What’s the Use? Legal or Otherwise
By Carolyn Ristau
In the context of a zoning code, the legal use of a property is the one that has been reviewed and approved by the city with the appropriate documentation. In Pittsburgh, the appropriate documentation is the Certificate of Occupancy (not to be confused with the Occupancy Load Placard, Zoning or Property Certification, or Certificate of Appropriateness - future posts will explain the differences).
The use described on the most recent Certificate(s) of Occupancy for a site is considered the legal use. A Certificate of Occupancy may cover the entire property and all uses or only a portion of the property and uses. Note: Existing single-family dwellings that meet the zoning code’s definition of a single-family dwelling are not required to have a Certificate of Occupancy.
The most common complication with the legal use is that it may not match the actual use of a property. This often comes up with houses that are being used as two or more units. At some point in their history (during construction or at a later date), these buildings were divided into multiple units without being documented on a Certificate of Occupancy. The lack of documentation can go unnoticed for years, even decades, until an applicant requests a permit for a new roof, electrical upgrades, porch, or other work. Zoning staff cannot approve the scope of work for the requested permit if the stated use of the property does not match the legally documented use or, in the absence of documentation, does not meet the definition of a single-family dwelling.
To add to the confusion, every property in Allegheny County has a use identified on the County’s Real Estate Portal website. That use identification relates only to the county’s records and may or may not match what is on file in the City’s records. The County’s use code is for taxing purposes and is based on the tax assessor’s identification of the actual use of a property. When the actual use does not match the legal use applicants may experience confusion and headaches in their zoning review.
There are paths forward to align the actual use with the legal use. These include:
seeking administrative approval that may take hours or days or weeks
requesting a use variance that takes months
converting the use to one that can be approved within the parameters of the zoning code
There are no guarantees that either of the first two options will be approved. They require specific types of evidence that are not always available and when they are, they do not always support the request.
The best way for an applicant to go into the situation prepared is to use Pittsburgh’s online Certificate of Occupancy search. When using the search, a heavy-handed approach to the asterisk wild card is recommended. For example, if the property in question is 412 Grant Street, the recommended search would be 412 Grant*; or if the property is 412 Boulevard of the Allies, the recommended search would be 412*Allies. Even with the wildcard, it is possible that the Certificate of Occupancy is located under a different address, in which case it won’t show during your search.
The results returned on the public search tool are less accurate than the internal search options available to zoning staff. This means that, when using the public tool, no results or results that show a different legal use than the actual one may not be the end of the story. However, it is a good indication that the question of use may have to be resolved before the permit application can be processed.
