Jan 23, 2020 3 min read

A Philadelphia developer that wants to build a 245-unit housing plan for older homeowners is appealing conditions that North Strabane Township officials placed on their approval of the proposal in court.

Attorneys for Traditions of America, which submitted an application in April to build the planned community in six separate phases through the late 2020s, filed the appeal on Friday. The neighborhood, which would be restricted to buyers 55 and older, would be laid out on 203 acres of currently undeveloped land between Mansfield and Brehm roads.

The site is zoned “suburban residential” by the township. The proposal drew criticism from people already living in that area, including concerns about flooding from runoff and additional vehicles on already-congested roads.

Supervisors voted during a special meeting on Dec. 23 to approve the proposal, with 19 separate conditions. Attorneys from the Pittsburgh firm Goldberg, Kamin and Garvin, which represents the developer, called the conditions “arbitrary, unnecessary and unreasonable attempts to regulate an otherwise permitted use in the underlying zoning district.” They ask that a judge deem the project approved with the township’s conditions stricken.

Solicitor Gary Sweat didn’t go into detail about the case, but informed the board he’d received the appeal during Tuesday’s township meeting. He expected to prepare a response for the township.

Traditions’ appeal singles out a number of the conditions to claim they fall outside the legal of the authority to impose. Among those was one barring the company from obtaining occupancy permits for houses beyond the eight units of the first phase of construction, which is close to Mansfield, which the township doesn’t consider a collector or arterial road, until each new phase of construction “has a direct connection to the collector street,” namely Brehm. The developer’s plans called for the road to Brehm to be built much later in the timeline during phase four, township officials said.

Traditions’ attorneys said that requirement fell outside the scope of the township ordinance for several reasons, including that there is no provision requiring “that each unit must have access to an arterial or collector road” before an age-restricted community is fully built. They wrote that grading, paving and other work of laying the new road would come to “well over” $10 million.

In their written decision, township officials cited traffic near the project, especially about Mansfield and its nearby intersection with Route 19. Officials directed Traditions to make an agreement with the township to dedicate $3,000 a unit to mitigate those and other traffic issues identified in a recent traffic study.

The appeal called that provision “patently illegal” and said the township had no ability to include it.

The developer also alleges the township violated its due process by holding a second hearing on Dec. 17 to allow for additional testimony. Officials said they were reopening the matter, after saying they’d concluded hearing testimony, to allow a resident who hadn’t spoken during the first Nov. 14 hearing to submit information.