Schadler v. Zoning Hearing Board of Weisenberg Township

In Schadler v. Zoning Hearing Board of Weisenberg Township, 578 Pa. 177, 850 A.2d 619 (2004), the Supreme Court again held that an ordinance was void ab initio and not subject to Section 5571(c)(5)'s 30 day limitation period where the challenged ordinance had been recorded but suffered from other procedural defects. The township supervisors had failed to file an attested copy of the ordinance in the county law library or other designated county office, to run pre-enactment newspaper advertisements that contained the full text of the proposed ordinance, and to file a summary of the ordinance in any place where the public could access it. Schadler, 578 Pa. at 188-89, 850 A.2d at 626. The Court held that these procedural defects made it too difficult for the public to be put on notice regarding changes to the ordinance, causing it to be void ab initio. Since it was void ab initio, it held that there was no effective date from which to measure Section 5571(c)(5)'s 30 day limit on procedural challenges. Section 5571(c)(5) had been amended before the decision in Schadler, but the case was brought under the old version of the statute.