Court Opinion

ID: 9756825
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:02:35.881115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:31.783176
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because, for the first time, it holds that a property can be taken based on who owns the property rather than on the condition of the property or the necessity of the taking to carry out the redevelopment plan. Under the Urban Redevelopment Law,1 the ownership status of the property is not a criterion for condemning a property because it is not rationally related to carrying out the redevelopment of an area. Because of the majority’s holding, whether a house in tip-top shape is going to be condemned while a deteriorating, dilapidated, trash-strewn property next door will not, will be determined not on valid planning reasons, but solely on the status of the person who owns it, and removing people, not curing blight, is now permissible.
In August 1992, Terrance Arrington and his wife, Rhonda L. Arrington (the Arring-tons), purchased property at 1819 Webster Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and rehabilitated that property in accordance with the requirements of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (Authority). The Arringtons now reside in Georgia but maintain the property as a rental property and have rented the property to various relatives. The property is located in an area known as the Bedford Redevelopment Project (Project), an area that was designated as blighted under the Urban Redevelopment Law. In accordance with that Law, the City Planning Commission prepared a redevelopment plan (Plan) and the Authority prepared a redevelopment proposal (Proposal) for the Project. As part of the plan, the City Planning Commission stated that blight would be corrected by determining “that properties would be acquired, a number of properties would be demolished, infrastructure improvements would be made and that a[sic] new rental and for sale properties would be constructed within that area.” (Reproduced Record at 182.) (Emphasis added.) The Proposal recommended that churches and homeowners who had occupied their properties within the last 180 days and whose properties were listed to be acquired would be exempt from acquisition. The Proposal was approved by the Authority, the City Planning Commission and, after a public hearing, by the Pittsburgh City Council.
Because the Arringtons’ property was non-owner occupied and within the extended blight area, a declaration of taking was filed. The Arringtons filed preliminary objections arguing, inter alia, that their property was not blighted and that they had been denied equal protection because of the exemption of owner-occupied properties. The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County (trial court) overruled the preliminary objections, finding that the Authority had acted in good faith and had followed statutory procedures. On appeal, the majority affirms the trial court, because “absentee ownership and transient population generally leads to more degraded properties and that owner-occupied properties and churches would help in establishing stability in the area,”. (Slip opinion p. 5.)
While I agree that there is no requirement that a specific property be deemed blighted to be subject to taking to implement a redevelopment plan, I dissent because there is no valid reason to exclude a *140property from a plan that is not based on planning considerations. If the determination is based upon who owns the property, there is no overall plan to cure blight as required by the Urban Redevelopment Law. Instead, the exact opposite occurs a Swiss cheese plan where a property is included' or excluded not based on blight or on any rational planning reason, but merely based upon who owns the property.
The Urban Development Law sets forth the procedure by which an area is redeveloped. It starts off with an area being designated as blighted, an area redevelopment plan being prepared by the City Planning Commission, and a redevelopment proposal being prepared by the Authority, all of which are approved by the City Council. The criteria to be used to determine whether an area is blighted is set forth in Section 2 of the Urban Redevelopment Law, 85 P.S. § 1702. Under that provision, an area can be designated as blighted when it exhibits the following:
(a) That there exist in urban communities in this Commonwealth areas which have become blighted because of the unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded condition of the dwellings therein, or because of inadequate planning of the area, or excessive land coverage by the buildings thereon, or the lack of proper light and air and open space, or because of the defective design and arrangement of the buildings thereon, or faulty street or lot layout, or economically or socially undesirable land uses.
(b) That such conditions or a combination of some or all of them have and will continue to result in making such areas economic or social liabilities, harmful to the social and economic well-being of the entire communities in which they exist, depreciating values therein, reducing tax revenues, and thereby depreciating further the general community-wide values.
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(e) That there exist within the Commonwealth both within and outside of certified redevelopment areas, properties which have become derelict, abandoned or unfit for human habitation or other use by reasons of age, obsolescence, prolonged vacancy, dilapidation, deterioration, lack of maintenance and care or general neglect.
