160 A. 108 | Pa. | 1932
Argued February 2, 1932. Appellant is owner of a hotel and apartment house building located at the corner of 15th and Hamilton Streets, in the City of Allentown. The building, originally constructed and used as an apartment house, is *532 now used partly as a hotel, having 138 rooms, and partly as an apartment house containing 19 apartments with 103 rooms. The newer part of the building, containing 80 rooms, is used almost exclusively for transient hotel guests. The average stay of transients of whom, 85% arrive in motor cars, is overnight. Appellant proposes to construct and attach to the rear of the building a garage as a parking place to be used both by his hotel patrons and by the apartment house tenants. The proposed building is to front 70 feet on 15th Street and 180 feet on Maple Street, and to be constructed of steel with concrete floors. The front on 15th Street and the side for 25 feet back on Maple Street to be brick and precast stone construction. Except for this part, the garage building is to be entirely unenclosed, the roof or second floor being supported by steel columns. One of the entrances is located on 15th Street; the other, at the southeast corner of the garage on Maple Street, gives access to the ramp 82 feet long leading to the roof, where cars are to be stored. The ramp runs along Maple Street just opposite the dwelling house of Sheldon, one of complainants.
Appellant was about to proceed with construction work when this bill to enjoin the erection was filed. The court below, in addition to the above facts, found the neighborhood to be exclusively residential. The adjacent houses were of an expensive character, all being of brick construction with deep lots surrounded by large shade trees, green lawns, and artistic landscaping. The chancellor found the proposed building to be an open air parking place with unenclosed floors and roof; that a building of that kind, with the character of construction intended, would, under any scheme of operation, be a nuisance per se because of noise, gas, and vapors coming from the cars at any season of the year, but particularly in winter weather. The proposed construction was enjoined as likely to injure the health and disturb the *533 quiet and peace of the neighborhood. This appeal followed.
The court below correctly stated the rule that a public garage in a strictly residential neighborhood is a nuisance per se. Mitchell v. Guaranty Corp.,
There have been many garage cases before this court involving the rights of home owners is opposed to attempts by others to put adjacent property to uses which have a tendency to impair health or safety, or which work a destruction of property values; in each case the courts have consistently endeavored to prevent such nuisances.
Originally a public garage for the storage of cars, with its noises and gases, was held to create such a nuisance that, on complaint of a number of home owners, the erection of the building or the use contemplated would be enjoined. This was first held in Prendergast v. Walls,
In the cases referred to we restrained construction because of "The proposed use, the location of the building in a particular section, the accompanying disturbances, . . . . . . the damages resulting to adjoining property and the injury to the health of the people living within the radius of active operations." But in Burke v. Hollinger,
In Peirce v. Kelner,
The decree of the court below is modified to the extent herein indicated for the erection of a garage of modern construction, of suitable and proper proportions, and architecture such as will be in keeping with the general character of the community, the garage to be used exclusively by appellant's apartment house tenants and not for other purposes. If a garage is erected, it shall conform to what we have indicated in this opinion, and the court below shall retain the bill for further action lest the use and operation of the garage in fact becomes a nuisance.
Decree as modified herein is affirmed, with leave to appellant to proceed as here indicated. Appellant to pay the costs. *536