Moon reverses Wal-Mart vote
Friday, July 11, 2008
A Wal-Mart may be built in Moon after all.
The Moon supervisors voted Thursday night to allow Wal-Mart into the township, reversing their decision of a week ago.
The special meeting was called after two supervisors who originally opposed the proposal -- James Vitale and Michael Hopper -- had misgivings over the legality of their vote.
The board on July 3 rejected several of the nine conditional uses, or deviations from the township's municipal code, which Wal-Mart requested.
While those denials were legally appropriate, the rejection of the overall proposal could invite litigation from Wal-Mart, solicitor Michael Santicola said.
"Because the conditional uses are denied is not sufficient legal basis for denying a major land development plan," he said.
Wal-Mart will not try to retool its proposal to fit in with Moon codes on such issues as distance of the store from an apartment complex and the layout of the parking lot.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
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Having a competent land use attorney is a must have for communities experiencing growth. Moon had an attorney who was an expert in land use. The board decided to replace him in January with an attorney who represents drunk drivers. I believe that the prior attorney would have made it clear to the board that they had no legal reason to deny the plan as well as the consequences of denying the plan prior to their vote, not after the fact.
It seems to me that the boards short-sighted decision to replace their land use attorney has placed Moon Township into a situation where court involvement concerning this project is becoming increasingly likely. Because Moon has denied the plan, Wal-Mart can ignore the second vote and appeal Moon's original denial to court and win. IMHO Moon is in a weak legal position. Wal-Mart now has real leverage over our township and our supervisors. Wal-Mart can abide by the new vote if they want to, but make no mistake about it, there will be a price that the township will have to pay to make Wal-Mart's legal threats go away.
The Statesman's comments are right in line with reality...the legal advice Moon Township is getting is worse than no advice at all.