Klein v. Shadyside Health Education and Research Corporation and City of Pittsburgh

In Klein v. Shadyside Health Education and Research Corporation and City of Pittsburgh, 164 Pa. Commw. 546, 643 A.2d 1120, 1121 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1994), residential land owners filed an action in equity and an ancillary claim for declaratory judgment action in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County and challenged the construction, installation and enlargement of a helicopter landing facility. Klein, 643 A.2d at 1121. The City of Pittsburgh filed preliminary objections contending that the MPC gave the zoning hearing board exclusive jurisdiction over the challenge. The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County sustained the preliminary objections and dismissed the complaint on the basis that the land owners had an adequate remedy through their statutory zoning hearing board appeal. Id. In Klein, the zoning ordinance added a new section to the Zoning Code that addressed helicopter landing areas. Regulations were placed on flight paths, proximity to schools, residential uses and other potential landing areas. Helicopter landing areas were not permitted on rooftops in commercial districts, were required to be set back fifty feet from property lines and a log of helicopter arrivals and departures was required. Id. at 1123-24. Additionally, landing areas in specific zoning districts required an environmental report that addressed several environmental categories. On appeal, this Court relied on Plymouth Township and Pennsylvania Coal, to find that the City of Pittsburgh's helicopter facility zoning provisions "focused primarily upon the matter of location rather than operational process." Id. at 1125. The Court found that Klein was distinguishable from Plymouth Township and Pennsylvania Coal. In contrast to traditional zoning regulations, such as location, "spacing and dimensional requirements" as in Klein, Plymouth Township involved regulation that "set out to govern the way in which refuse disposal facilities would be operated" and Pennsylvania Coal involved regulations of the "ongoing process of surface mining." Klein, 643 A.2d at 1124-25.