Troiani Grp. & Troy Dev. Assocs. v. City of Pittsburgh Bd. of Appeals
| Decision Date | 21 March 2022 |
| Docket Number | 1127 C.D. 2021 |
| Court | Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court |
| Parties | Troiani Group and Troy Development Associates, L.P. v. City of Pittsburgh Board of Appeals, and City of Pittsburgh, Appellants |
Troiani Group and Troy Development Associates, L.P.
v.
City of Pittsburgh Board of Appeals, and City of Pittsburgh, Appellants
No. 1127 C.D. 2021
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
March 21, 2022
Argued: February 7, 2022
BEFORE: HONORABLE ANNE E. COVEY, Judge, HONORABLE ELLEN CEISLER, Judge, HONORABLE STACY WALLACE, Judge
OPINION
ANNE E. COVEY, JUDGE
The City of Pittsburgh (City) Board of Appeals (Board) and the City (collectively, Appellants) appeal from the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court's (trial court) September 7, 2021 order reversing the Board's July 26, 2021 decision (Decision After Remand). In its Decision After Remand, the Board denied Troiani Group's and Troy Development Associates, L.P.'s (collectively, Troiani) appeal from the City's Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections' (PLI) denial of an emergency demolition plan (Demolition Plan) for Troiani's building located at 209 First Avenue in the City (First Avenue Structure), and adjacent Troiani-owned buildings located between 100-108 Market Street (Market Street Structures). The sole issue for this Court's review is whether the Board properly denied Troiani's appeal. After review, this Court reverses the trial court's order.
The First Avenue Structure is a six-story building with a basement, which has been vacant for approximately 50 years. The Market Street Structures are two- to four-story buildings that have been vacant since the early 2000s. In April 2020, due to its deteriorating condition, Troiani sought PLI's approval for the First
Avenue Structure's emergency demolition (Emergency Demolition Application).[1]On May 5, 2020, PLI's Assistant Director of Construction and City Building Code Official David Green (Green) denied the Emergency Demolition Application. Troiani appealed from PLI's denial to the Board. On June 26, 2020, after a hearing, the Board reversed PLI's denial of the Emergency Demolition Application and authorized the First Avenue Structure's immediate emergency demolition. Troiani retained structural engineers and demolition experts to prepare the Demolition Plan. Thereafter, Troiani submitted its Demolition Plan for the First Avenue Structure to PLI. Troiani's Demolition Plan indicated that the Market Street Structures' demolition was necessary to safely demolish the First Avenue Structure. Accordingly, the Demolition Plan provided for demolition of the First Avenue Structure and the Market Street Structures.[2]
By September 3, 2020 letter (September 3, 2020 denial letter), Green notified Troiani that PLI denied the Demolition Plan. Green stated therein:
1. This review is for the demolition of [the First Avenue Structure] only. Demolition of [the Market Street] [S]tructures need[s] to be addressed under their respective permit applications. These applications are
a. DP-2019-03315: 106/108 Market [Street]
b. DP-2019-03314: 104 Market [Street].
c. DP-2019-03311: 100/102 Market [Street].
2. Please note that the demolition of [the Market Street Structures] requires approval from the [City's] Planning Commission [(Planning Commission)]. As it stands, the Planning Commission has denied the demolition of these structures. PLI has no direct authority to grant the demolition of these structures. Additionally, while the contract for demolition identifies demolition of these structures, this permit will be limited to demolition of [the First Avenue Structure].
The submitted documentation shall be revised to establish a plan for the demolition of [the First Avenue Structure] that does not include the demolition of adjacent structures. You may appeal PLI's decision to the [Board]. . . .
3.Your engineer proposes that protection measures related to the demolition of [the First Avenue Structure] include the demolition of [the Market Street Structures]. Please note[, ] as discussed[, ] these types of measures are not required by the [International Building Code of 2015 (Building Code)[3] and it is not standard industry practice to demolish adjacent structures as a protection measure. Further, [Troiani's Structural Engineer, Chuck] Cornely [(Cornely), ] has identified that vibrations from demolition of the adjacent structures could cause the collapse of [the First Avenue Structure] and that the fall zone into Market Street is the same whether the Market Street [Structures] are demolished first or not. Given the above, PLI does not deem demolition of the Market Street [Structures] a necessary protection measure.
Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 190a-191a. Troiani appealed to the Board from PLI's decision.
The Board conducted a hearing on September 15, 2020. Troiani presented testimony from structural engineers Cornely and Dirk Taylor (Taylor), and demolition contractor Tim Schaaf (Schaaf). Cornely drafted the First Avenue Structure's Demolition Plan. He testified: "The demolition of the buildings along Market Street will reduce the potential for damage to the buildings across Market Street and reduce the potential for life [sic] and increased life safety for people using Market Street and people in the buildings across Market Street." R.R. at 242a. Specifically, Cornely confirmed that "[t]he only means to minimize the life safety concerns for a controlled demolition of [the] First Avenue [Structure] is to first demolish the Market Street [Structures]." R.R. at 244a. He reasoned that "[e]liminating these, demolishing these buildings on the east side of Market Street[, ] will absolutely reduce the risk of damage to the buildings on the west side of Market Street . . . ." R.R. at 248a.
Cornely explained:
[There's] an 8[-]foot alley between [the First Avenue Structure] and the rear walls of the buildings along Market Street. That alley, the width of that alley precludes any kind of protection of the buildings along the east side of Market Street. It's all part of a convoluted situation of risk of actually fairly big proportions. The reducing [sic] of risk to the buildings on the west side of Market Street by demolishing the buildings on the east side of Market Street is, in my opinion, a very good move to limit damage from the potential uncontrolled and unexpected collapse of [the First Avenue Structure] to the west and onto the buildings along the east side of Market Street.
R.R. at 249a.
When asked why the First Avenue Structure could not be brought down without falling to the west, Cornely expounded:
The situation is this [-] [t]he wall that we see on the first floor, the first floor brick bearing wall with the brick courses, brick wythes [are] missing on the exterior of that wall, that wall has approximately . . . .
. . . .
60[%] of its strength. The point is it's very weak. In addition to that, those bricks that are exposed along that first floor west bearing wall are, they are not stable. Any disturbance, any vibration can further remove the brickwork in that wall. That can happen at any time.
That's what's got me so excited myself [sic] because it's like a straw that will break the camel's back. If you do work inside that building, you're liable to disturb that brick and displace that brick because of the deteriorated mortar in that brickwork of that first floor. That's why it's dangerous. This is something that's incipient. Any vibration may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Even demolishing . . . that building at 100 Market Street, if the contractor is not successful in pulling the west wall, the west rear wall of that building at 100 Market Street to the west, and there are bricks that fall onto that first floor wall, that damaged and unsafe and unstable first floor wall of [the First Avenue Structure], [it] is liable to come down while he is demolishing those buildings.
R.R. at 250a-252a. Cornely later added: "[T]o provide protection for the [Market Street Structures] is virtually impossible because you cannot do construction activities in that 8-foot alley without potentially vibrating and moving bricks in that unsafe and deteriorated first floor west wall of the [First Avenue Structure.]" R.R. at 268a-269a.
Cornely further stated:
[T]here is always risk with the machinery operating in the vicinity of the building. That's why there's so much concern. That's why we are trying to plan for the unexpected and uncontrolled collapse of the [First Avenue Structure]. There's no doubt that the stomping, the movement of the heavy equipment around the [First
Avenue Structure] could also produce vibrations that would loosen brick in that unsafe portion of the first floor wall of [the First Avenue Structure]. This thing is a very ticklish situation and is fraught with danger as we go. That's why there is the emphasis on trying to reduce the amount of exposure of the lives of the workmen when we are demolishing this building and demolishing the [Market Street Structures].
R.R. at 269a-270a.
Taylor testified that he reviewed Cornely's assessment and the Demolition Plan. See R.R. at 218a. Taylor related that he visited the First Avenue Structure and Market Street Structures, reviewed the interior and exterior conditions and, based on his observations, investigation and analysis, he agreed with Cornely's conclusions. See id. Taylor described:
[I]f [the First Avenue Structure] . . . falls on top of [the Market Street Structures], depending on the manner of the fall and how much of the [First Avenue Structure] is left, it is most likely to -- it under certain circumstances could actually end up creating pressure within the building with a correct blast that would not only push the buildings[] over[, ] but could also end up projecting portions of the front wall outward as a result of that interior pressure that could build up under certain collapse circumstances.
R.R. at 227a-228a.
Taylor confirmed the...
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