Municipality of Penn Hills v. Zoning Hearing Board

Opinion by

Judge Craig,

Applicant Ferdinand Palumbo sought to erect a 20' by 30' building, on his residentially zoned property in the Municipality of Penn Hills, to be used in the landscaping business he conducted from that property; he applied to the Penn Hills Zoning Hearing Board for a variance to permit that construction as an expansion of a nonconforming use.

At the hearings on that application, the evidence focused on the question of whether applicant’s use had been conducted on the property before enactment of Penn Hills’ August 19, 1963 zoning ordinance; the board concluded that the use…