PA's Municipalities Planning Code

What Act 247 does

The MPC is enabling legislation — it doesn't mandate that municipalities plan or zone; it authorizes them to do so and structures the process when they do. The statute's reach:

• Counties, cities of the third class, boroughs, towns, first-class townships, and second-class townships — the MPC governs their planning and land use authority.
• Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — operate under separate authority (Home Rule Charters and first/second-class-city statutes). Act 247 doesn't cover them.
• Counties must adopt a comprehensive plan — one of the few MPC mandates.
• Municipalities may but are not required to zone — many small townships don't have zoning.
• County zoning fills gaps — where a municipality has no zoning, county zoning applies; when the municipality later adopts its own zoning, it supersedes county zoning in its territory.

Primary source: dced.pa.gov (Governor's Center for Local Government Services).

Comprehensive plans

The MPC establishes comprehensive plans as the planning foundation:

• Planning agency prepares — municipal or county planning commission drafts.
• Public process — at least one planning-agency public meeting with notice, plus at least one governing-body public hearing with notice.
• Governing body adoption — majority affirmative vote by resolution.
• County + contiguous-municipality comment consideration required.
• Plans are advisory blueprints — they're not laws directly enforceable against property owners, but zoning and SLDO must generally implement them.

The gap between comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance is worth understanding. A plan can say "mixed-use transit-oriented development preferred" while the zoning ordinance still prescribes single-use residential. The plan guides future zoning amendments but doesn't directly regulate.

Zoning ordinances

Where a municipality elects to zone under Article VI:

• Planning agency recommends ordinance text or amendments to governing body.
• County planning agency review — 45 days before public hearing for new ordinances, 30 days for amendments.
• Public hearing with public notice including summary of principal provisions and where to inspect full text.
• Enactment vote within 90 days after last public hearing.
• Filing with county planning agency within 30 days of enactment.

Once enacted, the zoning ordinance controls what uses are permitted, density, setbacks, height, parking, signage — the standard zoning vocabulary.

Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances (SLDO)

Separate from zoning, SLDO governs how land is subdivided and developed:

• Plats must be submitted to governing body or designated planning agency for approval.
• Planning agency may administer SLDO review.
• Same public-notice and public-hearing framework as zoning for adoption/amendment.
• Same county-planning-agency review timeline (45 days new / 30 days amendment).

A project in a zoned municipality with an SLDO engages both ordinances — zoning for use/dimensional compliance, SLDO for subdivision/site-plan details.

The Zoning Hearing Board

Every zoning municipality must establish a Zoning Hearing Board (ZHB). The MPC prescribes:

• Size: three or five resident members.
• Terms: three-year (3-member) or five-year (5-member) rotating terms with one seat expiring per year.
• Eligibility: members cannot hold other elected or appointed municipal office and cannot be municipal employees.
• Alternates: one to three alternate members may be appointed by the governing body.
• Quasi-judicial role: hears and decides appeals and applications.

ZHB functions under § 909.1:

• Appeals from the Zoning Officer — determinations, permit grants/denials, cease and desist orders, nonconforming use registrations.
• Special exceptions — uses specifically identified in the ordinance as requiring ZHB approval.
• Variances — relief from strict ordinance application where unnecessary hardship exists due to unique property conditions, hardship not self-created, relief not detrimental to public welfare.
• Substantive validity challenges — challenges to ordinance validity, except those brought as curative amendments.

The ZHB is quasi-judicial — its hearings run with witnesses under oath, evidence, cross-examination, and decisions on the record. Decisions are appealable to the Court of Common Pleas.

Conditional use: governing body, not ZHB

A common source of confusion: conditional uses are decided by the governing body, not the ZHB, after planning agency recommendation and a public hearing. Special exceptions go to the ZHB. The zoning ordinance designates which uses are which. The procedural path differs meaningfully, and applicants need to know which lane applies to their project.

Curative amendments — challenging the ordinance itself

The curative amendment process (Article VI, §§ 609.1 and 609.2, and § 812-A for joint-municipal zoning) lets a landowner challenge the substantive validity of a zoning ordinance or map:

• Landowner submits a curative amendment proposing text to fix the alleged defect.
• Governing body hears the challenge — not the ZHB. This is the key distinction from a standard variance or validity challenge.
• Planning commission + county referral at least 30 days before hearing.
• Public notice + hearing per MPC requirements.
• Governing body action — accept, modify, or reject; may adopt its own curative alternative.
• Court review — if governing body denies and court later finds the challenge meritorious, only the specific offending provisions are invalidated, not the whole ordinance.

The curative amendment path is narrow and procedurally specific, but it's the vehicle for challenges like "this ordinance effectively excludes a lawful use of this land" or "this map classification is confiscatory." When the issue is a single variance on a specific property, the ZHB is the path; when the issue is the ordinance's validity as applied generally, curative amendment is the path.

How MPC interacts with UCC building permits

MPC and UCC (see our PA UCC essay) are complementary, not redundant:

• MPC governs land use — what can be built where, at what density, with what setbacks.
• UCC governs construction — how the building is constructed, structural code, MEP code, energy.
• Zoning compliance is typically a UCC permit prerequisite. A municipality generally won't issue a UCC building permit for a project that doesn't conform to zoning.
• Zoning Officer and Construction Code Official are often different people even in the same municipality — zoning review happens first, construction review next.
• SLDO approval is usually upstream of UCC permit for subdivision/site-plan-triggering projects.

A contractor's typical PA small-township project flow: conceptual zoning check → formal zoning (special exception, variance, or conditional use as needed) → SLDO plan approval if applicable → UCC building permit → construction → inspections → CO. MPC structures the first three; UCC structures the last four.

What out-of-state developers should internalize

• MPC produces consistency across PA townships. A developer who learns the MPC's procedural rhythms can navigate hundreds of PA municipalities using the same framework, even though specific zoning ordinances vary.
• Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are different. Separate frameworks. Don't transfer MPC assumptions to those cities.
• ZHB vs governing body distinction matters. Variance/special exception vs conditional use path differs.
• Public notice requirements are strict. Defective notice can invalidate ordinance enactment or approvals; this is a common procedural challenge vector.
• County planning agency review windows. Budget 45 or 30 days for county referral before the public hearing.
• The 90-day enactment window on ordinance adoption post-hearing is a real constraint; missed windows restart the process.
• Curative amendment is a specific tool. Use it when the issue is ordinance validity, not individual variance.

How PA's MPC compares to neighbors

• New Jersey. Municipal Land Use Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.) is NJ's analog — state enabling act for municipal zoning, planning boards, zoning boards of adjustment. Structurally parallel to MPC.
• Maryland. Land Use Article with county-driven zoning rather than municipal-driven; significantly different structure.
• Delaware. Varies by county. Unincorporated areas under county zoning; incorporated municipalities exercise their own zoning.
• Virginia. Code of Virginia Title 15.2 Chapter 22 (Planning, Subdivision, and Zoning). Parallel enabling structure to MPC with Virginia-specific variations.

What to do with this

If you're developing in PA outside Philadelphia/Pittsburgh: internalize the MPC's vocabulary. Municipality-specific ordinance details vary; MPC's procedural framework is consistent.

If you're facing a zoning issue: determine whether it's a variance/special exception (ZHB), conditional use (governing body), or ordinance validity (curative amendment). The path matters.

If you're new to the ZHB hearing format: it's quasi-judicial. Prepare testimony, evidence, and counsel as you would for an administrative hearing — not a friendly meeting.

For cross-reference to PA's UCC building permit side, see our PA UCC essay. For PA contractor licensing, see our PA HIC essay.

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