Court Opinion

ID: 9729441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:35:44.977018+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:58.145982
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
I respectfully dissent from the majority decision because the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (Authority) may exercise eminent domain power to condemn a private homeowner’s property when the property is located in a blighted neighborhood, and the property owner/condemnee in this case, Mary Smith (Smith), failed to prove that the Authority was condemning property that was not blighted.
This case involves the condemnation of property owned by Smith located at 1889 North Eight Street in which her daughter, Veronica Smith, resided. The neighborhood was certified as blighted by the City of Philadelphia’s Planning Commission in 1968.1
In September 2002, the “Hope Partnership for Education” (Hope Partnership) renewed its initial request to the Authority to acquire land in eastern North Philadelphia for the purpose of building a private independent middle school with after-school programs and an adult education center in a blighted neighborhood. In its Vision Statement, Hope Partnership indi-*832eated that the project was a collaborative venture in the religious “tradition of service,”2 but that the middle school, after-school programs and the adult education center were intended to serve “a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs.” The Authority presented a redevelopment proposal to the City of Philadelphia’s Planning Commission (Commission) which included Smith’s property, as well as 38 other properties, which the Authority would purchase for a nominal amount through the City’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative3 for use by Hope Partnership.4 Nonetheless, the Commission approved the proposal and submitted it to City Council for approval. On December 9, 2002, City Council passed Ordinance No. 020681 approving the purchase and development of the 39 properties. However, at the present time, no agreement has been entered into between the Authority and the Hope Partnership that binds the Partnership to anything and can walk away from the project.
The Authority notified Smith that it was condemning her property and offered her $12,000 as compensation and aid in relocating. After the taking was initiated, Smith filed preliminary objections alleging, inter alia, that the Authority’s taking of her property was not for a public purpose but instead for a religious purpose in violation of the Urban Redevelopment Law and the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution,5 and that her due process *833rights were being violated.
The trial court overruled the preliminary objections after determining that Smith’s property was located in a blighted area and because “[t]he Property was not taken, however, in order to provide land for the developer; rather the entire area was blighted and the redevelopment plan included the turnover of the Property to a private developer, a scenario the Pennsylvania Supreme court found has a proper public purpose.” (Trial court’s February 23, 2005 decision at 2.) It specifically addressed Smith’s argument that the taking was impermissible because there were issues of church and state due to Hope Partnership’s religious affiliation as the developer, finding that the property was taken by eminent domain due to substandard, blighted conditions, and that was all that was relevant. The trial court noted that Smith had failed to challenge the certification of blight.
On appeal to this Court, the majority reverses the trial court and grants Smith’s preliminary objections because it disagrees that 1) Smith’s failure to challenge the certification of the blight constituted a waiver of her challenge to the taking, and 2) once property is certified as blighted, it may be transferred to a private developer regardless of who the developer is. The majority also disagrees that there was no “entanglement of church and state.” I dissent because Smith was required to prove that her condemned property was not in a blighted neighborhood, not whether the project might be religious in nature, and failed to do so.
When an authority determines that a neighborhood or a particular parcel of property is blighted, it does so based on studies conducted of the area/parcel demonstrating that “certain physical conditions exist as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Law in the project area that make the area deemed to be blighted.” In re Condemnation of Lands Situate and Being in the City of Scranton, 132 Pa.Cmwlth. 175, 572 A.2d 250, 253 (1990), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 527 Pa. 131, 589 A.2d 204 (1991). “When the proposed Plan, as prepared by the Redevelopment Authority, is ultimately presented to the governing body, the governing body is free to reject the Plan on any ground, including a belief that conditions in the Project Area do not warrant the redevelopment of the area. 35 P.S. § 1710(h). Unless the governing body approves the Plan, the Planning Commission’s certification of blight and the Redevelopment Authority’s appi’oval of the Plan are merely beginning and middle to a process that will have no end.” Id. Throughout this process, the condemnee is not entitled to notice and a hearing because the certification of blight by the Authority is not an adjudication. Id. However, the condemnee may attack the certification by filing preliminary objections to the declaration of taking and proving that the neighborhood is not blighted. Id.
In this case, Smith is not challenging the Authority’s certification of blight in her neighborhood or as it pertains to her property. The Authority is authorized to take the property regardless of whether it has a developer for the property, now or in the future, because the purpose of a taking is to eliminate blight in an area. In City of Scranton, citing Belovsky v. Redevelopment Authority, 357 Pa. 329, 54 A.2d 277 (1947), we stated:
The [public] purpose, ... is directed solely to the clearance, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the blighted area, and after that is accomplished, the public purpose is completely realized....
City of Scranton, 572 A.2d at 254. Because the area is blighted, the Authority may acquire the property so that the area *834may be redeveloped. Because there is no dispute that the area is blighted and that is the “public purpose” for the taking of the property and there is no redevelopment contract in-place, those facts should have ended the matter. Even assuming that there was a contract in existence and it violated the Establishment Clause, that does not justify setting aside the condemnation. An Establishment Clause violation would only render the contract unenforceable. Elimination of blight is still a valid purpose even if the land lies fallow until it is conveyed to another developer.
Even if we were forced to address squarely the church-state issue here, I do not see any violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. First, it is well-settled that after the property is acquired and the blight is eliminated, that property can be conveyed to a private developer. Belovsky; City of Scranton. What the majority is suggesting is that the Authority or, for that matter, any governmental entity could not convey property that it has in its possession for a church, school, nursing home, a college run by a religious group or a shelter run by the Salvation Army because that would aid religion and violate the Establishment Clause. To the contrary, what that outcome suggests is “viewpoint discrimination” against religious groups, which is an impingement on their First Amendment rights that has been condemned by the United States Supreme Court in Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98, 121 S.Ct. 2093, 150 L.Ed.2d 151 (2001).
Second, based on what has been pled about the project, there is no possible Establishment Clause violation because there is no proof that the project is a religious enterprise, but only that it is being run by groups who have religious motivations to educate the poor. Holy Child, Brothers of the Christian Schools and Sisters of Mercy, the religious orders that are sponsoring the project, state in their Vision Statement that the project is for the purpose of “creating an intergen-erational, independent educational center in an economically depressed and educationally underserved area of North Philadelphia,” with the intent to serve “a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs.” Because Holy Partnership has not yet shown that its intentions are otherwise, until such time we must take it at its word and give it the opportunity to provide the middle school, after-school programs and adult center for students from a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs. See Central Dauphin School District v. Founding Coalition of the Infinity Charter School, 847 A.2d 195, 200 (Pa.Cmwlth.), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 580 Pa. 707, 860 A.2d 491 (2004) (held that application for proposed charter school for mentally gifted students properly granted because no violation of Charter School Law in that charter school did not discriminate in admissions on basis of intellectual ability and “no evidence of record that ICS would practice discrimination in its enrollment practices.”)
Even assuming that the Establishment Clause issue is before us, because there is not one scintilla of evidence that the purpose of this project is to establish a religion but to serve individuals who live in an economically depressed area, that allegation alone does not even come close to implicating the Establishment' Clause.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Judges LEADBETTER and LEAVITT join in this dissenting opinion.

