Court Opinion

ID: 9706237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:36:37.193336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:20.663211
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Musmanno:
Albert C. Bomgardner et ah, inherited, in 1957, three contiguous properties located at the northwest corner of 17th and Berryhill Streets in Harrisburg. One of the properties is a vacant tract consisting of 5 lots, the other two are residences. Ever since Bomgardner et al. came into posession of these properties they have unsuccessfully tried to sell them. In 1961 the California Oil Company negotiated with them to buy the properties for $35,000, provided they could obtain a variance which would permit the use of the land as a gasoline station.
The premises are located in what is designated in the zoning ordinance of Harrisburg as R-5, Residential District, this being the lowest residential classification, and it excludes a service or gas station as a permissible use. However, section 18(h) of the ordinance authorizes the zoning board to grant variances in cases where the public interest is not adversely affected and where “owing to special conditions, a literal enforcement of the provisions of the ordinance will result in unnecessary hardships, so that the spirit of the ordinance will be observed and substantial justice done.”1
*606South Seventeenth Street is a heavily traveled artery in Harrisburg, running directly north and south, and serves as a key approach to the by-pass running east and west through the City. Berryhill Street carries considerable traffic, moving approximately 9,000 vehicles a day. A real estate agent, describing the commercial neighborhood, testified: “From Market Street. There is a Lumber Company, Megs Macaroni. Down 17th Street Pittsburgh Plate Glass, National Biscuit Co., a laundry, a new warehouse is being built.”
The fact situation thus clearly supports the position of the appellants that their premises are no longer suitable for residential purposes and cannot be sold reasonably for purposes consistent with the zoning ordinance, either as separate parcels or as one unit.
The prospects of constructing for sale new homes on the five vacant lots are practically nil. The two dwellings already existing on the other two tracts were constructed over sixty-five years ago and do not adapt to present residential use. The conclusion is irresistible that the appellants are faced with a hardship special and peculiar to their property.
As a purse cannot be made from a sow’s ear, so also a noisy, dust-laden restless community does not become a residential, tree-shaded, quiet haven through the instrumentality of a zoning ordinance. A community is not like a petrified forest, indifferent to time, climate and world events. It is raw material in the hands of the invisible architect who shapes it according to the needs of the environment and the best interests of all of the inhabitants in the area.
The lower court said: “The only substantial hardship proved in this case is that unless the variance is granted, the appellants will not be able to sell the premises in question for the purpose of erecting thereon a gas station for a purchase price of $35,000.”
*607If this statement reflected the actual situation, the appellants would indeed not be entitled to a variance. The record, however, shows that the unique hardship resulting to the appellants is not because of their inability to sell the property for $35,000, but because of the impossibility to sell it for any purpose consistent with an R-5 classification.
Variances should not, of course, be bestowed with a lavish hand. However, where a man’s land, instead of being used so that it provides him with habitation, recreation and comfort, or income, sprouts only rocks of debt, frustration and despair, because of a local restriction which, in its application in this particular instance, does not benefit the community, we are confronted with a question as to whether the property owner in question is not being deprived of the reasonable fair use of his property without due process of law. The history, location and condition of the property in this case makes out a hardship special and peculiar to it, meeting the criteria of the adjudicated cases in this field.
Zoning restrictions are intended to help the community and not harm it. It is for this reason that, acknowledging the overall merit of a given restriction, lawmakers still realize that there are situations which authorize a loosening of the zoning strait jacket where, by doing so, the “public interest” will not be harmed and “substantial justice” will be done.
The testimony reveals that the granting of the variance here applied for will not only not be contrary to the best public interests but it will enhance and benefit those interests. The two 64-year old dilapidated houses and the five uninhabited neglected lots present a picture of waste, abandon and depression which can quickly be transformed into one of brightness and wholesome progress. Real estate experts testified that the removal of the ramshackle houses and the erection *608of the gasoline station would stabilize values of the nearby properties, ease tbe heavy traffic load at the Berryhill-Seventeenth Street intersection, and increase visibility at this point, thus potentially reducing traffic mishaps. The service station would be constructed in accordance with rigid specifications and standards calling for the utmost safety precautions in installation and operation.
I would hold that the board abused its discretion in refusing to grant the variance and that the court below erred in not so holding.
Since, in my view, this Court confirms those two errors, I dissent.

 This section is supported by §4122 of The Third Class City Code (53 P.S. §39122).