Court Opinion

ID: 9639165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:06:37.307074+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:13.278593
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
dissenting.
The Zoning Hearing Board of Richland Township denied a construction permit sought by the appellant, Bakerstown Container Corporation, for construction of a metal barrel reconditioning plant in an area of Richland Township zoned as a Restricted Light Industrial District. The relevant permitted use provision of the Richland Township zoning ordinance, Section 10.112, sets forth the following authorized use: “Box, cooperage or packaging materials manufacturing ” (emphasis added). In denying the construction permit, the Board held that the proposed metal barrel reconditioning plant did not fall within this provision of the Township’s zoning ordinance, and the sole issue in the instant appeal is whether the Board erred in so holding.
The scope of review, in a case such as this where the Court of Common Pleas has not received evidence beyond that considered by the Board, is to determine whether the Board abused its discretion, committed an error of law, or made findings of fact which are not supported by substantial evidence. Valley View Civic Ass’n v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 501 Pa. 550, 554-555, 462 A.2d 637, 639-640 (1983); Appeal of M.A. Kravitz Co., Inc., 501 Pa. 200, 211, 460 A.2d 1075, 1081 (1983); Fidler v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 408 Pa. 260, 262, 182 A.2d 692, 693 (1962). Applying this standard, it is clear that the decision of the *635Board in the present case was properly reversed by the Court of Common Pleas.
The terms “cooperage” and “manufacturing” are not defined in the instant zoning ordinance. When terms are not defined in permissive use provisions of a zoning ordinance, their usual and ordinary meanings are to be applied, so as to accord the landowner the benefit of the least restricted and broadest use and enjoyment of his land. See Gilden Appeal, 406 Pa. 484, 492, 178 A.2d 562, 566 (1962); Shapiro v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 377 Pa. 621, 627-628, 105 A.2d 299, 302 (1954). Restrictions on a landowner’s right to the free use of his property must be strictly construed and all doubts must be resolved in the landowner’s favor. Gilden Appeal, 406 Pa. at 492, 178 A.2d at 566. As this Court stated in Fidler v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 408 Pa. at 265, 182 A.2d at 695, “[Restrictions must not be so construed as to fetter the use of land by implication. The permissive widest use of the land is the rule and not the exception, unless specifically restrained in a valid and reasonable exercise of the police power.”
This approach to the interpretation of zoning ordinances reflects the basic premise that ownership of land carries with it certain essential rights in its use, and these rights are to be encumbered only to the extent clearly necessary to assure protection for the interests of neighboring property owners and the general welfare of the community. See Hopewell Township Board of Supervisors v. Golla, 499 Pa. 246, 254-257, 452 A.2d 1337, 1341-1343 (1982) (“substantial deference to the preservation of rights of property owners”). As this Court stated in Lord Appeal, 368 Pa. 121, 125-126, 81 A.2d 533, 535 (1951),
“[A]n owner of property is still entitled in Pennsylvania to certain unalienable constitutional rights of liberty and property.
... Restrictions imposed by zoning ordinances are, however, in derogation of the common law and (at times) of the liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed by the *636Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Pennsylvania and therefore must be strictly construed.”
Applying these principles to the instant case, it is clear that the metal barrel reconditioning plant proposed by Bakerstown Container Corporation falls squarely within the cooperage/manufacturing use authorized by the zoning ordinance. The activities to be conducted at the plant would consist of the following. Metal barrels, which have been used at various industrial locations, would be brought to the plant and subjected to a cleaning process, whereby the barrels would be flushed with a solution that removes residues. Most of the barrels brought to the plant would be empty, though some would have one inch or less of residual materials remaining in their bottoms. Dents would then be removed from the barrels, following which the barrels would be shot blasted, the latter process being similar to sand blasting. Finally, the barrels would be repainted, resealed, and tested for leaks. In short, the plant would provide a complete reconditioning operation for metal barrels, this operation being a continuation of similar processes which Bakerstown Container Corporation already conducts, as a pre-existing use, at a site on adjacent land in the same township.
