Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. v. The Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Twp.

CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 30, 2018
Docket1395 C.D. 2016
StatusUnpublished

This text of Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. v. The Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Twp. (Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. v. The Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Twp.) 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
Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. v. The Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Twp., (Pa. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans : Homebuilders, Inc., : Appellants : : v. : No. 1395 C.D. 2016 : Submitted: October 17, 2017 The Board of Supervisors of : Upper Uwchlan Township :

BEFORE: HONORABLE P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge HONORABLE MICHAEL H. WOJCIK, Judge HONORABLE DAN PELLEGRINI, Senior Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE BROBSON FILED: January 30, 2018

Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. (Appellants) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County (Common Pleas), dated July 20, 2016. Common Pleas affirmed the decision of the Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Township (Board), dated March 16, 2015, denying Appellants’ application (Application) to amend the Board’s August 19, 2002 Conditional Use Order (2002 Order). For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Common Pleas’ order. The Board summarized the basic procedural and factual history relative to the 2002 Order as follows:1 In the 2002 Order, the Board granted [Appellants] conditional use approval pursuant to Section 1410 of 1 Appellants appear to agree with the Board’s recitation of the basic facts and procedural history as those same facts appear in Appellants’ brief to this Court. [Upper Uwchlan] Township’s [(Township)] Zoning Ordinance to subdivide and develop several parcels of property located in [the Township] between Fellowship Road and Byers Road referred to as the “Ewing Tract” and formerly identified as Chester County Tax Parcels Nos. 32-4-18, 32-4-19, 32-2-29, and 32-4-33.2 [(Property)]. [Appellants] received approval to subdivide and develop the Property with 254 new dwelling units, consisting of a mix of single family detached dwellings and single family attached dwellings as part of a uniform planned community known as “Byers Station.” The residential development [that] was approved in the 2002 Order is one phase of a larger Byers Station master development[,] which includes over 1,000 dwellings of varying types, open space, and community amenities and covers property in both [the Township] and West Vincent Township[]. The plans that were approved by the Board in the 2002 Order proposed an access road[,] which would provide access to the development from Eagle Farms Road via an internal road which was identified on the plans as “[Street] K.” Consistent with the plans that were presented at the 2001-2002 conditional use hearings, the Board imposed Condition 12.1.2[,] which required [Appellants] to “construct a continuous road system within the development via Eagle Farms Road and Street K to serve both West Vincent Township and [the Township] portions of the development, in accordance with an approved construction-phasing plan.” Street K, as referred to in the 2002 Order, has been partially constructed and is known as Sunderland Avenue East. [Appellants] now seek approval to amend the 2002 Order by eliminating Condition 12.1.2 and the requirement to construct the remaining portion of Sunderland Avenue East until its connection to Eagle Farms Road [(Road Connection)]. (Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 354a-55a; Board’s Decision dated March 16, 2015, at 1-2.) In addition to Condition 12.1.2, the 2002 Order also imposed Condition 12.1.8, which provides:

2 The road system and access within [the Township] will support the traffic generated by the portion of the development in [the Township] alone if there is no connection to [the] West Vincent Township portion of the development. Therefore, this [c]onditional [u]se [o]rder gives approval only to the road system within [the Township]. (R.R. at 46a.) Based upon an analysis of actual traffic conditions, Appellants filed an Amended Final Land Development Plan with West Vincent Township, the municipality in which the Road Connection would be located, proposing the elimination of the Road Connection. On October 28, 2013, the Board of Supervisors of West Vincent Township approved the Amended Final Land Development Plan and the elimination of the Road Connection. Subsequent thereto, in August 2014, Appellants obtained a traffic assessment “to evaluate the operations of the surrounding intersections within [the Township] with and without the [Road Connection] between Sunderland Avenue [East] and Eagle Farms Road.” (Id. at 173a.) Thereafter, on October 17, 2014, Appellants filed their Application with the Board, seeking to amend the 2002 Order to eliminate the requirement contained in Condition 12.1.2 that Appellants construct a continuous road system via Eagle Farms Road and Sunderland Avenue East to serve both the Township and West Vincent Township sections of Byers Station. The Board conducted a public hearing on Appellants’ Application on January 6, 2015. At the hearing, Appellants presented the testimony of Michael A. Downs, Vice President of Land Development for Toll Bros., Inc. (Id. at 228a.) Mr. Downs testified that West Vincent Township approved the final plan for the construction of Phase 2 of Byers Station, which included several amendments, including the elimination of the Road Connection. (Id. at 213a.) Mr. Downs

3 explained that Appellants proposed to eliminate the Road Connection because they believed that there would be no issues with traffic and that there would be a benefit from an environmental standpoint—i.e., the elimination of any disturbance to wetlands, floodplains, and U.S. waters. (Id. at 232a-33a.) Nevertheless, Mr. Downs admitted that the environmental features of the property upon and around which the Road Connection would be located are the same as they were when the Board issued the 2002 Order. (Id. at 235a.) Mr. Downs also admitted that Appellants would save an estimated $730,000 if the Road Connection was eliminated. (Id. at 233a.) Appellants also presented the testimony of Mark M. Thompson, a Pennsylvania licensed professional engineer and Project Manager with Taylor, Wiseman and Taylor, the individual who is the civil engineer responsible for the project. (Id. at 241a-42a.) Mr. Thompson testified that if constructed, the Road Connection will cross over a tributary to Pickering Creek. (Id. at 244a.) Mr. Thompson explained that by eliminating the Road Connection, Appellants would preserve almost an acre of woods and eliminate 2,500 square feet of wetland disturbance, 29,000 square feet of wetland buffer disturbance, 10,000 square feet of steep slopes disturbance, and over an acre of floodplain disturbance. (Id.) Mr. Thompson explained further that the elimination of the Road Connection would also avoid approximately three quarters of an acre of impervious surface coverage, possibly the need for a proposed detention basin to address storm water runoff from the impervious surfaces, and the need for the tributary to be channelized. (Id. at 244a-46a.) As a result, Mr. Thompson concluded that the elimination of the Road Connection was not injurious to the public interest. (Id. at 246a.) Mr. Thompson also indicated that Appellants no longer have the necessary approvals and permits to construct the Road Connection within West Vincent Township.

4 (Id. at 247a.) In addition, when questioned about what may have changed since the Board issued the 2002 Order to make Appellants concerned about the Road Connection’s impact on the environment, Mr. Thompson admitted that the potential environmental impacts have not changed. (Id. at 250a.) Appellants also presented the testimony of Guido W. DiMartino, a Pennsylvania licensed professional engineer and Project Manager with Traffic Planning and Design, Inc., the individual who is the traffic engineer responsible for the project. (Id. at 272a-73a.) Mr. DiMartino performed a traffic assessment in connection with Appellants’ Application. (Id.

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Toll Bros., Inc. and Orleans Homebuilders, Inc. v. The Board of Supervisors of Upper Uwchlan Twp., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toll-bros-inc-and-orleans-homebuilders-inc-v-the-board-of-supervisors-pacommwct-2018.