Property owner files 2nd complaint against Cecil
A property owner in the village of Muse has filed a 10-page complaint against Cecil Township and several officials claiming that they have engaged in a “conspiracy” to punish him and force the demolition of housing units he owns at 30, 32 and 34 Birch Way.
Andrew Puchany, who also took legal action last year against the township and the same officials, alleges that the township engaged in delaying tactics under its previous zoning ordinance until it could, in May, adopt the international property maintenance code with certain exception. In addition to the township, the latest lawsuit names manager Donald Gennuso; director of zoning Bruce Bosle; and Mark Whalen, code enforcement officer.
Puchany said in his complaint, filed Friday, that the township began a new round of citations under the new ordinance in June, and that he risks being charged $1,000 per day per property plus additional liens and costs. The township gave him notice that 34 Birch Way is unfit for human occupancy because it is dilapidated, a side stairway does not conform to code, another stairway is so “warped, worn loose, torn and unsafe that it is inadequate; basement windows lack glass and are in other ways inadequate; it lacks fire protection features; a porch has no railing, the roof is unapproved and that “electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems are unable to be verified of working condition.”
In a separate letter also dated in June, the township deemed 30 and 32 Birch Way “a vacant unlawful principal structure” without a valid occupancy certificate or permit and informed Puchany he had the right to appeal this decision to the township’s zoning hearing board.
Puchany, in court documents, claims he has been denied access to the property to make repairs and that the township adopted its most recent ordinance with the intent to target him, punish him and deprive him of his property rights. The complaint filed with the court alleges that problems the township cited are “cosmetic or aesthetic” that do not have to do with the structural integrity, habitability or safety of the buildings.
Whalen, in a letter, informed Puchany that appeals to an order issued under the property maintenance code are to be filed with the district judge, but Puchany also filed with the court a letter from District Judge Valerie Costanzo.
“Magisterial district judges do not have jurisdiction in these matters, despite what the Cecil Township ordinance purports to do,” Costanzo wrote in a Sept. 5 letter to Jeffrey Derrico, Puchany’s attorney. “A township cannot ‘create’ jurisdiction where none exists.”
Costanzo wrote that she had been in contact with township Solicitor John Smith, who “agreed with me and said that they would make appropriate changes to the ordinance and notify you of the same. That was several weeks ago and apparently that did not occur.”
Bosle, in a letter to Derrico with copies to Costanzo and Smith, wrote that a notice of violation is not an action taken by the township that a property owner may appeal. This scenario does not arise unless and until a property owner fails to comply with a notice of violation and the code official commences a judicial proceeding.
Puchany also claimed a snafu occurred over the construction of a parking platform and concrete block that sat for three months during the dispute.
He asked the court to dismiss the demolition notices that have been filed against him; to hold a hearing to address the township’s conduct and determine damages he has suffered, which he alleges amount to more than $50,000; to require the township to pass an ordinance providing an appeal process for land owners; and to order township officials not to threaten, intimidate or harass him or any other township resident. A hearing date has not yet been set.
Puchany, who has lived in one of the units on Birch Way and has rented the other to tenants in the past, filed a complaint with the court in early 2012, but withdrew it in May of this year. In a response, the township’s attorneys wrote that Puchany had failed to exhaust a statutory remedy that was available to him.