The Zoning Hearing Board shall perform all the duties and have
all the powers prescribed by the Municipalities Planning Code Act,
of 1968, P.L. 805, No. 247, as reenacted and amended, including the following:
A. To hear and decide requests for special exceptions. Where the governing
body, in the Zoning Ordinance, has stated special exceptions to be
granted or denied by the Zoning Hearing Board pursuant to express
standards and criteria of this chapter, the Zoning Hearing Board shall
hear and decide requests for such special exceptions in accordance
with such standards and criteria. In granting a special exception,
the Zoning Hearing Board may attach such reasonable conditions and
safeguards, in addition to those expressed in the ordinance, as it
may deem necessary to implement the purposes of the Municipalities
Planning Code and the Zoning Ordinance.
B. To hear and decide appeals.
(1)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide appeals from
any order, requirement, decision or determination made by the Zoning
Officer administering this chapter, including but not limited to the
granting or denial of any permit, or failure to act on the application
thereof, the issuance of any cease-and-desist order, or the registration
or refusal to register any nonconforming use, structure, or lot.
(2)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide appeals from a determination of the Zoning Officer or municipal 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 the provisions regulating subdivision and land development governed under Article
V of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.
(3)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide appeals from
a determination by the Municipal 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.
(4)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide upon appeals
from a determination of the Zoning Officer, including the interpretation
of any provision of this chapter.
C. To hear and decide challenges to the validity of any land use ordinance.
(1)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide substantive challenges
to the validity of any land use ordinance, except those for landowner
curative amendments, which shall be brought before the governing body
pursuant to Sections 609.1 and 916.1(a)(2) of the Pennsylvania Municipalities
Planning Code, as amended.
(2)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide challenges to
the validity of a land use ordinance raising procedural questions
or alleged defects in the process of enactment or adoption. Such challenges
shall be raised by an appeal taken within 30 days after the effective
date of said ordinance.
D. To hear and decide requests for variances.
(1)
The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear requests for variances and may vary or adapt the strict application of any of the requirements of this chapter in the case of exceptionally irregular, narrow or shallow lots or other exceptional physical conditions, whereby such strict application would result in practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship that would deprive the owner of the reasonable use of the land or building involved, but in no other case. The sole purpose of any variance shall be to prevent discrimination and no variance shall be granted which would have the effect of granting a special privilege not shared by other property owners in the same vicinity and district and under the same conditions. See §
300-91 for additional information regarding variances in the Floodplain Districts.
(2)
No variance in the strict application of any provision of this
chapter shall be granted by the Zoning Hearing Board unless it finds:
(a)
That there are unique physical circumstances or conditions,
including irregularity, narrowness or shallowness of lot size or shape
or exceptional topographical or other physical conditions peculiar
to the particular property and that the unnecessary hardship is due
to such conditions, and not the circumstances or conditions generally
created by the provisions of the Zoning Ordinance in the neighborhood
or district in which the property is located;
(b)
That because of such physical circumstances or conditions there
is no possibility that the property can be developed in strict conformity
with the provisions of the Zoning Ordinance and that the authorization
of a variance is therefore necessary to enable the reasonable use
of the property;
(c)
That such unnecessary hardship has not been created by the applicant;
(d)
That the variance, if authorized, will not alter the essential
character of the neighborhood or district in which the property is
located, nor substantially or permanently impair the appropriate use
or development of adjacent property, nor be detrimental to the public
welfare;
(e)
That the variance, if authorized, will represent the minimum
variance that will afford relief and will represent the least modification
possible of the regulation in issue.
(3)
In granting any variance, the Zoning Hearing Board may attach
such reasonable conditions and safeguards as may seem necessary to
implement the purposes of this chapter.