Does Your Planned Community Need Subdivision Approval? By: George Asimos As originally published as a Special to the Legal Intelligencer, PLW, April 20, 2009 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ GEORGE ASIMOS, an attorney and partner with Saul Ewing, has practiced transactional real estate and land use law exclusively for more than 20 years. He represents developers, telecommunications companies, industrial operators and other land owners in acquiring and obtaining project approvals from municipal boards and commissions in matters relating to zoning, subdivision and land development. Asimos works out of the offices in Chesterbrook, Pa., and Harrisburg, Pa., and can be reached at
[email protected]. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ With the case of Frank N. Shaffer Family Limited Partnership v. Zoning Hearing Board of Chanceford Township, the Commonwealth Court has shaken up the world of planned community and condominium practitioners as it has addressed, for the first time, the question of whether the Uniform Planned Community Act (and by reference the Uniform Condominium Act) supersede the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code subdivision requirements. Here is how the case arose. The Shaffer Family Limited Partnership owned 25 acres of vacant land. In June 2005, the partnership applied for a building permit for a single-family