# Bachman v. Zoning Hearing Board of Bern Township

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · July 3, 1985 · 508 Pa. 180

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9762448

## Case

- **Full name:** Otto BACHMAN, Appellant, v. the ZONING HEARING BOARD OF BERN TOWNSHIP, Appellee
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** July 3, 1985
- **Citations:** 508 Pa. 180; 494 A.2d 1102; 1985 Pa. LEXIS 320
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Flaherty
- **Judges:** Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, McDermott, Hutchinson, Zappala, Papadakos
- **Cited by:** 12 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9762448

## Opinion text

FLAHERTY, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Prior to making a conveyance in lieu of condemnation, appellant maintained as a pre-existing non-conforming use the bungalows in question, upon the same forty acre tract of land as he now seeks to maintain them. Appellant has not sought to move the bungalows to another tract of land, and, indeed, the structures themselves are the very same ones that have at all relevant times been upon the forty acre tract. Appellant does not even seek to expand the non-conforming use, by enlarging the number or size of the bungalows. Rather, appellant seeks only to continue the very same use that has always been allowed as a non-conforming use upon the tract in question, by simply relocating the situs of the use upon the same tract. To deny the continued use of the land in this manner is to too narrowly construe the landowner’s constitutional right to maintain land uses that existed prior to enactment of the zoning ordinance. I would, therefore, reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court, and order that the zoning permit in question be issued.
LARSEN and PAPADAKOS, JJ., join this dissenting opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9762448. Public record. Not legal advice.