On Jan. 13, the Commonwealth Court rendered a decision in Honey Brook Estates v. Board of Supervisors of Honey Brook Township, 2016 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 52 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2016), that reaffirmed a municipality’s obligation to act in good faith when processing subdivision and land development plans. The Commonwealth Court originally articulated the elements of this obligation in Raum v. Board of Supervisors, 370 A.2d 777 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 1977).
In Raum, a landowner submitted a subdivision plan for review and approval approximately 80 days before the township was scheduled to act on a proposed rezoning of the landowner’s property. Upon receipt of the landowner’s plan, the township did nothing but attempt to derail the landowner’s approval. Specifically, the township waited until the last possible moment (i.e., two days before enacting the proposed rezoning) to raise objections to the plans, then claimed there was insufficient time to consider modifications made in response to the township’s objections. Finding the township had a “deliberate, pervasive plan and intent to thwart” the landowner’s development and thus acted in bad faith, the Commonwealth Court ruled that the landowner was entitled to plan approval. In reaching this conclusion, the court stated: “A municipality has a legal obligation to proceed in good faith in reviewing and processing development plans. The duty of good faith includes discussing matters involving technical requirements or ordinance interpretation with an applicant, and providing an applicant a reasonable opportunity to respond to objections or to modify plans where there has been a misunderstanding or difference.”
