On December 8, 2022, McNees attorneys David Unkovic, Ryan Gonder and Timothy Horstmann will host a CLE class along side Christopher Houston (retired from the PA State Employees’ Retirement System) exploring the ethical and practical issues encountered by legal counsel to the board of a public body, including municipal solicitors.

The CLE class will include

On June 7, 2022, Taco Bell opened its newest location in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Unlike other Taco Bell locations, the Brooklyn Park restaurant offers exclusively drive-through services with no accompanying dining option. Even more intriguing, the kitchen is designed above, as opposed to next to, the drive-through pick-up windows.

Dubbed “Taco Bell Defy”, the new “floating” restaurant represents the first location of the international chain’s quest to “redefin[e] drive-thrus as customers know it.” Specifically, the goal of Taco Bell Defy is to reduce drive-through service times from an average of 4.5 minutes to 2 minutes or less. In pursuit of this objective, the new location gives each service lane a specific purpose, including three pre-order pick-up lanes for third-party delivery services and customers using the Taco Bell app, and one traditional on-site order and pick-up lane. The two-story model boasts a proprietary “vertical lift” that delivers Taco Bell menu items from the kitchen above to the car below.Continue Reading Floating Restaurants: One and Done or More to Come?

In its recent decision, Appeal of Best Homes DDJ, LLC, 239-40 C.D. 2020 (Dec. 23, 2021), the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court considered, among other issues, whether MS4 fees imposed by the City of Chester Stormwater Authority constituted an impermissible tax. The case involved a challenge by certain rate/fee-payers that the Authority’s “fees” were actually “taxes”

Thank you for continuing to follow our Land Use Blog into 2022. Below are the top 5 most viewed posts of 2021. Enjoy!

TOP 5 POSTS OF 2021

  1. Kandice Hull – PennDOT’s Capital Beltway Project Is Moving Forward
  2. Jon Andrews – More Sunshine? What Do Changes to the Sunshine Act Mean to Developers?
  3. Jon Andrews

Manager vacancies are increasingly common, with many long-term managers contemplating retirement and others taking advantage of a very hot labor market.  With tight budgets and lean staffing, most municipalities do not have the luxury of grooming a clear heir apparent.  But there are some things you can do now to prepare, and there are certainly best practices that you can consider if your municipal or authority manager position becomes vacant.
Continue Reading Webinar: Manager Succession Planning

The Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation (“CAEDC”) is hosting a series of roundtable discussions focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on various industries across the Cumberland Valley. Panelists representing affected industries will discuss, among other things, the pandemic’s effect on production, delivery, labor, material, logistics, childcare and health issues.

The series, labeled “Come Back to Cumberland Valley: Economy Series”, kicked off on August 25, 2021 with a construction Webinar analyzing the pandemic’s impacts on the industry from March 2020 to the present. The panelists, which comprised of professionals of varying backgrounds and expertise, including real estate attorney Jon Andrews of McNees Wallace & Nurick, also discussed strategies for effectively navigating the next 18 months in a post-COVID climate.Continue Reading Come Back to Cumberland Valley: Economy Series

Consider the following scenario: You have recorded your plan for a single-family residential development and begin to install infrastructure.  After streets, utilities and curbs are constructed, individual lots are sold off and residents begin to move into your development.  After a week or two, you receive several complaints that the Post Office is not delivering mail to the mailboxes you installed along the frontages of each home.  When you reach out to the Post Office, you are told that curbside mail delivery is not available for your development and instead you must install centralized mail in the form of cluster box units (“CBUs”).  What do you do?

The foregoing scenario (or something similar) is occurring more and more regularly throughout the country as the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) continues to prioritize its transition from traditional curbside mail delivery to CBUs in residential developments.
Continue Reading Mr. McFeely’s Speedy Delivery – Now to Cluster Box Units Only

In the wake of coronavirus and associated state and local regulations, many Pennsylvania municipalities are making allowances to permit or expand outdoor restaurant operations on a temporary basis.  For instance, on June 5, 2020, the City of Lancaster (the “City”) adopted an ordinance (the “Ordinance”) to allow restaurants to expand the location of existing sidewalk café operations and further permit “any person…[to] submit an application for a Temporary License for a Temporary Sidewalk Café to the City Engineer”.  In addition, the Ordinance gives the City’s Director of Public Works the power to designate areas within the City as “areas reserved for consumption of food and beverages”.  The Ordinance is effective until December 31, 2020.
Continue Reading Outdoor Dining: The Zoning Implications of a Temporary Solution Becoming a National Trend

On May 4th, 2020 ,the Governor’s Office issued new guidance for businesses as they become authorized to restart in-person operations pursuant to the Administration’s phased red-yellow-green plan.  The guidance, which can be found here, includes a series of mandatory protocols designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 between and among employees and customers.  These protocols are binding upon “[a]ll businesses in all industries and sectors of the economy (including non-profit entities), in the Commonwealth, that are permitted to conduct-in person operations…unless they are otherwise more stringently regulated under separate industry-specific guidance”.

Recently, the Governor’s Office announced that twenty-four Pennsylvania counties will transition to the “yellow” phase on May 8th, thereby authorizing businesses in those counties to restart in-person operations on a limited basis. 
Continue Reading May 8 Opening: Guidance (Portions Mandatory) From The Commonwealth For Businesses

On April 22, Governor Wolf announced an amendment to his standing shutdown and shelter in place order that permits construction projects to resume statewide on May 1st.  This news comes just days after the Governor’s office released its “Plan for Pennsylvania,” which authorized “limited construction” activities beginning on May 8th.  Per