Yogi Berra, who coined the phrase "It ain't over 'til it's over," might appreciate the legal battle between Steven Victor and Robinson.

Last week, Mr. Victor noted that Commonwealth Court had supported the "deemed approval" of Stafford Park, the housing plan he envisions along Clever Road. Only a state Supreme Court appeal could derail his plans, he said, and that seemed unlikely.

Such an opinion, however, overlooks one small detail.

"If you look at the last paragraph of that ruling, it says 'the deemed approval by the trial court does not include zoning issues,'???" township attorney Bob Garvin said this week. He said Mr. Victor "may have preliminary approval of his plans" granted by the court, "but he does not have zoning approval."

Mr Garvin said the township's zoning ordinance calls for plans to provide a 50-foot buffer along any intermittent stream, and noted that a waterway that existed on Mr. Victor's property had been classified as an intermittent stream.

"He's got to have a plan for that stream, and his plans as they exist now do not," Mr. Garvin said. So if and when Mr. Victor comes to the township for a building permit to start work on the property, he's not likely to get it.

"We'll just tell him he doesn't have zoning approval," Mr. Garvin said.

He also noted that Mr. Victor already applied for a variance regarding the waterway, and was denied.

So it appears that the whole dispute, which is approaching the five-year mark, will return once again to the question of that waterway -- right back where it started.

Mr. Victor in 2004 applied for approval for Coventry Park, with 66 houses on 42 acres. He was told he would need a variance because of the waterway, applied for one from the township zoning hearing board, and was denied in early 2005.

He then sued the hearing board, claiming that the waterway was an "ephemeral" stream rather than an "intermittent" one -- more of a runoff swale than a creek fed from substantial sources.

That question got harder to address in 2006, however, when Mr. Victor cleared the property and graded it, destroying the waterway. The township cited him for violating its land-use ordinances, but Mr. Victor had state and federal mining permits to remove coal and remediate an abandoned mine, and eventually won that court battle.

The mining was completed earlier this year.

The latest round began in December 2007, when the township denied the preliminary master plan for Stafford Park, the new name for what was Coventry Park.

Mr. Victor was at the meeting and heard the denial, but went back to court when the township did not issue a written denial until four days past the 15-day deadline.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Court sided with Mr. Victor, ruling that the delay constituted a "deemed approval" of the plan, leading to the Commonwealth Court ruling now in question.

Mr. Garvin said he had not discussed the lack of zoning approval with Mr. Victor or his lawyer, and didn't plan to. "We'll just wait until he comes in for a building permit."