A Common Pleas Court judge will issue a ruling in 30 days in a residential real estate developer's appeal of the Butler Township zoning hearing board's denial of a zoning permit to build 113 homes in the proposed Highfield Trails development.

Following a hearing held for arguments in the case Monday, Judge Thomas J. Doerr said he would issue an order within 30 days.

The developer, Great Living LLC, applied to the board last year to build 113 homes in a cluster development on the 39-acre site off Highfield and South Duffy roads.

The board denied the application, but later approved a second application from Great Living to construct 100 homes on the site.

Zoning officials said the zoning ordinance requires a minimum of a 1,500-square-foot lot for each single-family unit in a development, and there isn't enough room on the property for 113 homes to meet that requirement.

Part of Great Living's appeal argues that the roads in the development should count in the home density calculation, but the township said road and rights of way are not included.

Mildred Sweeney, the attorney representing the developer, said the ordinance contains three different methods for calculating density and is ambiguous.

The Pennsylvania Municipal Code states that disputes involving zoning issues that aren't clear must be resolved in favor of the property owner.

David Crissman, the attorney representing the board, and township solicitor Rebecca Black argued that the ordinance is clear and not ambiguous.

“No ambiguity whatsoever,” Crissman said.

He said the ordinance provides the calculation developers must use to determine how many homes can be built on any given property and excludes roads from the calculation. The ordinance also includes a 1,500-square-foot minimum lot size for homes, he said.

Black said the developer initially argued that roads should be included in the calculation, but has changed the argument to claim the ordinance is ambiguous.

She said the ordinance includes the calculation and minimum lot size for residential developments.

“I think the zoning ordinance is clear,” Black said.