(f) That such derelict properties individually and collectively constitute a blight and nuisance in the neighborhood; create fire and health hazards; are used for immoral and criminal purposes; constitute unreasonable interferences with the reasonable and lawful use and enjoyment of other premises in the neighborhood; are harmful to the social and economic well-being of any municipality; depreciate property values; and generally jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of the public.
35 P.S. § 1702.
As can be seen, all of the factors used in determining blight relate to the physical condition of the property, not to the status of the person who owns the property. Under the majority opinion, though, due to the transient nature of the persons that rent properties, those properties become undesirable because they lead to more degraded properties; therefore, owner-occupied properties and churches would help in establishing stability in the area. Under that reasoning, however, brand new apartment complexes could be considered a blighted area merely because they are not owner-occupied. Because blight is determined by the physical characteristics of the area to be certified, the fact that a property owner rents his property in no way establishes that an area is blighted or that the area is unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate, over-crowded, lacking proper light *141and air and open space, is harmful to the well-being of the entire community, depreciates values, is derelict, abandoned, unfit for human habitation, creates fire and health hazards, is used for immoral and criminal purposes and is harmful to the well-being of the municipality.2
After an area is determined to be blighted, the procedure to be used to redevelop the property is set forth in Section 10 of the Urban Redevelopment Law, 35 P.S. § 1710, which provides:
(a) An Authority shall prepare a redevelopment proposal for all or part of any area certified by the planning commission to be a redevelopment area and for which the planning commission has made a redevelopment area plan.
(b) The planning commission’s certification of a redevelopment area shall be made in conformance with its comprehensive general plan (which may include, inter alia, a plan of major traffic arteries and terminals and a land use plan and projected population densities) for the territory under its jurisdiction or for any greater area for which the field of operation of the Authority has been extended under clause (e) of section 3 of this act.
(c) The planning commission’s redevelopment area plan shall include, without being limited to, the following:
(1) The boundaries of the area, with a map showing the existing uses of the real property therein;
(2) A land use plan of the area showing proposed uses following redevelopment;
(3) Standards of population densities, land coverage and building intensities in the proposed redevelopment;
(4) A preliminary site plan of the area;
(5) A statement of the proposed changes, if any, in zoning ordinances or maps;
(6) A statement of any proposed changes in street layouts, street levels, and proposed traffic regulation, including the separation or excluding of vehicular traffic partially or totally from pedestrian traffic;
(7) A statement of the extent and effect of the rehousing of families which may be made necessary from the redevelopment area plan, and the manner in which such rehousing may be accomplished;
(8) A statement of the estimated cost of acquisition of the redevelopment area, and of all other costs necessary to prepare the area for redevelopment;
(9) A statement of such continuing controls as may be deemed necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.
(d) In conformity with such redevelopment area plan, the Authority shall prepare a proposal for the redevelopment of all or part of such area. The Authority may, if it deems it desirable, hold public hearings prior to its final determination of the redevelopment proposal.
(e) The Authority shall submit the redevelopment proposal to the planning commission for review. The planning commission shall, within forty-five days, certify to the governing body its recommendation on the redevelopment proposal, either of approval, rejection or modification, and in the latter event, specify the changes recommended.
(f) Upon receipt of the planning commission’s recommendation, or at the ex*142piration of forty-five days, if no recommendation is made by the planning commission, the Authority shall submit to the governing body the redevelopment proposal with the recommendation, if any, of the planning commission thereon.
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(i) Upon approval by the governing body of the redevelopment proposal, as submitted by the Authority, the Authority is authorized to take such action as may be necessary to carry it out.
Again, as can be seen, what the redevelopment plan is concerned with is the physical characteristics of the property. And again, nothing in this provision authorizes a redevelopment plan that allows the taking of property based on the status of who owns the property; instead, it focuses only on what property needs to be taken to effectuate the plan and cure blight which has nothing to do with a property owner’s status. Accordingly, because nothing in the Urban Redevelopment Law provides that property can be taken based on the status of the owner, I would reverse the trial court’s order and grant the Arring-tons’ preliminary objections.3
Judge FRIEDMAN joins.

. Act of May 24, 1945, P.L. 991, as amended, 35 P.S. §§ 1701-1719.2.

. It is ironic that the Plan proposes to construct a high density apartment complex in the blighted area.

. Even if the Urban Redevelopment Law provided that rental properties could be taken, I would strike it down as unconstitutional as violating equal protection because no rational reason exists for the distinction between owner-occupied and rental property.