North Chestnut Hill Neighbors v. Zoning Board of Adjustment

DISSENTING OPINION BY

Judge PELLEGRINI.

Because a grant of a use variance for a use already in existence is an unknown and unauthorized zoning remedy, I respectfully dissent.

Woodmere Art Museum (Museum) is an art museum in a five-story Victorian mansion on five-and-one-half acres in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. The area is zoned R-l Residential under the Philadelphia Zoning Code (Zoning Code) in which institutional uses are not allowed. However, because the Museum existed before the Zoning Code’s enactment and opened to the public in 1940, normally, it would be considered as a…