As discussed supra, terms that have not been defined in a zoning ordinance are to be given their usual and ordinary meanings, so as to permit the landowner to exercise the broadest possible use of his property. In WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY (2d ed. 1979), the term “cooperage” is defined as “the work of a cooper,” and the word “cooper” is defined as “a person whose work is making or repairing barrels and casks.” See also, THE RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY (1980). Applying these definitions, it is beyond question that the barrel reconditioning plant heretofore described would be engaged in the “cooperage” business, since the plant’s sole purpose is to repair used barrels in such a manner as to make them appear and function as new barrels.
*637An examination of the record of the proceedings before the Board reveals that the Board, in holding that the proposed plant would not be engaged in the “cooperage” business, was improperly motivated by a desire to exclude the plant from the community. Specifically, the Board expressed its overriding concern that residues flushed from certain barrels during the first stage of the reconditioning process might be hazardous to the community. Disposal of such residues is, however, closely regulated by other governmental agencies, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, and the County Health Department. Such agencies regulate and monitor the existing operations of Bakerstown Container Corporation in Rich-land Township, and the proposed new plant would likewise be subject to their authority. Furthermore, the fact that residues must be removed from barrels before they can be repaired and refinished is one that would certainly be expected, based upon the ordinary and usual activities that a cooper must engage in, and must have been contemplated by the zoning authority at the time the ordinance was enacted. It is likewise to be noted that other uses authorized by the zoning ordinance also necessarily involve the presence of and disposal of hazardous residues. Such uses include cleaning and dyeing facilities, research and development laboratories, film processing facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, and other uses.
In attempting to regulate the presence of hazardous waste materials in the community, by banning from the community a plant that would plainly have been engaged in the business of reconditioning barrels, the Board diverged from its proper role. The Board’s realm is not in the field of waste management, and, when called upon to determine whether the instant construction permit should be issued, the Board’s sole inquiry should have been limited to the question of whether the proposed facility conformed to a permitted use set forth in the zoning ordinance. Instead, the Board improperly assumed the role of an environmental *638regulatory agency, and for reasons unrelated to the plain language of the zoning ordinance declined to hold that the proposed plant would be engaged in the “cooperage” business.
The manner in which the reconditioning of used barrels would be conducted at the new plant would also be a “manufacturing” process, for purposes of the provision in the zoning ordinance which permits “Box, cooperage or packaging materials manufacturing ” (emphasis added). The term “manufacturing” has been variously defined in a number of statutory contexts. Some definitions have accorded the term a meaning which encompasses only the making of essentially new articles, as opposed to the making of articles that undergo only superficial modifications in the production process. See Golden Triangle, etc. v. City of Pittsburgh, 483 Pa. 525, 397 A.2d 1147 (1979) (Business Privilege Tax case, involving exemption for “manufacturing”). Other definitions have been broad, according the term a meaning which encompasses the making of less substantial changes to existing articles. Industrial Homework Law, 43 P.S. § 491-3(g) (definition of “manufacture” includes “repair”). These definitions are inapposite, however, to the present controversy, since definitions of such terms must be considered in light of the context that gives rise to the need for rendering a definition. See Tucker v. City of Pittsburgh, 504 Pa. 580, 583, 475 A.2d 1318, 1320 (1984). Considerations governing the definition of “manufacturing,” where that term appears in tax statutes or in regulatory legislation, are not the same as those which are applicable to the interpretation of zoning ordinances.
As discussed supra., in the context of a zoning ordinance which contains no definition of an essential term, here the term “manufacturing,” we are constrained to accord the term its usual and ordinary meaning, allowing the landowner the least restricted use of his land. The term “manufacture” is defined in WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY (2d ed. 1979) as “the making of goods and articles by hand or, esp., by machinery, often on a large scale and with *639division of labor.” See also, THE RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY (1980); BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (4th ed. 1968). The proposed plant would, through the series of operations heretofore described, produce reconditioned metal barrels. Making reconditioned barrels is a manufacturing process, and there is no merit in the contention of Richland Township that “manufacturing” should be construed as permitting only brand new articles to be made, rather than permitting used articles to be made to appear and function as new ones, for to adopt such a construction would needlessly restrict the ordinary and usual meaning of the term “manufacture” and would be contrary to the principles of interpretation requiring that the broadest permissible construction be accorded permissive use provisions.
Having determined, therefore, that the construction permit sought by Bakerstown Container Corporation is for a use authorized by the Richland Township zoning ordinance, I would reverse the Order of the Commonwealth Court.
ZAPPALA, J., joins this dissenting opinion.