Freedom Road Area Homeowners Appeal Special Business District

Homeowners on and around Freedom Road will have to wait until September for a decision on an appeal they filed with Cranberry’s Zoning Hearing Board that challenges a special business district.

The 13 homeowners The district in the residentially-zoned area allows development for a mix of homes, apartments, and businesses. Big-box type stores and chain restaurants such as are not permitted in the special district.

At Monday’s hearing, Pittsburgh-based attorney D.J. Nichols, who is representing the homeowners, said he plans to argue the district violates the equal protection clause found in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Nichols said the Traditional Neighborhood District does not treat properties and property owners in similarly-situated areas in the same way. He also will argue the district does not comply with the purposes and conditions for a Traditional Neighborhood Development.

Nichols will have 45 days to file a brief backing up that argument to Cranberry’s Zoning Hearing Board. The township then has 45 days to file a response to the brief.

Board members will have until Sept. 6 to give a decision on the appeal.

John Trant, Cranberry’s chief strategy officer, who was questioned during Monday's hearing as a witness by Neva Stanger, the attorney representing Cranberry, said the Traditional Neighborhood Development district was approved for Freedom Road in 2010. This followed an almost two-year planning process that included input from Freedom Road-area homeowners and business owners, he said.

Trant also noted the Traditional Neighborhood Development district is not a mandatory requirement in the Freedom Road corridor.

“It is discretional at the option of the property owner,” he said. 

While adding a TND district to a location does not change the area’s original zoning, it does give property owners other options for development.

who wished to develop their properties for commercial use with those who live in neighborhoods behind Freedom Road and want to keep big businesses from abutting their properties.

The intent was for the Traditional Neighborhood Development to be a compromise that allows development, but not the type of high-intensity stores and restaurants that would have been permissible with a commercial zoning, Andree said.

Besides Freedom Road, a TND district also covers sections of Rochester Road and Route 228.