in each district, mobilehome parks are not permitted in residential districts, but rather are limited to Commercial, Limited Industrial, and Industrial/Limited Industrial Districts (C/LI Districts). Because the western portion of the Overstreets’ land was used as a mobilehome park before the Ordinance was enacted in 1955, those mobilehomes constitute a lawful nonconforming use, but the Overstreets were not authorized to expand their park into the eastern portion. Id. at 400, 412 A.2d at 171.

However, between 1969 and 1975, the Overstreets did expand their park by seventy units, which they placed in the eastern portion of the tract. Therefore, since 1980, the Over-streets have maintained approximately fifty-two approved units in the western portion of their park, and they have been required to engage in a long process of removing seventy illegal units from the eastern portion of their land.

After the township sought an injunction to expedite the removal of the residents from the eastern portion of the park, the trial court ordered, and this court affirmed, that the tenants in the eastern portion were indispensable parties to the ongoing litigation, and must be joined as defendants. Schuylkill Township v. Overstreet, 71 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 348, 454 A.2d 695 (1983). The township joined the tenants in question as defendants on August 1, 1983.

In an order dated November 4, 1985, the trial court directed those tenants in the eastern portion of the park who moved in after August 1, 1983 to vacate their lots, allowing those who occupied their units on or before August 1, 1983 to remain. The court further ordered the Overstreets to remove the mobilehome pads and other improvements from lots in the eastern portion as they became vacant, not to permit any new tenants to move into that area, and to provide updates to the court of the removal process, and assessed penalties against the Overstreets. The trial court reaffirmed this order and dismissed the parties’ post-trial motions in a Supplemental Opinion dated April 10, 1986. This court affirmed those trial court decisions in Schuylkill Township v. Overstreet, 107 *95 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 492, 529 A.2d 551 (1987), except that we reversed on the issue of the penalty, and clarified that only those tenants who moved into the eastern portion after August 1, 1983 who were also named as defendants in this case could be directed to vacate their lots.

On May 18, 1988, the Overstreets asked the board to consider a new challenge to the zoning scheme on the grounds that the ordinance impermissibly excludes mobilehome parks from the township, and should be invalidated as unconstitutional. The Overstreets also requested a variance from the terms of the ordinance and an extension of a nonconforming use as . part of the same application. The board held a total of ten hearings in 1988 and 1989, including a view of the property at the last hearing in May 1989.

On December 4, 1989, the board issued a decision which contained extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law, which denied the Overstreets’ requests to invalidate the Ordinance, to obtain a variance from the minimum lot requirements within mobilehome parks, and to expand the park as a nonconforming use. The Overstreets appealed to the trial court from the board’s decision, arguing that the board committed errors of law and abused its discretion. The trial court entertained arguments on this appeal in October 1990, but did not take any new evidence.

During the time in which the board and the trial court were deciding the merits of the Overstreets’ zoning appeal, the township asked the trial court to hold the Overstreets in contempt for failing to proceed with the evictions of residents in the eastern section of the park. The trial court ruled, on November 3, 1988, not to hold the Overstreets or the other defendants in contempt, but ordered the Overstreets to begin the necessary evictions within thirty days, and to stop collecting rents from the affected tenants. The court again ordered the Overstreets to notify the township of each eviction, to remove the improvements from vacant lots, to prohibit new tenants from moving into those lots, and if they failed to begin the evictions, the court authorized the township to step in and begin the proceedings in their place. Furthermore, the court *96 ordered that the Overstreets be fined for each day of delay in commencing evictions, and ordered them to pay attorneys’ fees and costs to the township. This court granted the Overstreets a stay pending appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1 and then affirmed the November 3, 1988 trial court order, except that we prohibited the township from evicting the Overstreets’ tenants, and prohibited the court’s assessment of daily penalties. 2

The Overstreets again appealed to our Supreme Court and requested a stay pending appeal. The Court denied the appeal on March 20, 1990, at which time the trial court’s 1988 order, as modified by this court’s 1989 order, went into effect, requiring the Overstreets to begin evictions, stop collecting rents, and pay the township’s attorneys’ fees. The township asked the trial court, for the second time, to hold the Over-streets in contempt for failing to proceed with the evictions.

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Bluebook (online)
618 A.2d 1108, 152 Pa. Commw. 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/overstreet-v-zoning-hearing-board-pacommwct-1992.