. Section 2(a) of the Urban Redevelopment Law, Act of May 24, 1945, P.L. 991, as amended, 35 P.S. § 1702, authorizes that an area may be designated as blighted when its dwellings are unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded.

. The project was described as follows:
In January 2001, Sisters of the Holy Child, Brothers of the Christian Schools and Sisters of Mercy gathered to initiate the ongoing process of creating an intergenerational, independent educational center in an economically depressed and educationally underserved area of North Philadelphia. This collaborative venture is being built on the long established Holy Child, Lasallian and Mercy tradition of service, characterized by reverence, compassion and belief in the life-changing power of education. As vowed religious, we are called to journey with those in need, respecting and serving a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs.
(Reproduced Record at 42a.) Hope Partnership also desired to develop 38 other properties for development.

. The Neighborhood Transformations Initiative is described in the proposal as "a strategy to rebuild Philadelphia’s neighborhoods as thriving communities with clean and secure streets, recreational and cultural outlets, and quality housing. Among the central goals of NTI are to eradicate blight caused by dangerous buildings, debris-filled lots, abandoned cars, litter and graffiti, and to promote redevelopment through large-scale land assembly.” (Reproduced Record at 87b.)

. The Commission's proposal not only included projects to be developed by Hope Partnership, but also included projects for development by 14 other groups: the Cecil B. Moore Homeownership Zone (55 parcels to be used to build affordable housing for first-time hom-ebuyers); Board of City Trusts (five vacant structures to be used to build affordable housing for first-time homebuyers); The Clifford (existing historic structures to be renovated into 67 units of housing for the elderly); Habitat for Humanity (eight vacant lots and one vacant structure to be used to build housing for single-families and low and moderate income families); Homestart Project (14 vacant structures); Susquehanna Seniors (23 parcels to build affordable housing for seniors and families of median income); EZ/PHS Greening (25 parcels for “clean and green” use); Seedy Acres (existing site to be used to save green space for future community use); 5th District Rehabs (seven vacant structures); Encapsulated Properties (five vacant structures); Women’s Christian Revitalization Program (seeks to utilize tax credits for new construction for low income families); Komplete Welding (one vacant parcel to expand existing business); Phoenix Development (two vacant structures to be acquired for creating living space for persons or families living with HIV or AIDS); and Project H.O.M.E. (five vacant structures to be developed into housing for low/moderate income first-time homebuyers).

.The Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” U.S. Const, amend. 1.