Residents file suit over construction project at funeral home

Council disregards

Raisa and Yevgeniy Burd of Brentwood say recent construction at the John F. Slater Funeral Home has caused flooding, mold and other problems at their nearby house.

When the Brentwood Borough Council approved plans in April for Slater to expand its parking lot, the couple decided to file suit to halt the work.

The Burds, represented by attorney Robert Max Junker, filed two lawsuits against Brentwood last week in the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

In one, they argue that the borough wrongly approved a site plan for a proposed parking lot expansion before a storm water maintenance plan and other details were submitted. In the other, they claim that the borough did not follow mandatory notification procedures when it rezoned the site.

A few years ago, Slater built a hospitality house after purchasing houses near its property. The business recently purchased another home, which it wants to turn into additional parking.

The Burds and other neighbors have been lobbying the borough of Brentwood for months to reject the plan. They say that runoff from the first project has caused water damage to their property and they are concerned that Slater’s expansion is harming their property values. The hospitality venue hosts a variety of parties aside from funeral luncheons, and Ms. Burd said that there are bright lights, late-night noise and increased traffic.

“It seems like we are in jail in our own house in the residential part of Brentwood,” said Ms. Burd, who has lived next to the funeral home for 14 years.

In March, the Brentwood Planning Commission recommended that the borough council decline to rezone the proposed parking site from single-family residential to mixed-use, which allows some business use, including parking.

Carol Wirth, who chairs the planning commission, said that her board was concerned that the proposed lot “jutted” into the residential neighborhood, whereas Slater’s earlier construction project “squared off the mixed-use line.”

Ms. Wirth also said that the

commission did not want to engage in “spot zoning,” and that it considered the neighbors’ concerns about drainage problems.

“If the initial part of the project had caused some issues, we didn’t want to exacerbate the problem by immediately approving everything,” she said.

But the council disregarded the planning commission recommendation. In 3-1 votes in April, it approved the rezoning as well as the site plan for the parking lot. When it approved the site plan, though, it did so under the condition that Slater would comply with technical comments that Brentwood’s engineers had raised. These include providing a maintenance plan for storm water management, as well as design details for fencing and retaining walls.

At a meeting in May, council President Harold Smith said that the borough would not issue building permits unless it was satisfied that the plans are up to code.

To Mr. Junker, though, the after-approval conditions seem like an afterthought.

In one of his appeals, he argued that the law does not allow a council to grant final approval to a site plan subject to “post-final approval changes.”

The second lawsuit argues that the borough did not follow multiple notice requirements that are in place for rezoning applications. For instance, it did not provide the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development with a timely copy of its proposed rezoning ordinance, and it did not properly publicize a public hearing, Mr. Junker said.

Brentwood’s solicitor, Gavin Robb, declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Andrew Slater, a funeral director at the Slater Funeral Home, acknowledged problems with storm water runoff, and said that the landscape was not properly graded after the original construction.

Mr. Slater said that his business has been working with engineers to address the issues. He said that he will put in a storm sewer and fix the grading so that water does not run off into neighboring properties.

Mr. Slater also said that he is researching getting shades to dim the light fixtures.

He added that he hoped the extra parking spaces would deter cars from parking in front of people’s homes.

But Henry Peitkiewicz, who lives nearby and has spoken against the project, said he is still worried that the funeral home’s growth will cause him headaches and hurt his property value.

“Who wants to live next door to a parking lot?” he asked.