Leet Zoning Hearing Board declines to appeal judge's ruling regarding a proposed Quaker Valley High School

The Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board will not appeal an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge’s ruling on a proposed Quaker Valley High School.

Its members decided in a 2-0 vote Thursday night to close the book on its part of the process in the school district’s pursuit of a new $100 million school off Camp Meeting Road. Board member Chuck Soman was absent.

Zoning hearing board chairman Terry Soster said several times that he and his colleagues were in favor of having a new school.

“This was never an educational matter about whether there should be a school,” he said, “whether taxes go up or don’t go up, or whether it was a fiduciary matter. It was a matter of land use. Was that site appropriate for a school?”

County Senior Judge Joseph James issued his six-page opinion overturning the zoning hearing board, which in February denied the district’s special exception request for the 167,000-square-foot project.

“The board erred in denying QVSD’s application,” James wrote.

In his opinion, he said that Leet’s zoning ordinance expressly permits a special exception for school construction.

The zoning board held 11 hearings between June 2021 and February 2022. During that time, the zoning hearing board expressed concern that with the addition of student drivers and school buses, first responders would be delayed in reaching the school in an emergency.

Its denial was, in large part, due to district not planning for an emergency-only access road.

Leet’s zoning hearing board members they would approve the district’s application if they resubmitted it with such an access road. They also asked the district to make a commitment to work with first responders in examining that issue.

District officials had said those things were not a matter for the zoning hearing board, and would be addressed with the township’s planning commission.

Judge James said in his opinion that the board cannot demand such a requirement because the township zoning ordinance does not include any such criteria for a special exception.

“The board has no jurisdiction regarding road design,” he wrote.

Further, James said that there was no evidence presented that the failure to include an emergency-access road poses a substantial threat to health and safety.

The proposed school is on 150 acres of land that straddles Leet Township, Edgeworth and Leetsdale.

Zoning hearing board Solicitor Vince Restauri said the board had a limited scope of appeal when it came to the judge’s decision, and it was more practical to let the township’s planning commission address the issue.

“The appeal, were it filed, would have been that the judge erred in restricting the scope of the zoning hearing board’s health safety and welfare determinations,” he said. “That’s the technical thing.

“Practically speaking, we said all along we wanted the planning commission involved. We knew they had to be involved. They’re going to be involved. We raised the issues very clearly.”

Restauri said the record of the hearings and other evidence was about 4,500 pages, all of which is available for the township and planning commissioners.

Soster said most of the time and testimony came from the district and its experts. He also said he respects the court’s decision and was proud of how the ZHB conducted its many hearings.

“We forced the safety issue, and I’m proud of it and I feel good about it,” Soster said. “I’m comfortable with letting them decide we were out of line in thinking about that matter. … I respect the court. I respect the law. I respect the procedures. We went to court and the court made a decision.”

Restauri said they received two emails from township residents supporting an appeal.

A couple people at the meeting also wanted to see the zoning hearing board to pursue an appeal while others in the audience said one was not warranted.

District officials and school board members were not at Thursday’s meeting.

The board voted 8-0 the day before to approve floor plans for the proposed school. Board member Daniela Helkowski was absent.

The floor plans were the latest public update from BSHM Architects and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects.

Charlie Gauthier, district director of facilities and administrative services, said after the school board meeting that he was not concerned about the township’s discussion of a possible appeal; he was focused on working with the architects.

“The court has given us approval, so we’re moving forward,” he said.

Gauthier stressed there is more work to be done before plans would be submitted to Leet’s planning commission.

Another public update may occur sometime in January.