Court Opinion

ID: 9733530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:10:00.266627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:42.166180
License: Public Domain

DOYLE, Judge,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I disagree with the majority view that the requirements of Section 609(b) of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (Code)1 have not been complied with by Stroud Township in this case. Contrary to the expression of what Section 609(b) requires (P. 929), i.e., “that notice must be posted at points along the perimeter of the tract,” the full text of the pertinent provisions of Section 609(b) (P. 928, n. 1) is as follows:
[NJotice of said public hearing shall be conspicuously posted by the municipality at points deemed sufficient by the municipality along the perimeter of the tract to notify potentially interested citizens. (Emphasis added.)
Here, no less than 200 notices of the hearing were posted by Mr. Marv Walton, the zoning enforcement officer, and he listed and detailed exactly where each and every such posting was made in a seven-page letter dated July 9, 1990 which is part of the record. Furthermore, the wooded rear of the Papillon tract is also the rear of the five properties which back up to that tract in Old Mill Run.2 N.T. 19-20. *486The Old Mill Run Homeowners Association had notice of the hearing, N.T. 72-75, and approximately 20 to 25 residents of Old Mill Run attended and participated in the hearing,3 N.T. 72, after representatives of that Association went door to door in the development and informed the homeowners of the hearing and urged them to attend.
Nothing in the opinion of Mid-County Manor, Inc. v. Haverford Township Board of Commissioners, 22 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 149, 348 A.2d 472 (1975), relied upon as precedent by the trial court, would require us to reverse the findings of the zoning hearing board that found that proper notice had been made by the Township and that the protestants had actual notice of the hearings and were present at both public hearings on the zoning change. Quite to the contrary, I believe the import of Mid-County Manor is that the burden is upon the protestants to prove that the points deemed sufficient by the Township were not sufficient, and that if the protesting parties had actual notice they will not be heard to challenge the technical requirement of notice absent a showing of prejudice.

. Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805, as amended, 53 P.S. § 10609(b).

. Q. [C]ould you tell me what portion of Old Mill Run, in terms of lots or residents or streets actually adjoin the Papillon tract, how many lots, if you know?
A. [F]rom this property line [reading from a zoning map] down to this one contain four — five full lots and a portion of a sixth lot. N.T. 19.

. Q. Can you tell how many residents of your development were here at the first meeting____
A. I couldn’t tell you how many people were here. I would say probably 20, 25.
N.T. 72.