Opponents of a plan to add a bowling alley to a central Pennsylvania golf course have rolled a strike with Commonwealth Court.
In an opinion by Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini, the state court overturned a ruling by a Lebanon County judge that backed the proposal to move the Cedar Lanes Bowling Alley to the Royal Oaks Golf Club.
ROGC Partners LLC, the course's owner, simply didn't prove enough of a financial hardship to justify the controversial shift, Pellegrini found.
Neighbors of the course took the case to Commonwealth Court after county Judge Charles T. Jones refused to overturn a variance ROGC won from the North Cornwall Township Zoning Hearing Board. The zoning board cited ROGC's claimed financial hardship in endorsing the plan to create a 20-lane bowling alley in a maintenance building at the course.
A zoning variance was needed because bowling alleys aren't allowed in the agricultural zoning district where the golf course is located. Nor are they considered permitted auxiliary uses for golf courses.
ROGC partner John Caporaletti, part owner of Cedar Lanes, told the zoning board the addition of the bowling alley was needed to boost flagging revenues at the golf course, which was seeing a drop in the number of rounds being played, Pellegrini noted. Also, the judge noted, alcohol and food would be served at the resurrected alley.
The opponents voiced concern that intoxicated bowling alley patrons would cause security problems. They cited potential traffic problems as well and argued that adding the alley "would further degrade the agricultural area," Pellegrini wrote.
He found that ROGC's desire to increase the income at the course didn't constitute enough of a "hardship" to justify granting the zoning variance. A "landowner's mere desire to maximize the potential use of the property...is not sufficient to establish unnecessary hardship," Pellegrini concluded.