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Electric vehicles (EV) have an increasingly important role in Pennsylvania’s transportation network. In 2022, there were over 42,000 EVs registered in the Commonwealth, almost double the roughly 23,000 that were registered in 2021. This increase in EVs corresponds to a greater need for charging stations, which in turn can impact a community’s land use goals and objectives.

While Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) contains several provisions relating to vehicle parking facilities, it does not contain specific provisions relating to EV parking or EV charging stations. Nevertheless, the MPC affords municipalities a good deal of discretion and flexibility in enacting zoning ordinances, and municipalities may benefit from adopting EV-specific regulations.

Continue Reading Electric Vehicles Prompt Municipalities to Revisit their Zoning Ordinances
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On May 11, 2023, USEPA announced proposed rules to further limit the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants and other electric generating units (EGUs). Industry trade associations assert that these regulations are a not-so-subtle attempt to eliminate fossil fuel use in the electricity generation industry.

Continue Reading EPA PROPOSES NEW LIMITATIONS ON CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS FROM ELECTRIC GENERATING UNITS
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This is a guest post by Andrew Notarfrancesco, Vice President of JEM Group

For most people, a primary residence is the largest investment they will make over their lifetime. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people will be curious, critical, or even opposed to any type of real estate development in their community which they feel could have an adverse impact on the place they chose to live. This is frequently the case with affordable housing, where the age-old ‘not in my backyard’ stigma often stems from beliefs that low-to-moderate income neighbors could undermine the local quality of life and security.

Continue Reading Better Housing and Building to Improve Lives
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Over the course of 2022, rising interest rates and inflation slowed the housing market frenzy. As a result, for the first time since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, residential homebuilders may find themselves with excess inventory. If your company is in this situation, it is important to understand when real estate taxes can be assessed against new construction, including model and spec homes (even when they are being used temporarily as a sales or leasing office), or even partially leased multi-family buildings. It may be later than you think! 

Continue Reading To Assess or Not to Assess? Temporary Tax Exemption for New Residential Construction
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With football season behind us, March arrives with bracket talk and the discussion of college basketball teams you have never heard of. Some of us spend hours researching or contacting that old college buddy to help fill our brackets, while others choose teams based on names or colors. No matter your strategy, March Madness and the brackets are here!

Continue Reading Top 5 Ways to Encourage Controlled and Collaborative Development: Providing for Clearly Defined Processes (Part II of V)
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Commonwealth and local officials recently announced that a new farm will soon begin operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  A farming operation may not seem like front page news given Pennsylvania’s long and rich agricultural heritage, or the fact that Pennsylvania has been one of the nation’s leading agricultural production states, including tops in the number and acreage of permanently preserved farms. But what makes this particular farm newsworthy is its departure from well-known, century-old farming techniques: this farm is a technology-based, indoor vertical farming operation located within an industrial business park that is in close proximity to an interstate highway.

Continue Reading Vertical Farming on the (Vertical) Horizon?

With 2023 underway, many businesses are gearing up to complete and submit their annual Tier II chemical inventory reports under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (“EPCRA”).  Pennsylvania administers the program through the Department of Labor & Industry. Tier II reports are due by March 1 and therefore businesses should take the opportunity now to review their operations, purchases, and past reporting to ensure that all regulatory requirements under ECPRA are being met.  This blog post provides a brief overview of the Tier II chemical inventory reporting requirements under EPCRA and how those requirements may apply to your business and its operations.

Continue Reading What’s In Your Warehouse? Chemical Reporting Due March 1
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Benjamin Franklin once wrote “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” While this famous quote still rings true, there are a few valuable exceptions. Under Article 8, Section 2 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the General Assembly may enact laws exempting certain properties from taxation. For instance, Section 204(a)(2) of the General County Assessment Law (the “Act”) provides that “[a]ll actual places of burial, including burial grounds and all mausoleums, vaults, crypts or structures intended to hold or contain the bodies of the dead” shall be exempt from all county, city, borough, town, township, road, poor and school tax. In addition to cemeteries, there are 12 other types of properties that are exempt under Section 204(a) of the Act.

However, while a portion of a property may be exempt from taxation under Section 204, other portions of the same property may not. The extent of a property’s exemption depends on the specific language employed in Section 204. Indeed, whereas Section 204(a)(2) exempts “actual places of burial”, Section 204(a)(1) exempts “churches, meeting-houses, or other actual places of regularly stated religious worship, with the ground thereto annexed necessary for the occupancy and enjoyment of the same.” Other exemptions under Section 204(a) include similar language that can make it difficult to pinpoint the extent of a property’s exemption. That said, it is clear that the use of all portions of the property must be considered, and not only the use of buildings or improvements.

Continue Reading “Nothing is certain except death and taxes”… unless a Pennsylvania Tax Exemption Applies
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The affordability of housing in America is a well-documented growing issue.  Some public officials have declared it a crisis.  The recent spike in mortgage rates certainly will not improve the situation.  Public officials and developers have been searching for policies and real world opportunities to provide more affordable housing, but there are no easy solutions.  A recent article by Mike Bebernes on Yahoo! News looked at whether America’s growing vacant office space can be redeveloped to provide for more affordable housing options.

Continue Reading Is Part of the Solution to the Housing Problem Already Built?

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 a review of relevant rules of professional conduct and applicable laws; an examination of the role of compliance in good governance; advice for board members who are ex officio or officials of other public bodies that may have interests which compete with those of the public body; and a look into when such officials should recuse themselves.

The class costs $5 and will take place from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 8, 2022. Attendees may participate either in-person (Harrisburg) or online, and will earn 1.0 hour of ethics CLE credits. If you are interested in attending, you may register HERE.