Court Opinion

ID: 9764642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:34:16.884289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:59.315107
License: Public Domain

*240McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority opinion and cite as my reasons the arguments contained in the appellant’s brief1 and the dissenting opinion of Judge Barry in the court below regarding allegations of bias demonstrated by members of the New Morgan Committee.
As the record discloses two members of the court-appointed Borough Advisory Committee were tenants of the appellee; one being a full time employee. Both had indicated prior to the close of the hearings that they intended to vote in favor of the appellee’s position. Despite a motion to disqualify these members from further participation in the proceedings, the trial court denied the request without having made findings of fact on the issue of bias. They were but two representatives of the six occupied homes in the proposed borough. While neutrality may be hard to come by under this anomalous procedure, a fixed position of an employee of an applicant ought not be countenanced. I would remand for such inquiry.
Further, I dissent from the view that an improper motive is confined only to attempts to racially segregate. In re Incorporation of Borough of Bridgewater, 87 Pa.Cmwlth. 599, 488 A.2d 374 (1985) does not hold that racial segregation is the only improper motive that may be considered. It holds that it is an improper motive, but does even suggest that it is the only one conceivable. The applicants here are the sole owners of 3,700 acres with only six occupied homes. They have grandiose plans for what they hope will be a tourist attraction on a landfill capped by a trash to steam plant. The majority would find no possibility of improper motive even if the sole purpose were to avoid local zoning regulations. If applicants are dissatisfied with local zoning laws, they ought not lightly be allowed to start their own *241municipality to evade those laws. The surrounding municipalities ought not be required to surrender their sovereignty or their land for what amounts to commercial fiefs or zoning raiders. Certainly to gerrymander a new governmental unit between two existing communities to evade zoning regulations is destructive of the “harmonious whole” and the legitimate expectations of settled, self-supporting communities, and to my mind improper motive.
LARSEN, J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. Appellants argue that inasmuch as the committee members serve at the pleasure of the Court, and their responsibilities are delegated to them by the Court, they are officers of the Court and, as such, bound by the Code of Judicial Conduct. They are therefore charged with observing the same standards of fidelity applicable to a judge. Appellants’ brief at 25.