Condemnation by Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, Matter of

• Decision Date: 12 July 1991
• Docket Number: No. 45,No. 39,E-V,39,45
• Citation: 527 Pa. 550,594 A.2d 1375
• Parties: In the Matter of CONDEMNATION BY the URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF PITTSBURGH of Certain Land in the Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Wards of the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Redevelopment Area(North Shore), Being Property ofCompany, a partnership composed of Emil F. Kehr and Vincent E. Malone, or any other persons found to have an interest in the property, Keller Office Equipment Company, Pittsburgh Harley Davidson, Inc., formerly Allegheny County Distributors, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, or any other person found to have an interest in the property. Appeal ofCOMPANY, a partnership composed of Emil F. Kehr and Vincent E. Malone, or any other persons found to have an interest in the property, and Keller Office Equipment Company. W.D. 1989
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1375

594 A.2d 1375

527 Pa. 550

In the Matter of CONDEMNATION BY the URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF PITTSBURGH of Certain Land in the Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Wards of the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Redevelopment Area No. 39 (North Shore), Being Property of E-V Company, a partnership composed of Emil F. Kehr and Vincent E. Malone, or any other persons found to have an interest in the property, Keller Office Equipment Company, Pittsburgh Harley Davidson, Inc formerly Allegheny County Distributors, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, or any other person found to have an interest in the property Appeal of E-V COMPANY, a partnership composed of Emil F Kehr and Vincent E. Malone, or any other persons found to have an interest in the property, and Keller Office Equipment Company.

No. 45 W.D. 1989

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Sept. 24, 1990.

Resubmitted Jan. 21, 1991.

Decided July 12, 1991.

Thomas J. Dempsey, Robert L. Federline, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellants.

George R. Specter, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS and CAPPY, JJ.

OPINION

ZAPPALA, Justice.

E-V Company and Keller Office Equipment Company (hereinafter condemnees) filed preliminary objections to a declaration of taking filed on October 9, 1981, by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA). Allegheny County Common Pleas Court overruled the objections and Commonwealth Court affirmed. 117 Pa.Cmwlth. 475, 544 A.2d 87. We granted their petition for allowance of appeal limited to the questions: 1) "whether the condemnees have been unconstitutionally denied a meaningful hearing at a meaningful time to challenge the certification of blight...." and 2) "whether the taking is invalid for failure of the certification of blight process to comply with the requirements of the Local Agency Law." Put another way, the question before the Court is whether the Local Agency Law, or the Constitution, require a planning commission to notify property owners and hold hearings before determining that an area is appropriate for redevelopment according to the Urban Redevelopment Law, Act of May 24, 1945, P.L. 991, 35 P.S. § 1701 et seq.

The Urban Redevelopment Law, 35 P.S. § 1702(a), declares as a matter of legislative findings and policy that urban areas may become blighted because of: (1) unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or over-crowded conditions of the dwellings in the particular area; (2) inadequate planning of the area; (3) excessive land coverage by the buildings in the area; (4) lack of proper light and air and open space; (5) the defective design and arrangement of the buildings in the area; (6) faulty street or lot layout; or (7) land uses in the area which are economically or socially undesirable. It further provides:

(c) That the foregoing conditions are beyond remedy or control by regulatory processes in certain blighted areas, or portions thereof, and cannot be effectively dealt with by private enterprise under existing law without the additional aids herein granted and that such conditions exist chiefly in areas which are so subdivided into small parcels and in divided ownerships that their assembly for purposes of clearance, replanning and redevelopment is difficult and impossible without the effective public power of eminent domain.

35 P.S. § 1702(c). When a planning commission certifies an area as a redevelopment area according to the foregoing standards, the redevelopment authority is empowered to prepare a plan for redeveloping the area for submission to the governing body. If the plan is approved, the authority or its agent may then proceed to implement the plan, including taking of property within the area by eminent domain.

On December 18, 1964, pursuant to a Basic Conditions Report ¹, the Planning Commission of the City of Pittsburgh certified an area containing 203 acres located on the North Side of Pittsburgh as blighted within the meaning of the Urban Redevelopment Law. At that time, the area certified as blighted was called, for project purposes, the "Federal Anderson" area. Included in the "Federal Anderson" area were, among many others, properties located on Isabella Street in the block between the Sixth Street Bridge and Federal Street on the West and the Seventh Street Bridge and Sandusky Street on the East. After the Planning Commission certified the "Federal Anderson" area as blighted, no further action of any kind was taken by the Planning Commission or the URA with respect to the project.

