Court Opinion

ID: 9700130
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:11:43.068079+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:04.831458
License: Public Domain

*344Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Crumlish, Jr.:
I respectfully dissent.
I would affirm the trial court’s decision to order the zoning board to issue a special use permit to Appellee for a Children’s Day Care Center. A careful scrutiny of the City of Scranton’s zoning ordinance leads me to the inescapable conclusion that such a proposed use is permissible as an appropriate public use under Use Class 17 of the ordinance. In my opinion, the operation of a day care center fits precisely within the permissible uses set forth under Use Class 17 which “includes public and quasi-public uses of a welfare, educational . . . nature.” The ordinance’s further requirement that such public uses be “appropriate to the character of the District in which it is proposed” is clearly satisfied in the instant case since the record reveals that the building Appellee proposes to use as a day care center was originally constructed by the Scranton School District and used as a public school for over 50 years and thereafter as a parochial school for many years. The recommendation of the City Planning Commission that Appellee’s application for a special use permit be granted lends further support to my belief that the proposed use complies with the standards of the ordinance and would not adversely affect the character of the community.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the trial court’s concern that the zoning board’s decision denying Appellee’s request is an unwarranted and unreasonable intermeddling with his ownership of the property, I am more deeply concerned with the ramifications of today’s decision upon a modern society where day care centers provide an essential and needed public service to a parent who, because of outside controlling influences, is obliged to work so that he or she may adequately support and rear his or her family in a manner which will improve a much needed and too-*345often ignored obligation. Tbe quality of Appellee’s service would be guaranteed by tbe Department of Public Welfare whose approval and licensure would be a prerequisite for operation. I believe tbe Board’s denial of Appellee’s special use permit was properly beld to bave been an abuse of discretion.