2 Penn State fraternities may keep State College houses, Pa. court rules

State College cannot shutter two fraternity houses, even though Penn State revoked its recognition of the frats, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

Sigma Alpha Mu, 329 E. Prospect Ave., was suspended in April 2017 for violating nearly all of the university’s tighter alcohol rules that were imposed after the death of Timothy Piazza. Alpha Chi Rho, 425 Locust Lane, was suspended in July 2017 for hazing.

Each had its university recognition revoked, but continued operating as fraternity houses in the borough’s residential zoning district.

The borough’s zoning code, which was amended in 2010, requires an occupying fraternity or sorority to have university recognition to operate as a fraternity house.

A series of appeals led to Centre County Judge Katherine Oliver ruling in November 2018 that “a municipality lacks the power and authority to restrict a property use when the property was not so restricted when purchased and the use is otherwise lawful.”

Three Commonwealth Court judges upheld Oliver’s ruling Thursday.

“Since the property had been used as a fraternity house long before the borough adopted the more restrictive 2010 definition of ‘fraternity house,’ use of the property as a fraternity house is a lawful, nonconforming use that landowner is entitled to continue,” Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough wrote in a 23-page document. “While we understand the borough’s desire to protect the residential characteristics of the neighborhoods where fraternities are located, such public policy concerns do not authorize the borough to compel a change in the nature of an existing lawful use of the property.”

State College can appeal McCullough’s ruling to the state Superior Court, though borough communications specialist Douglas Shontz on Friday said the borough had not yet fully reviewed her ruling.

The borough is in the midst of a major zoning rewrite that is expected to take more than two years. It was not immediately clear Monday if the Commonwealth Court’s ruling would influence the borough’s new ordinance.

Penn State President Eric Barron supported the borough throughout the appeals process, writing in a January blog that it is a “critical issue.”

“This would impede any ability to promote student and community safety,” Barron wrote. “This is an example in which some unrecognized student organizations are operating independently of the university, and in some cases national fraternity organizations are sustaining charters under these circumstances — it is questionable and troubling judgment, as well as potentially dangerous.”