MEDIA – A coalition of Swarthmore residents litigating with their borough and its council to prevent consideration for a building application and related demolition of two historic buildings on Park Avenue has lost an emergency petition.
Save Our Swarthmore, Shannon Elliot, Melanie Rodbart, Martha Perkins and Christopher Kenney filed the emergency petition in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas on May 10 versus the Borough of Swarthmore and its Borough Council. All parties are of Swarthmore.
“Petitioners are a community organization representing residents of the Borough, i.e. SOS, as well as individual members of the community who have vested interests in the properties, the historic buildings and the Borough itself. The historic buildings which the application seeks to demolish appear in the Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey compiled by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, as well as the Historic Resources Survey for Swarthmore Borough compiled by the Delaware County Planning Department in 2001; indeed, the Borough’s Zoning Officer [William Webb] has already indicated that the historic buildings have ‘historic value’ under Swarthmore’s Zoning Code, a determination which has not been appealed. The properties are zoned as part of the Borough’s TC District,” the petition said.
The petitioners then submitted to Webb for his consideration certain formal requests for zoning determinations under the Borough Zoning Code, including but not limited to, that the application violates the TC District; that it violates several tenets of the Borough Zoning Code and would require variances for conditional use; that it contains impermissible residential uses throughout the ground floor and as its lobby is adjacent to the nearby sidewalk on Park Avenue, that this would also require a variance before any permits were issued.
Yet, Webb did not respond to the petitioners’ points, leading them to file an appeal to the Borough’s Zoning Hearing Board, for Webb’s refusal to issue zoning determinations and his actual issuance of the zoning permit. A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for July 2022.
According to the petitioners, the Borough Council cannot consider the application while an active appeal is pending before the Zoning Hearing Board, and believed that called for an injunction to prevent such consideration.
“There is a public interest in preserving the appearance of objectivity on the behalf of the Borough as failure to do so represents a violation of petitioners’ due process rights. Accordingly, restraining the Borough and/or the Borough Council in this limited instance to permit the Borough’s own appellate procedures relative to its own Zoning Code before the ZHB to resolve is undoubtedly in the public interest,” the petition stated.
The plaintiffs respectfully requested the Court grant, on an emergent basis, the foregoing petition, and enter an order substantially in the form submitted herewith.
However, following a hearing, on May 19, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge John J. Whelan denied the petition.
The plaintiffs are represented by Philip S. Rosenzweig and Kevin D. McGowan Jr. of Silverang Rosenzweig & Haltzman, in King of Prussia.
The defendants are represented by Robert W. Scott of Robert W. Scott, P.C. and Carl W. Ewald of the Law Offices of Carl W. Ewald, both in Media.
Delaware County Court of Common Pleas case CV-2022-003276
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com