The owner of a mobile home park in Plum is continuing to fight in court for the right to expand it, over the objections and concerns of borough officials.

An attorney representing Plum Creek MHC filed a notice of appeal to Commonwealth Court after an Allegheny County judge found the Plum Zoning Hearing Board properly denied its application.

The borough had intervened in the case on the side of its zoning hearing board.

Matthew Kalina, attorney for Plum Creek MHC, did not respond to telephone or email requests for comment .

Gavin Robb, attorney for the zoning hearing board, said the board “does not comment on pending litigation matters.”

Following a hearing in September 2023, the board in November denied Plum Creek MHC’s application to expand the manufactured home park, which exists as a legal nonconforming use in a single-family residential area of the borough.

Plum Creek Estates consists of 40 home sites on about 12 acres off Hulton Road.

Its owners want to add 23 more home sites, a management office, recreation space and a stormwater detention facility — along with upgrading its utility infrastructure, roads and lights.

The board found that expansion of the park would be detrimental to public health, welfare and safety, “and in particular would impact current and future residents of the manufactured home park by exacerbating the existing flood-prone conditions which exist at the property.”

Borough officials testified the park flooded in 2019, 2021 and 2022, needing to be evacuated during the 2019 and 2021 floods, and that many of the new lots would be at serious risk of flooding.

While not denying that the area is prone to flooding, Plum Creek MHC argued the expansion would provide protection from flooding for those already living there.

In her six-page opinion, Allegheny County Judge Mary C. McGinley found the zoning hearing board did not commit error of law, abuse its discretion or make findings not supported by substantial evidence, which were the elements to which the court’s review was limited.

While state courts have allowed landowners to expand nonconforming uses, “that right is not unlimited,” McGinley’s order states.

The board “properly determined that (Plum Creek MHC) failed to satisfy its burden to prove entitlement to expand the nonconforming use,” the judge’s opinion states.

The board’s concerns included that Plum Creek MHC did not submit required plans, studies and other supporting materials, in particular those establishing that the expansion complies with stormwater and floodplain regulations; did not include proper site layout, internal circulation, buffering and other elements of proper design; and did not establish that additional traffic from the park would be accommodated safely and efficiently.

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