Apr 4, 2002 By Jennifer Harr 2 min read

The state Supreme Court has denied a request to hear arguments from the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board regarding the county’s zoning ordinances and the placement of mobile homes. Attorney Thomas Bowlen said he received confirmation Wednesday that the state’s highest court affirmed an appeals court ruling that would allow Jamie Brebrich to keep her trailer on a parcel of land not zoned for mobile homes.

Bowlen said the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case means two things: that Brebrich can keep her home on the Liberty Street and Commercial Avenue corner lot in Masontown and that the county’s zoning ordinance is unconstitutional.

“They can’t zone out manufactured housing just because it’s manufactured,” Bowlen said of the county’s ordinance.

The matter gained attention after fall 1999, when Brebrich moved her trailer onto the lot. Although she was given permission to take it there by a zoning official who thought the lot was zoned R-2, she later was informed that the lot actually was zoned R-1, but she put her trailer there anyway.

The latter designation does not permit permanently attached trailers, while the R-2 designation does. Brebrich’s mobile home is permanently attached, said Bowlen.

The county’s zoning hearing board and Judge John F. Wagner Jr. each ruled that Brebrich was not allowed to have the home there, under the county’s ordinance.

However, Brebrich appealed Wagner’s decision to the Commonwealth Court. There, judges ruled that if mobile homes are permanently attached, the county cannot ban them.

The county subsequently appealed to the state Supreme Court, which filed notice Tuesday they would not hear the appeal.

Bowlen said county officials now have to decide what to do with the ordinance since it has been declared unconstitutional.

He also noted that although the county cannot, “developers or owners can put private restrictions on the use of land, limiting it to homes on a site. A municipality cannot do that.”