Disputes continue after Oakmont Zoning Hearing Board officials declared they don’t have jurisdiction to settle an ongoing legal battle involving various Oakmont businesses and the borough.
After two postponements, the hearing took place Wednesday night in borough council chambers.
Resident John Keefe owns multiple restaurants and properties in the borough, including The Lot at Edgewater, Vinnie’s Tavern (previously Oakmont Tavern), Pub 333, Hoffstot’s Cafe Monaco, Michael A’s, Carnivores and the closed Chelsea Grille.
He and his attorney have turned to the borough, Allegheny County Court and the state Commonwealth Court, claiming that Local Remedy Brewing is operating illegally by not adhering to an ordinance requiring establishments to have off-street parking. He and his attorney seek to appeal the brewery’s occupancy permit.
In the beginning of last year, the borough passed an ordinance that eliminated the requirement of off-street parking for incoming businesses. The ordinance ended up being invalidated by the Commonwealth Court last fall.
The initial hearing was postponed to Feb. 22 and again to Wednesday night after the hearing board questioned its own jurisdiction regarding Local Remedy’s occupancy permit.
The second postponement came after ZHB officials requested the deposition of the building code official who issued the certificate of occupancy.
During Wednesday’s hearing, zoning board chair Joseph Luciana asked borough Solicitor Jacob Leyland, Keefe’s attorney Thomas W. King III and Local Remedy Brewery’s attorney Dusty Elias Kirk to prove or disprove the board has jurisdiction to appeal an occupancy permit.
Luciana also asked for testimony from Jason Krainbucher, who works for Building Inspection Underwriters of PA Inc. (BIU) and issued a certificate of occupancy on behalf of the borough.
BIU also serves as Oakmont’s building code official. Krainbucher has been serving as the borough’s building code officer for about three years. He issued the certificate of occupancy in November 2024.
He said Borough Manager Scot Fodi, who administered zoning permits at that time, didn’t tell him the 2023 ordinance was being appealed. Krainbucher said Fodi told him at the beginning of this year that the 2023 ordinance had been invalidated.
King argued the ZHB has jurisdiction to revoke the occupancy permit since it was granted on behalf of the borough by a building code official. He said the permit stipulates approval upon the discovery the applicant adheres to all rules, regulations and laws of the borough.
Krainbucher said any type of plan or project review is dependent on zoning approvals. He said nothing can progress before zoning approval is granted.
Zoning permits were previously administered by Fodi, and the role was transitioned to BIU before the occupancy permit was granted to Local Remedy, but after the project received zoning approval.
“Once we get verification (of zoning approval), (requesters) submit their drawings and our plan review goes through that process,” Krainbucher said. “Once those are approved by our plan examiner, they issue a permit. We go through the process of construction starting and we do inspections along the way.
“At the completion of that, as long as everything has been completed to the building code, we then issue a certificate of occupancy.”
Krainbucher said a building permit was issued for Local Remedy in April 2024. He said BIU received verification from the borough that zoning was approved. He said from April to November, zoning was not revisited before the certificate of occupancy was granted. It’s standard that zoning is not revisited after a building permit is approved, Krainbucher said.
He said the certificate of occupancy is granted based on whether a building complies with the borough’s uniform construction code.
Leyland maintained the board did not have jurisdiction to revoke a certificate of occupancy since it was issued by a separate borough entity.
“Only the borough council has the ability to issue conditional use approval, and thereby only borough council has the ability to rescind conditional use approval,” Leyland said. “Mr. Keefe is attempting to appeal a determination of the zoning officer that the zoning officer does not have the authority to actually make. Mr. Keefe is asking the zoning officer to undo a council decision.”
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Keefe, himself, did not speak during Wednesday’s hearing.
Leyland said the request goes beyond the power the zoning board has. He said the borough has not received a request from any authority to revoke conditional use or certificate of occupancy or issue a notice violation to Local Remedy.
The matter of the brewery’s conditional use permit has been appealed to Commonwealth Court by Keefe, Leyland said.
“We find no evidence in the record that the building code official relied upon any determination of the zoning officer in issuing the certificate of occupancy,” Luciana said on behalf of the ZHB. “The zoning officer did not have authority to overrule the borough council’s determination of conditional use, and that issue will be determined by the Commonwealth Court.”
The matter of the occupancy permit has been appealed to the Uniform Construction Code Board of Appeals, and a hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 16 in the Cheswick Borough Building.