Elizabethtown Mt. Joy Associates, L.P. v. Mount Joy Township Zoning Hearing Board

In Elizabethtown/Mt. Joy Associates, L.P. v. Mount Joy Township Zoning Hearing Board, 934 A.2d 759 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2007), a developer requested a special exception to construct a shopping center, but the application contained no information on the architectural style, signage, traffic and road improvements, and lighting, as required by the zoning ordinance. The zoning hearing board denied the application, and the developer appealed, asserting that the board should have addressed these deficiencies with conditions. The Court affirmed the zoning hearing board, explaining that: The proper function of conditions is to reduce the adverse impact of a use allowed under a special exception, not to enable the applicant to meet his burden of showing that the use which he seeks is one allowed by the special exception. Where, as here, the applicant fails to meet all of the ordinance requirements for a special exception, we have long held that the zoning hearing board properly denies the application. Id. at 768.