Shenango Valley Urban League v. Hickory Township Commissioners

62 Pa. D. & C.2d 263, 1973 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 264
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County
DecidedMarch 5, 1973
Docketno. 37
StatusPublished

This text of 62 Pa. D. & C.2d 263 (Shenango Valley Urban League v. Hickory Township Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shenango Valley Urban League v. Hickory Township Commissioners, 62 Pa. D. & C.2d 263, 1973 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 264 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1973).

Opinion

STRANAHAN, P. J.,

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times; it was the epic of belief; it was the epic of incredulity; it was the season of light; it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope; it was the winter of dispair; we had everything before us; we had nothing before us . . Dickens, Tale of Two Cites.

These are contradictory times and, as Charles Dickens observed, we see the best of things happening but we also see the worst.

This case, the Shenango Valley Urban League v. Board of Commissioners of Hickory Township, is but one of several hundred cases that will pass through this court during the current year. This case has been filed and argued, researched and briefed by two attorneys who have great professional skill, yet this court cannot help but digress from the cited rules of law in order to comment on the real social implications that are here involved.

This case is an effort by the new and true leaders of the Negro community of Mercer County to lead the black people out of the squalid ghettoes and into a decent place to live. True, it is but a small step, but it is a beginning. What is being done represents the “best of times,” “the epic of belief,” “the season of light.”

[265]*265It is difficult for this court to believe that the very people who have cried out over the years that the Negro must accept more responsibility in the community before his social status will be on a level with that of his Caucasian brother are now blocking the way.

Are these not the “worst of times”? Is this not the “epic of incredulity”? Does their action not make this the “season of darkness”?

So much for the social background. What are the facts? This court having taken testimony in the case makes the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Shenango Valley Urban League Non-Profit Housing Corporation has an office at 314 Idaho Street, Farrell, Pa. Its purpose is to provide low and moderate income housing for people.

2. By written agreement dated July 9, 1971, the housing corporation obtained from the Catholic Diocese of Erie a three-year option to buy 15.2 acres of land in Hickory Township, Mercer County, Pa., for the purpose only of the development on said land of moderate income housing under a Department of Housing and Urban Development program.

3. The said 15.2 acres of land fronts 840 feet on the north side of Mercer Avenue, has an average depth of about 740 feet and a rear fine of 1,040 feet. It is bounded east by Slovak Holy Trinity Lutheran Cemetery; north by Shenango Valley Home for Senior Citizens (owned by Catholic Diocese of Erie); and west by Kennedy Christian High School (owned by Catholic Diocese of Erie).

4. The said 15.2 acres of land is in the south central part of a roughly shaped rectangle (but with a very [266]*266short east side) formed by highways and roads with Mercer Avenue (on which the land fronts) forming the south side of the rectangle; Shenango Valley Freeway forming the north side; Maple Drive on the east side; and South Buhl Farm Drive on the west side.

5. Two cemeteries occupy all of the land within the rectangle of roads east of the housing corporation site; the land and building of Shenango Valley Home for Senior Citizens occupies all of the land north of the housing corporation site up to the Shenango Valley Freeway; and the Kennedy Christian High School, stadium and vacant land south thereof account for all of the land in the rectangle of roads west of the housing corporation site except a few houses at the extreme southwest corner of the rectangle at the intersection of Mercer Avenue and South Buhl Farm Drive. Except for these few houses, there are no residences anywhere within the rectangle of roads.

6. There are no houses across, or on the south side of, Mercer Avenue. This land is entirely vacant.

7. There is an apartment complex of about 150 units north of the Shenango Valley Freeway and across from the cemeteries which are east of the housing corporation site; and west of South Buhl Farm Drive on Pine Hollow Boulevard is a mobile home park.

8. The housing corporation site is entirely vacant and topographically it is gently sloping from the north or back line down to Mercer Avenue.

9. The housing corporation’s 15.2 acres of land, as well as all of the land within the rectangle formed by the roads, is located in a zoning district under the Hickory Township Zoning Ordinance called an R-1-75 district. Single-family detached dwellings is a principle permitted use in an R-l-75 district.

10. Among the sections of the ordinance dealing [267]*267with R-l districts and appearing before those sections dealing with R-2 districts wherein multi-family housing is permitted, there is a subheading titled “42.32 Planned Residential Development” which provides in section 42.324: “Applicable Districts and Uses Permitted. Planned developments may be approved in all R-l-75, R-l-100 Residential Districts and may include the following additional uses: Multiple family dwellings, community clubs and related uses.”

11. Section 42.3311 provides that an applicant shall make application for the approval of a planned development to the planning commission. At his option, the applicant may accompany his application with an outline development plan as specified in this section. Subsections 42.3311A and B state the specific items of information which constitute an outline development plan.

12. On February 10, 1972, the housing corporation filed with the Hickory Township Planning Commission an outline development plan for a planned residential development on its 15.2 acres of land on Mercer Avenue (transmittal letter in record sent to court by township).

13. Housing corporation’s outline development plan, as filed, contained all of the information required by section 42.3311 of the ordinance.

14. The Hickory Township Planning Commission held a public hearing on the outline development plan of the housing corporation, and thereafter on April 11, 1972, sent the following communication to the Board of Commissioners of Hickory Township: “The enclosed outline development plan is forwarded to you with the recommendation from the Hickory Township Planning Commission that the plan be approved. The plan as submitted by the Shenango Valley Urban [268]*268League conforms to the provisions set forth in the Zoning Ordinance for a planned residential development.”

15. Section 42.3312 of the ordinance provides for a joint public hearing on the plan before the board of commissioners and the planning commission and after the hearing the commissioners shall approve or disapprove the outline development plan, or approve the outline development plan with modifications.

16. On May 3, 1972, a public hearing was held before the Board of Commissioners of Hickory Township alone, and on May 31, 1972, the board of commissioners disapproved the housing corporation’s outline development plan.

17. The board of commissioners issued a written “finding of fact and conclusions” dated June 1, 1972, in support of its decision of disapproval of the outline development plan. The significant stated reasons for denying approval are: paragraph 7 relating to alleged inadequate school facilities, paragraph 8 relating to alleged inadequate sewage treatment plant, and paragraph 9 relating to alleged increased traffic on Mercer Avenue.

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Bluebook (online)
62 Pa. D. & C.2d 263, 1973 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shenango-valley-urban-league-v-hickory-township-commissioners-pactcomplmercer-1973.