Broussard v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Pittsburgh

In Broussard v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Pittsburgh, 589 Pa. 71, 907 A.2d 494 (2006), a developer requested a special exception to renovate an historic building into a conference facility. The zoning ordinance specified parking requirements for the proposed facility. Where the parking requirements were to be satisfied by spaces in an off-site parking garage, the developer of the facility had to present a recordable lease to the off-site parking garage before it could be issued a building permit. With its special exception application, the developer submitted a letter of intent from the lessee-operator of a nearby parking garage that it had space available sufficient to serve the conference facility and would lease them to the facility. The zoning board granted the special exception for the conference facility, subject to the condition that a parking garage lease be executed and recorded by the developer prior to the issuance of the building permit. Objectors contended that the developer had to obtain the parking garage lease before it could be granted a special exception. Broussard v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 831 A.2d 764 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2003). On appeal, this Court held that the zoning board had reasonably interpreted its own ordinance as not requiring the recordable form of the garage lease agreement to be included with the application for special exception; it could be submitted at the building-permit stage of the project. The Supreme Court affirmed, reasoning that where the plan, as submitted, addresses all of the ordinance's prerequisites for the special exception sought, and reasonably shows that the property owner is able to fulfill them in accordance with the procedures set forth by the zoning code (as reasonably interpreted by the board), a reviewing court should not reverse the grant of such an exception on the sole basis that some of the items described in the plan may be completed at a later date. Broussard, 589 Pa. at 84, 907 A.2d at 502. The Supreme Court explained that it would make little sense to force a property owner to undertake the expense of leasing spaces in a parking garage if the special exception may not be granted in the end. Id. at 81, 907 A.2d at 500.