The Commonwealth Court recently rendered a decision in Lyons Borough v. Township of Maxatawny, 2015 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 310 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2015), addressing the scope of a municipal governing body’s authority under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code to impose conditions on a developer’s final land development plan approval. The court’s decision in Lyons is an important development because it significantly restricts the type of conditions a municipality may impose on a final land development approval, finding several conditions routinely imposed by municipalities at that stage to be improper.

In Lyons, Apollo Point L.P. and Saucony Creek L.P. applied to the township of Maxatawny for preliminary land development approval to construct a 192-unit apartment complex on approximately 37.7 acres of land zoned for multi-family housing. The Township Board of Supervisors approved the landowners’ preliminary land development plan subject to 161 conditions relating to, among other things: (1) compliance with the stormwater management requirements under the township’s subdivision and land development ordinance (SALDO); (2) compliance with sanitary sewer and water distribution system requirements under the SALDO; (3) compliance with additional miscellaneous zoning ordinance and SALDO requirements, such as completion of a transportation impact study; and (4) securing necessary permits and approvals from the state and county, including permits and approvals from the county planning commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Shortly thereafter, the board approved the landowners’ final land development plan, conditioned upon the landowners’ compliance with all of the outstanding conditions cited in the board’s preliminary plan approval.

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