Marshall v. City of Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
97 A.3d 323 (2014)
- Written by Robert Cane, JD
Facts
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia (archdiocese) operated an elementary school from 1912 to 2008. In 2009, the archdiocese received federal funding to convert the school to senior housing. The school building was vacant and in need of repair. In 2010, the archdiocese applied to the City of Philadelphia’s zoning board of appeals (zoning board) (defendant) for a variance to use its property as senior housing. The archdiocese claimed that the school building could be conformed for a permitted use only at a prohibitive expense because if it did not convert the building to senior housing, it would not have been able to use the federal funding. The Philadelphia Zoning Code authorized the zoning board to issue variances if the variance would not be contrary to the public interest and literal enforcement of the zoning ordinance would result in unnecessary hardship. The zoning board granted a variance. On appeal, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court overturned the zoning board’s grant of a variance, finding that the archdiocese failed to prove that the entire building was functionally obsolete. The archdiocese appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McCaffery, J.)
Dissent (Eakin, J.)
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