Court Opinion

ID: 9693254
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:33:06.331662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:43.306184
License: Public Domain

CRAIG, Judge,
dissenting.
The question in this case is whether the automobile service station, as a non-conforming use, is entitled to a dimensional variance permitting modernization of the enterprise by the installation of a protective canopy over the fuel pumps, to implement self-service operations. See the plan appended to this opinion.
Because that modernization involves structural expansion over land area already used for the non-conforming use, and because the modernization is related to the continued viability of the business, the trial judge’s decision in favor of the variance is supported by Jenkintown Towing Service v. Zoning Hearing Board, 67 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 183, 446 A.2d 716 (1982).
The factual aspects of this case are very close to those in Amoco Oil Company v. Ross Township Zoning Hearing Board, 57 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 376, 426 A.2d 728 (1981), in which this court reversed variance denials by a zoning hearing board and a trial court and allowed dimensional variances for precisely the same sort of modernization— erection of a canopy over the fuel pumps, to facilitate present-day self-service by the customers.
*268In this case, the zoning hearing board’s justification of the variance denial by interposing a draconian alternative— demolition of the service station building in order to place the canopy and pumps at the rear of the lot — plainly provides a cure worse than the problem, particularly because the fuel pump aisles would thus move back to a location needlessly remote from the service station’s driveway entries.
The trial judge’s decision, soundly adhering to this court’s directions in Jenkintown Towing and Amoco Oil Company, should be affirmed.
*269[[Image here]]