You Can’t Touch This? Supreme Court Hammers Away at Municipal Regulation of Public Utilities
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Accessory Uses Part II: Worth Much More Than a Secondary Thought
In our first post on accessory uses, we introduced the value of accessory uses as a tool for permitting a land use that otherwise might not be permitted as a principal use. We also discussed the two-part test for determining whether a use is accessory – is it (i) customarily incidental to and (ii) subordinate to the principal use? In this post, we will conclude our discussion on accessory uses by looking at the…
Accessory Uses Part I: Worth Much More Than a Secondary Thought
The definition of “accessory” is “a thing which can be added to something else in order to make it more useful, versatile, or attractive.” This definition is particularly relevant in the zoning context where an accessory use is a useful, versatile and attractive tool for maximizing the use of property.
The typical approach to determining whether land can be used for an intended purpose is to check the zoning ordinance to see what uses are…
The Commonwealth Court Begins to Answer What the Environmental Rights Amendment Means to Land Use
Earlier this year, Claudia Shank blogged about the revival of the Environmental Rights Amendment (the “ERA”) (available HERE) after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Fund v. Commonwealth, 161 A.3d 911 (2017). The PEDF decision breathed new life into the 1972 amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, but also left many unanswered questions about the ERA. The most relevant unanswered question for developers and municipalities was the meaning of the revived ERA…
Tiny Houses – Growing Fast