On October 4, 1971, the City Planning Commission met and certified as blighted 90.8 acres located in the North Side of Pittsburgh. Approximately 63 of those acres were part of the 203 acres which previously had been certified as blighted in 1964. The revised 90.8 acres project was referred to as the "North Shore Project" area. Included among the 63 acres that was "recertified" as blighted were the Isabella Street properties between Federal Street and Sandusky Street which had been a part of the area certified as blighted in 1964.

Pursuant to 35 P.S. § 1710(a)-(c), the URA then prepared a redevelopment proposal for the North Shore project area. The proposal showed in detail the proposed method for redevelopment of the area, listed properties to be acquired during the first year of the project, and indicated that rehabilitation was to be a significant part of the redevelopment, mostly as private action with technical assistance provided by the URA. The proposal also provided that "Property will be acquired and cleared to: ... provide developable parcels for redevelopment."

This redevelopment proposal was submitted to the Pittsburgh City Council, which held a public hearing on the proposal on April 12, 1972. The proposal was approved by City Council on May 5, 1972, and the URA commenced implementing the proposal, over the next several years, acquiring and demolishing properties, applying for federal and state funds, and submitting modifications to the proposal.

The property on Isabella Street owned by the condemnee E-V Company, which is leased by condemnee Keller Office Equipment Company for the operation of its business, was included in the 203 acres certified as blighted in 1964 and in the 90.8 acres certified as blighted in 1971. That Isabella Street property included a four story building known as 32 Isabella Street, an eight story building known as 36 Isabella Street, and a two story building known as 38 Isabella Street. When E-V Company purchased the property in 1977, Keller Office Equipment Company moved from the four story building (32 Isabella Street) to the eight story building (36 Isabella Street). Eventually, in March of 1980 E-V Company sold the four story building. Later, in February, 1981, the two story building was sold. After the condemnee E-V Company had purchased the real estate and buildings in 1977, E-V Company continued to invest money in the property by remodeling the eight story building.

On October 9, 1981, the URA exercised the power of eminent domain and filed a declaration of taking in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, appropriating the properties located on Isabella Street in the North Shore project area, including the property of condemnee E-V Company which property housed the business of condemnee Keller Office Equipment Company at 36 Isabella Street. As stated, preliminary objections were filed. When the case was called for trial, it was ordered to be tried by depositions. In due course various witnesses were subpoenaed and deposed and various documents were produced. Following the taking of depositions, the court filed an Adjudication and Order on February 21, 1986, denying appellants' preliminary objections. On appeal, the Commonwealth Court concluded that the trial court neither abused its discretion nor committed an error of law and, therefore, affirmed the order overruling the preliminary objections. We granted allowance of appeal, limited to the two questions set out above.

Treating the statutory issue first, the appellants argue that the taking of their property by eminent domain is invalid because the process by which the public purpose for the taking was established, the certification of blight, did not conform to the requirements of the Local Agency Law, originally enacted as the Act of December 2, 1968, P.L. 113, 53 P.S. § 11301, effective January 1, 1969, now found at 2 Pa.C.S. §§ 101 and 102, Chapter 5, Subchapter B, and Chapter 7, Subchapter B. That Law provides that "[n]o adjudication of a local agency shall be valid as to any party unless he shall have been afforded reasonable notice of a hearing and an opportunity to be heard." 2 Pa.C.S. § 553. An adjudication is defined as "any final order, decree, decision, determination or ruling by an agency affecting personal or property rights, privileges, immunities, duties, liabilities or obligations of any or all parties to the proceeding in which the adjudication is made." 2 Pa.C.S. § 101.

The Commonwealth Court has held that a planning commission's certification of blight is not an adjudication under Section 553 of the Local Agency Law, Cass Plumbing & Heating Company v. PPG Industries, Inc., 52 Pa.Commw. 600, 416 A.2d 1142 (1980). The appellants urge the adoption of the view set out in Judge Blatt's dissenting opinion in Cass Plumbing, that the action of certifying an area as blighted must be considered an adjudication because it exposes landowners to eminent domain and other powers of redevelopment authorities, which they would not have been exposed to otherwise.

We are of the view that a certification of blight does not, in and of itself, have a legal effect on property rights. It must be emphasized that a certification of blight does not necessarily lead to the taking of all, or even any, of the property in the certified area by eminent domain. The Urban Redevelopment Law recognizes "[t]...