HERMITAGE Son seeks permit to rebuild

The city ordered the Stacey family to vacate the house damaged by a rainstorm.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Raymond Stacey wants to rebuild his mother's East State Street house, razed by the city as an unsafe structure, to the exact dimensions of the original building.
The city tore down Helen Stacey's house at 1560 E State St. on Nov. 6, 2000, after a three-year legal battle with the Staceys over the structure's fate.
The city ordered Helen and her late husband, Andrew, to vacate the house after a June 30, 1997, rainstorm that washed away a portion of a basement wall.
The city and the Staceys then engaged in a lengthy fight over what repairs were needed to make the house safe again, with Raymond Stacey maintaining that the house was structurally sound.
The city won a common pleas court fight over the fate of the house and had a contractor level the property.
That prompted Raymond Stacey and his mother to file an appeal of the common pleas court ruling with Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court seeking to overturn the lower court ruling and force the city to pay damages.
Recent action: That case is still pending but, on Thursday, Stacey filed a request with the city for a building permit to rebuild the one-story structure to the exact dimensions of the original house. The permit application notes it will be a nonconforming structure, just as the original house was.
That means the house wouldn't comply with current city zoning regulations in terms of setbacks from the street and other dimensions. The old building had no setback from State Street and neither would the new one.
In requesting the permit, Stacey cited a section of the city's zoning regulations that states that any nonconforming building destroyed by fire or "any other means" may be reconstructed and used as before, if the reconstruction is started within one year.
Stacey's application said the building will measure about 69 feet deep by 53 feet wide and be 10 feet high. He is proposing to put up just the shell at a cost of $98,950.
Questions: City Manager Gary Hinkson said Stacey's request is being reviewed but that there are some questions the city needs to have answered.
It isn't clear if Stacey plans to rebuild a house or is looking at using the building as a small commercial plaza. If it's the latter, he will have to file a land development plan and provide storm water management and parking management plans for the development, Hinkson said.
Those regulations might not apply if it is strictly a residential structure, Hinkson said.
gwin@vindy.com