## Facts

- A nonprofit residential school for court-committed boys owned approximately 779 acres located within a township and sought to have its land incorporated as a new borough.
- The school maintained substantial internal services (including water, trash removal, and on-site sewage disposal) and housed employees and their families on school property, but did not operate its own police or fire department.
- The school filed the incorporation petition as the sole freeholder and sole signer, asserting that resident employees and their families could serve as the borough’s citizenry and that their taxes could fund additional services.
- A court-appointed advisory committee held hearings and recommended denial.
- The committee found the proposed borough’s boundaries would create enclaves of township land inside the proposed borough and would leave a residential area of the township connected to the remainder only by a narrow land corridor, impairing the township’s territorial integrity and governance.
- The trial court denied the petition, relying on the adverse geographic impact on the township and expressing concern about incorporation dominated by a single institutional landowner.
- The school appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the Borough Code’s “desirability” inquiry for incorporation allows consideration of factors beyond the statute’s listed items, including the proposed borough’s effect on the surrounding municipality’s geographic integrity and governmental functioning.
2. Whether the adverse boundary configuration findings supported denial of the incorporation petition.

## Decision

- The Commonwealth Court affirmed the denial of the incorporation petition.
- The court held that the advisory committee and reviewing court may consider factors beyond those specifically enumerated in the Borough Code when assessing “desirability.”
- The court held it was proper to consider whether incorporation would fragment the township, create enclaves, and interfere with municipal functions.
- The geographic and functional impacts found by the advisory committee and accepted by the trial court were a sufficient basis to deny incorporation.

## Legal Principles

- When a statute provides that specified considerations “shall include, but not be limited to” enumerated factors, decision-makers may weigh additional relevant considerations within the statutory inquiry.
- In borough-incorporation proceedings, “desirability” may include the effect of proposed boundaries on the surrounding municipality’s territorial integrity and ability to govern and deliver services.
- A court may deny incorporation where the proposed boundaries would unjustifiably create enclaves or otherwise materially impair the cohesion and functioning of the remaining municipality.

## Conclusion

The court upheld denial of incorporation because the Borough Code permits a broad “desirability” assessment, and the proposed borough’s boundaries would have fragmented the township through enclaves and an impractical territorial configuration that could hinder municipal functioning.


In re Incorporation of the Borough of Glen Mills, 558 A.2d 592 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 1989)