![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765985166_530_STT-L-FENCE-1213_4.jpg\")
A parking lot and fence owned by Don Mammano at 301-303 Penn Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\nScranton City Council overturned the Historical Architecture Review Board\u2019s rejection of a fence that developer Don Mammano installed at a parking lot at the former Plotkin shoe store site at 301-303 Penn Ave. without HARB approval.<\/p>\n
Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday \u2014 with council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster all voting no \u2014 on a resolution to accept HARB\u2019s decision on the fence.<\/p>\n
Council\u2019s vote Tuesday came a week after council held a hearing on the resolution on Dec. 9, when Mammano and his attorney, Patrick Lavelle, questioned whether HARB properly handled the issue last month.<\/p>\n
They said HARB held its own hearing on Mammano\u2019s belated application for the fence, but without telling Mammano the hearing would be held.<\/p>\n
Smurl said Tuesday: \u201cBased on last week\u2019s public hearing, the matter should be remanded to HARB with the rationale that the applicant may not have been given the full opportunity to present at HARB. City Council should recommend that HARB reconsider the application after giving the participant the opportunity to present. I understand that this will be happening at the HARB meeting this Thursday, Dec. 18 at 5:30 p.m. So I will be voting no on this legislation as I do not concur with the board\u2019s denial on the certificate of appropriateness at this time and prefer the matter be remanded to the HARB.\u201d<\/p>\n
A parking lot and fence owned by Don Mammano at 301-303 Penn Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
On Dec. 9, Mammano told council that he recently erected the fence when he paved the lot and striped it for permit parking and parking for his commercial properties across the street; but only belatedly submitted an application for the fence to HARB.<\/p>\n
HARB is an advisory body and its denials take the form of recommendations against certificates of appropriateness for applications. Such adverse HARB recommendations go to council as legislation for council to uphold or overturn.<\/p>\n
After introducing on Nov. 25 such a resolution from the Cognetti administration to uphold HARB\u2019s rejection of the fence, council tabled the legislation pending a council hearing on it held Dec. 9. That was when Mammano and Lavelle defended the installation of the fence and claimed HARB never informed Mammano about its meeting held in November about the fence.<\/p>\n
Other details about the fence dispute aired during the council hearing on Dec. 9 included:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mammano said his zoning variance allowing a parking lot required that he also erect a fence. He got a building permit from the city for the parking lot work but did not know he needed to first go before HARB for approval of the fence. Both the paving and fence were done at the same time. \u201cWhen I filed to get the building permit I was notified I had to go before HARB (for the fence). Unfortunately, it was the day they were putting the fence up. I spoke to the city, (and) they said you do have to apply to HARB and whatever their decision is, you\u2019re stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The city issued a stop-work order on the fence. Mammano had it\u2019s installation completed anyway because he thought the variance approval and building permit for the paving of the lot also included a fence. He asked if he should apply for a separate permit for the fence and was told yes, and that\u2019s when he learned he would have to go before HARB for the fence. \u201cWhen I spoke to city on that, I still felt that it wasn\u2019t necessary to go before HARB, because the way I read the HARB ordinance,\u201d it deals with buildings and facades \u2013 not fences, Mammano said. \u201cThere\u2019s no building there. They said we have to go to HARB anyway. I said OK, but the guys were doing the fence after they did the parking lot, and they were there to do it. And I said can we just do it (install the fence), pull the permit for it, knowing that it\u2019s got to go HARB, and they\u2019ll give me the final blessing. And then I think that upsetted HARB\u201d and that\u2019s why they denied it.<\/p>\n
\u2022 With the fence erected, he applied to HARB for its review and paid a $150 application fee. He claimed HARB never told him it would hear his fence application at a meeting in November, and thus he did not attend that meeting to advocate for his position. \u201cWe don\u2019t think they should have had a hearing without us being there,\u201d Lavelle said. Mammano added, \u201cFor whatever reason, I was never even invited for my own application and they denied it. And I think their letter was a little extreme as to why they denied it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 According to HARB\u2019s recommendation letter to council dated Nov. 18 that underlies the resolution, HARB\u2019s denial was based upon \u201cincomplete and inaccurate application materials,\u201d including a lack of a survey, site plan or measured drawings. \u201cFurthermore, the applicant installed a fence prior to receiving approval, and the fence as built does not match the design submitted for review. HARB is required by city ordinance to review accurate drawings and specifications prior to installation, and the lack of such materials is grounds for denial.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765985166_818_STT-L-FENCE-1213_3-rotated-1.jpg\")
A parking lot and fence owned by Don Mammano at 301-303 Penn Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Other reasons for HARB\u2019s denial included: the corner of Penn Avenue and Linden Street is a defining intersection in that area of the downtown and the former Plotkin site is a \u201cnoticeable void in an otherwise, architecturally rich and active block;\u201d the fence does not adequately screen the parking lot or leave any room for vegetation as a tool for softening and buffering the visual impact of a surface parking lot; and the fence installed without HARB approval was a \u201cmissed opportunity to reinforce a significant urban corner using well-established principles of urban design.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mammano noted the parking lot is associated with his major investments in that area of Penn Avenue and Linden Street, including a venture by restaurateur Rob Friedman going into Mammano\u2019s GAR Building across the street from the parking lot. \u201cI\u2019m bringing in Rob Friedman across the street and making a tremendous investment in that corner. Part of my deal with him coming to that location was to provide parking across the street,\u201d Mammano told council on Dec. 9. \u201cI went before the Zoning Board, I got the approval to make it a parking lot. One of their conditions was to put a fence up, which has been done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tuesday\u2019s council meeting was the last meeting of 2025, and the final meeting for Smurl and King, who are departing the council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton City Council overturned the Historical Architecture Review Board\u2019s rejection of a fence that developer Don Mammano installed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[182,139,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-63378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-scranton","11":"tag-scranton-headlines","12":"tag-scranton-news","13":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}