Pennsylvania court holds a driveway linking an existing school to a road is not land development
The Commonwealth Court reversed a trial court and upheld a zoning permit for a school access drive, holding on this record that the drive was not land development and met the township's traffic-safety standard.
Adding an access drive to an already developed site in Pennsylvania does not by itself require land development plan review, at least where the record shows only a negligible effect on municipal services. On October 19, 2026, the Commonwealth Court held in Smith v. York Twp. Zoning Hearing Bd., No. 939 C.D. 2025 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Oct. 19, 2026), that an access drive connecting an existing elementary school to an existing public road was not “land development” and did not require a land development plan under the township's subdivision and land development ordinance (“SALDO”), whose definition the court treated as substantively the same as that of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (the “MPC”), 53 P.S. §§ 10107(a), 10507.
Smith v. York Twp. Zoning Hearing Bd., No. 939 C.D. 2025 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Oct. 19, 2026); 53 P.S. §§ 10107(a), 10507