The Zoning Hearing Board shall elect from its own membership its officers, who shall serve annual terms as such and may succeed themselves.

For the conduct of any hearing and the taking of any action, a quorum shall be not less than a majority of all the members of the Zoning Hearing Board.

The Zoning Hearing Board may appoint a hearing officer from its own membership to conduct any hearing on its behalf, and the parties may waive further action by the Zoning Hearing Board as provided in this article.

The Zoning Hearing Board may take, alter and rescind rules and forms for its procedure consistent with ordinances of the municipality and laws of the commonwealth.

The Zoning Hearing Board shall keep full public records of its business and shall submit a report of its activities to the Supervisors once a year.

Notice shall be given to the public, the applicant, the Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer, such other persons as the Supervisors shall designate by ordinance and to any person who has made timely request for the same. Notices shall be given at such time and in such manner as shall be prescribed by ordinance or, in the absence of ordinance provision, by rules of the Zoning Hearing Board. The Supervisors may establish reasonable fees, based on cost, to be paid by the applicant and by persons requesting any notice not required by ordinance.

The hearings shall be conducted by the Zoning Hearing Board, or the Zoning Hearing Board may appoint any member as a hearing officer. The decision or, where no decision is called for, the findings shall be made by the Zoning Hearing Board, but the parties may waive decision or findings by the Zoning Hearing Board and accept the decision or findings of the hearing officer as final.

The parties to the hearing shall be the municipality, any person affected by the application who has made timely appearance of record before the Zoning Hearing Board and any other person, including civic or community organizations permitted by the Zoning Hearing Board. The Zoning Hearing Board shall have the power to require that all persons who wish to be considered parties enter appearances, in writing, on forms provided by the Zoning Hearing Board for that purpose.

The Chairman or Acting Chairman of the Zoning Hearing Board or the hearing officer presiding shall have power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of relevant documents and papers, including witnesses and documents requested by the parties.

The parties shall have the right to be represented by counsel and shall be afforded the opportunity to respond and present evidence and argument and cross-examine adverse witnesses on all relevant issues.

Formal rules of evidence shall not apply, but irrelevant, immaterial or unduly repetitious evidence may be excluded.

The Zoning Hearing Board or the hearing officer, as the case may be, shall keep a stenographic record of the proceedings, and a transcript of the proceedings and copies of graphic or written material received in evidence shall be made available to any party at cost.

The Zoning Hearing Board or the hearing officer shall not communicate, directly or indirectly, with any party or his representatives in connection with any issue involved except upon notice and opportunity for all parties to participate, shall not take notice of any communication, reports, staff memoranda or other materials unless the parties are afforded an opportunity to contest the material so noticed and shall not inspect the site or its surroundings with any party or his representative unless all parties are given an opportunity to be present.

The Zoning Hearing Board or the hearing officer, as the case may be, shall render a written decision or, when no decision is called for, make written findings on the application within 45 days after the last hearing before the Zoning Hearing Board or hearing officer. Each decision shall be accompanied by findings of fact and conclusions based thereon together with the reasons therefor. A conclusion based on any provisions of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247 of 1968,[1] or of any ordinance, rule or regulation shall contain a reference to the provision relied on and the reasons why the conclusion is deemed appropriate in the light of the fact found. If the hearing is conducted by a hearing officer, and there has been no stipulation that his decision or findings are final, the Zoning Hearing Board shall make his report and recommendations available to the parties, and the parties shall be entitled to make written recommendations thereon to the Zoning Hearing Board prior to final decision or entry of findings, and the Zoning Hearing Board's decision shall be entered no later than 45 days after the decision of the hearing officer. Where the Zoning Hearing Board has power to render a decision, and the Zoning Hearing Board or the hearing officer, as the case may be, fails to render the same within the period required by this subsection, the decision shall be deemed to have been rendered in favor of the applicant, unless the applicant has agreed, in writing, to an extension of time. Nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the right of any party opposing the application to urge that such decision is erroneous.

A copy of the final decision or, where no decision is called for, of the findings shall be delivered to the applicant personally or mailed to him not later than the day following its date. To all other persons who have filed their name and address with the Zoning Hearing Board not later than the last day of the hearing, the Zoning Hearing Board shall provide, by mail or otherwise, brief notice of the decision or findings and a statement of the place at which the full decision or findings may be examined.

Appeals from Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer. The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide appeals where it is alleged by the appellant that the Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer has failed to follow prescribed procedures or has misinterpreted or misapplied any provision of a valid ordinance or map or any valid rule or regulation governing the action of the Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to deny to the appellant the right to proceed directly in court, where appropriate, pursuant to the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules 1091 to 1098, relating to mandamus.

Challenge to the validity of any ordinance or map. The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear challenges to the validity of a zoning ordinance or map. In all such challenges, the Zoning Hearing Board shall take evidence and make a record thereon as provided in § 87-191. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Board shall decide all contested questions and shall make findings on all relevant issues of fact, which shall become part of the record on appeal to the court.

Variances. The Zoning Hearing Board shall hear requests for variances where it is alleged that the provisions of this chapter inflict unnecessary hardship upon the applicant. The Zoning Hearing Board may by rule prescribe the form of application and may require preliminary application to the Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer. The Zoning Hearing Board may grant a variance, provided that the following findings are made where relevant in a given case:

Where the governing body, in this chapter, has stated special exceptions to be granted or denied by the Board pursuant to express standards and criteria, the Zoning Hearing Board shall hear and decide requests for such special exceptions in accordance with such standards and criteria. In granting a special exception, the Zoning Hearing Board may attach such reasonable conditions and safeguards, in addition to those expressed in this chapter, as it may deem necessary to implement the purposes of this chapter.

The special exception shall be reviewed in accordance with the standards specified for such class of special exceptions in Article XXVI.

No person shall be allowed to file any proceeding with the Zoning Hearing Board later than 30 days after an application for development, preliminary or final, has been approved by an appropriate municipal officer, agency or body if such proceeding is designed to secure reversal or to limit the approval in any manner unless such person alleges and proves that he had no notice, knowledge or reason to believe that such approval had been given. If such person has succeeded to his interest after such approval, he shall be bound by the knowledge of his predecessor in interest.

The failure of anyone other than the landowner to appeal from an adverse decision on a tentative or preliminary plan or from an adverse decision by the Zoning/Code Enforcement Officer on a challenge to the validity of an ordinance or map shall preclude an appeal from a final approval except in the case where the final submission substantially deviates from the approved tentative or preliminary approval.