Court Opinion

ID: 9651454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:19:45.531385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:34.078153
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The 1970 Census showed Willistown Township, a rural community, to have a population of only 9,128 persons living in 2570 dwelling units. On August 25, 1970, the Township’s zoning ordinance was amended to provide apartments in an area containing some 80 acres.1 Under the terms of the amended ordinance, it is possible that 800 to 1040 apartments may be constructed on land so zoned, the number depending upon whether or not the buildings have elevators.2 The Township thus made provision for the potential addition to its population of apartment dwellers numbering roughly 1600 to 3120 persons,3 the latter figure being over one-third of the population at the time of the adoption of the amended ordinance.
The Court strikes down this ordinance as “exclusionary” because it “does not provide for a fair share of the township acreage for apartment construction.” (Opinion of the Court, supra at 468). The opinion does not state why the share is not “fair”, does not vouchsafe *452what might be considered a “fair share,” and does not indicate any criteria by which a fair share may be ascertained. It may be conceded that 80 acres is a relatively small portion of the total township area comprising 11,589 acres, but it is at least a beginning. The record may be searched in vain for any evidence of a purpose to exclude apartments permanently from other portions of the municipality.4 To the contrary, a township supervis- or testified that the 1970 rezoning was only a first step in providing for apartments in an orderly fashion consistent with the overall county plans for redevelopment, and that as the community continues to grow and other facilities are constructed, other land proximate to such facilities will be similarly rezoned'for apartments.
I see no justification for the Court on this record to label the Township’s approach as mere “tokenism” (Opinion of the Court, ante at 467) or to reject the new ordinance as constituting “prevention of ‘newcomers’ ” by “selective admission” (ibid). This Court has eschewed the role of “super board of adjustment” or “planning *453commission of last resort”; the zoning power, we have said, is a tool of government which, to be effective, “must not be subjected to judicial interference unless clearly necessary.” National Land and Investment Company v. Easttown Township Board of Adjustment, 419 Pa. 504, 521, 215 A.2d 597, 607 (1965). No clear necessity is shown for the interference to which the Court, by its decision today, subjects this first step of Willistown Township in its redevelopment undertaking. See Concord Township Appeal, 439 Pa. 466, 481, 493, 268 A.2d 765 (1970) (dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice, now Mr. Chief Justice, Jones, joined by Mr. Justice Cohen; dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Pomeroy, joined by Mr, Justice, now Mr. Chief Justice, Jones).
My view of the case is well summarized in the opinion of Judge Wilkinson, joined by President Judge Bowman and Judge Blatt, writing in the Commonwealth Court in support of the validity of the ordinance:
“The sole question here is whether the Township Supervisors, in the proper discharge of their duties, after due consideration and proper inquiry and advice, have reasonably provided for apartments in an appropriate sector of the Township. The extensive record in this case, including the detailed opinion filed by the Zoning Board, supports the decision that the Township officials, after considerable study, including recommendations of county and regional planning bodies, amended its zoning ordinance to permit apartments in an area it found best suited therefor, near the existing population center, convenient to transportation, schools and municipal services, and in keeping with the plans for the long-range development of the Township, but flexible enough to reflect continuing study and adjustment to need.”
Willistown Township v. Chesterdale Farms, Inc., 7 Pa. Cmwlth. 453, 486, 300 A.2d 107, 124 (1973). To strike down this effort as unconstitutional merely because the *454acreage set aside for apartments seems to the Court to be too small runs counter to our oft-repeated holdings that a presumption of validity attaches to a zoning ordinance, and that the burden to prove invalidity is upon the one who challenges it. National Land and Investment Company v. Easttown Township Board of Adjustment, supra, 419 Pa. at 522, 215 A.2d at 607. The instant challenger, in my view, has not met the burden.

. Not all of the acreage was to be immediately available for apartment construction due to ownership of a tract of land by Villa Maria Academy. The record shows that some of this tract has since been sold to a hospital. See Willistown Township v. Chesterdale Farms, Inc., 7 Pa.Cmwlth. 453, 300 A.2d 107 (1973) (Opinion in Support of Affirmance, at pp. 474-76, 300 A.2d 107).

. Section 1009(2) of the Township zoning ordinance provides as follows: “Density. There shall be sufficient lot area to provide a density of not more than ten (10) dwelling units or thirty (30) habitable rooms per acre, whichever constraint may be the more binding, except that either constraint may be increased to thirteen (13) dwelling units or thirty-nine habitable rooms in buildings served by elevators.”

. The spread represents an estimated average of 2 persons per each of 800 apartments to an average of 3 persons per each of 1040 apartments.

. The minutes of the meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Willistown Township held on August 27, 1970, the day the amendatory ordinance was adopted, indicate to me a bona fide undertaking to bring the Township zoning structure into harmony with the Court’s decision in Girsh Appeal, 437 Pa. 237, 263 A.2d 395 (1970). The following is an excerpt from those minutes:
“Mr. Reitman, on behalf of the planning commission, then read a letter dated August 25, 1970, from the commission to the board of supervisors describing the long and intensive study and investigation of the planning commission, which led to the amendments under consideration, explaining the views of the planning commission on such amendments and recommending passage of the ordinance.
“Mr. Ewing then read from the opinion of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Girsh v. Nether Providence Township, observing that the language of that case obliged all townships with a demand for apartments to provide for them. Failure to act, he . noted, would only, increase the risk that builders could obtain court approval for apartments in areas of their, selection. It was therefore important that the township act responsibly to provide a reasonable area for apartment use consistent with the orderly development of the township and furnishing of necessary township services.”