In In re Appeal of Council Member Cindy Bass, 2024 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 172 (July 19, 2024), the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court affirmed, in part, a decision by the City of Philadelphia’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), finding that a real estate developer’s evidence established an unnecessary hardship because it proved that the property, a vacant lot that needed costly environmental remediation, was practically valueless without the granting of a variance under the Philadelphia Zoning Code.

In In re Appeal of Bass, a long-vacant lot on Chew Avenue in the East Mount Airy section was slated for transformation into a four-story apartment building following a contentious approval process that saw local residents clash with the real estate developer of the property, the opinion said.