Parties Appellant Before the Board.
Appeals raising the substantive validity of any land use ordinance (except those to be brought before the Board of Supervisors pursuant to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code), procedural questions or alleged defects in the process of enactment or adoption of a land use ordinance or from the determination of the Zoning Officer including, but not limited to, the granting or denial of any permit, or failure to act on the application therefore, the issuance of any cease or desist order or the registration or refusal to register any nonconforming use, structure or lot, from a determination by the Township Engineer or the Zoning Officer with reference to the administration of any floodplain or flood hazard ordinance or such provisions within a land use ordinance; from the determination of any officer or agency charged with the administration of any transfers of development rights or performance density provisions of this Chapter; from the determination of the Zoning Officer or Township Engineer in the administration of any land use ordinance or provision thereof with reference to sedimentation and erosion control and stormwater management insofar as the same relate to development not involving subdivision and land development or planned residential development may be filed with the Zoning Hearing Board in writing by the landowner affected, any officer or agency of the Township, or any person aggrieved. Requests for a variance and for special exception may be filed with the Board by any landowner or any tenant with the permission of such landowner.
Time Limitations.
1. No person shall be allowed to file any proceeding with the Zoning Hearing Board later than 30 days after an application for development, preliminary or final, has been approved by the Township if such proceeding is designed to secure reversal or to limit the approval in any manner unless such person alleges and proves that he had no notice, knowledge or reason to believe that such approval had been given, If such person has succeeded to his interest after such approval, he shall be bound by the knowledge of his predecessor in interest, The failure of anyone other than the landowner to appeal from an adverse decision on a tentative plan or from an adverse decision by the Zoning Officer on a challenge to the validity of this Chapter or an amendment hereto or map or an amendment thereto shall preclude an appeal from a final approval except in the case where the final submission substantially deviates from the approved tentative approval.
2. All appeals from determinations adverse to the landowner shall be filed by the landowner within 30 days after notice of the determination is issued.
Stay of Proceedings.
1. Upon filing of any appeal proceeding before the Zoning Hearing Board, all land development pursuant to any challenged ordinance, order or approval of the Zoning Officer or of any agency or body, and all official action thereunder, shall be stayed unless the Zoning Officer or any other appropriate agency or body certifies to the Board facts indicating that such stay would cause imminent peril to life or property, in which case the development or official action shall not be stated otherwise than by a restraining order, which may be granted by the Board or by the court having jurisdiction of zoning appeals, on petition, after notice to the Zoning Officer or other appropriate agency or body. When an application for development, preliminary or final, has been duly approved and proceedings designed to reverse or limit the approval are filed with the Board by persons other than the applicant, the applicant may petition to court having jurisdiction of zoning appeals to order such persons to post bond as a condition to continuing the proceedings before the Board.
2. After the petition is presented, the court shall hold a hearing to determine if the filing of the appeal if frivolous. At the hearing, evidence may be presented on the merits of the case. It shall be the burden of the applicant for a bond to prove the appeal is frivolous. After consideration of all evidence presented, if the court determines that the appeal is frivolous, it shall grant the petition for a bond. The right to petition the court to order the appellants to post bond may be waived by the appellee, but such waiver may be revoked by him if an appeal is taken from a final decision of the court.
3. The question whether or not such petition should be granted and the amount of the bond shall be within the sound discretion of the court. An order denying a petition for bond shall be interlocutory.
4. If an appeal is taken by a respondent to the petition for a bond from an order of the court dismissing a zoning appeal for refusal to post a bond and the appellate court sustains the order of the court below to post a bond, the respondent to the petition for a bond, upon motion of the petitioner and after hearing in the court having jurisdiction of zoning appeals, shall be liable for all reasonable costs, expenses and attorney fees incurred by the petitioner.
