Quaker Valley School District files court appeal over Leet zoning board’s denial of high school-related application
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Quaker Valley School District officials have formally filed an appeal in Allegheny County Court challenging the Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board’s denial of its special exception application for a proposed high school.
The 45-page appeal was filed April 12.
Its documents were also posted earlier this month on the township’s website, leettownship.org.
A judge has not been selected and a hearing date has yet to be scheduled, ZHB solicitor Vince Restauri said Wednesday evening.
He said the court did send a writ directing the board to transmit records of the case including all exhibits, transcripts, decision and the zoning hearing board’s opinion.
“We’re in the process of doing that,” Restauri said. “I would expect that the court will, before there are any hearings, schedule a status conference with the lawyers to set up scheduling for the case.”
The proposed $95 million school would be on part of 150 acres of land off Camp Meeting Road. About 650 students would eventually be enrolled.
The preliminary plan for the school would use about 48 acres for the building and grounds. The site already has 10 acres cleared out, but the district wants to leave a lot of existing growth as a buffer.
Public hearings began late last June. There were several hearings in the evenings and at least two all-day events, resulting in about 40 hours of public discussion.
Leet’s zoning hearing board unanimously voted to deny the district’s application following about 90 minutes of public deliberation Feb. 9.
Quaker Valley Solicitor Don Palmer did not return calls seeking comment by press time.
He and fellow attorney Daniel Gramc, in the appeal, are asking a county judge to confirm that the district’s application is granted “without condition.”
The main reason the application was denied was because of a condition the zoning hearing board placed on the district in order to move forward with the project.
The zoning board wanted to see plans — or at least a commitment — for an emergency access road, one specifically for use by police, fire and EMS.
The board had held out hope the school district would amend its application to include such a road. It had scheduled a hearing March 9 should that adjustment occur.
But district officials declined to make such changes, claiming such a road would be better introduced as part of the land development approval process.
The hearing was canceled and the zoning hearing board’s formal denial was sent out a few weeks later.
The district’s appeal reiterates the claim of an emergency road not being required at this stage of the planning process.
“To the extent an emergency road is subject to land use regulation, the location and design of the road is a matter to be addressed during land development approval,” the appeal read. “The ZHB has no jurisdiction regarding road design … The ZHB appears to assert that the school district’s plan to adopt an emergency plan later in the process is abnormal. To the contrary, that is not only the normal process, that is the required process.”
The appeal also claims the board’s decision cannot be supported by any provision in the township’s zoning ordinance, nor any testimony in the record.
It also claims the board’s ruling “is arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law.”
Restauri said Wednesday he believes the board made the right decisions, and declined to speculate on what a county judge may think.
“That is entirely up to the court,” he said.
That court’s decision could be appealed to a state appellate court.
Quaker Valley has given project updates at previous school board meetings as well through the Blueprint QV section of the district’s website, qvsd.org.