22 Pa. Commw. 567 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1976
Opinion by
In this action Marwood Rest Home, Inc. (Marwood) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County affirming the decision of the Zoning Board of Adjustment (Board) which denied permits to construct an addition to Marwood’s currently existing rest home facility located in the East Oak Lane section of Philadelphia.
Marwood’s current facility is a 30-bed rest home in an R-4 Residential Zone. In order to meet safety criteria and to remain economically viable, Marwood proposed to construct a three-story, 138 bed structure interconnecting to the existing home, and such construction is permitted in R-4 districts upon certification by the Board. Such certification, of course, amounts to the grant of a special exception, a permitted use, once the applicant has demonstrated that he meets the criteria set forth in the zoning code. Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Philadelphia v. Liberty Bell Medical Center, 17 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 213, 331 A.2d 242 (1975). When the Bureau of Licenses and Inspections denied Marwood’s request for building permits, an appeal was made to the Board, and the Board concluded that Marwood had not met the requirement of the zoning code for a minimum side-yard space of ten feet between the parking spaces noted in the Marwood site plans and the structures to be erected. The Board also concluded that Marwood had not met certain other criteria necessary for the grant of a certificate of use. The Board refused to grant Marwood a variance from the side-yard requirement, and the building permits were therefore refused. Marwood ap
Our scope of review in zoning appeals where the court below did not take additional evidence, as was the case here, is to determine'whether the zoning board committed an error of law or abused its discretion. Soble Construction Company v. The Zoning Hearing Board of the Borough of East Stroudsburg, 16 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 599, 329 A.2d 912 (1974). After examining the applicable provisions of the zoning code here involved and after carefully examining the evidence of record we must affirm the decision of the Board.
With respect to the side-yard requirements for the proposed open-air parking, Section 14-1402(5) (b) (.1) (.b) of the zoning code provides that “there shall be the minimum side yard between such open-air parking and any structure.” (Emphasis added.) According to the parties here, the minimum side-yard requirement for the project concerned would be ten feet. Section 14-205(2) (f) (.3). Here then, Marwood’s open-air parking should be separated from the proposed new structure by at least ten feet. According to the findings of the Board, however, Marwood’s proposed parking spaces are located only five feet from the proposed structure, and our examination of the record supports this finding with respect to at least four of the parking spaces in Marwood’s site plan.
Besides Marwood’s failure to meet the parking space side-yard requirements of the zoning code, the Board also concluded that the criteria necessary for the grant of a certificate enumerated in Section 14-1803(1)
. The site plan reveals a row of 9 or 10 parking spaces which parallels the ground floor of the proposed structure at a distance of approximately 6 feet 2 inches by our calculations. The first floor projects over all but four of these spaces thereby raising an issue as to whether or not the spaces under the projection are subject to the open-space parking side-yard requirements. It is, however, unnecessary to reach that issue, for the remaining four spaces clearly are open-space parking and are therefore subject to the requirement. See Section 14-102(39).
. See Zoning Board of Adjustment of the City of Philadelphia v. Liberty Bell Medical Center, 17 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 213, 331 A.2d 242 (1975).