Sports complex talk hits snag
Official says township site meant for passive recreation
NEW HANOVER >> A region-wide tourism organization’s interest in exploring a multi-use sports complex on a parcel behind the township building has ruffled the feathers of at least one member of the board of supervisors.
Last month, the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board released a feasibility study showing Montgomery County is ripe to host a multiuse sports complex that could drive as much as $100 million of economic impact in the first five years through sports tourism.
There is no money or site for such a facility, but the bureau has begun looking, both for a site and for a developer willing to put up the money.
A two-year-old New Hanover town-wide recreation plan that among other things, showed an engineer’s drawing for a multiuse sports complex on township-owned property between Route 663 and Dotterer Road
caught the tourism board’s interest and was the motivation behind a recent meeting.
The plan’s map shows a 574,000-square-foot indoor recreation complex, four lighted baseball fields, four lighted multi-use fields, three natural turf fields and amphitheater and 1,400 parking spaces.
“The sketch plan shows the maximum we could ever do,” said Supervisors Chairman Phil Agliano. “There was never any discussion we would ever do that.”
Township Planner Adam Supplee said the drawing was done after meetings with local sports organizations indicated a need for additional fields in the area.
“It’s meant to be regional recreation, that can hold tournaments, that’s what all the athletic people told us,” Supplee told the supervisors Feb. 27 night. “It’s an ideal location for intense recreation.”
“I was under the impression that property was to be passive recreation,” said Supervisor Kurt Zebrowski. “Could our roads even handle all the traffic that would generate?”
Supplee said the traffic for such a facility would occur in off-hours, but noted that “this is a living document. If this isn’t what the supervisors want, we can change it.”
Whether or not the supervisors want it remains an open question, but the convention and visitors board would not complain if somebody built it.
Their study shows there has been a 20 percent increase in sports tourism nationwide in the last three years and that Montgomery County, with its wealth of attractions, restaurants and hotels, is ideally suited to capture a piece of it.
So they are obviously
“If this is such a big priority we should talk about it publicly.” Charles Garner, New Hanover Supervisor
“Nothing was agreed to. Their feasibility study has a lot of potential and we thought it would be a good idea to open a dialog with them.” Phil Agliano, New Hanover Supervisors Chairman
willing to meet with anyone and everyone who might be willing to host such a facility, or who may have had one in the works already.
“It was a very casual meeting and nothing was agreed to,” Michael Bowman, president of the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau, said of the meeting with New Hanover officials.
Bowman, who did not attend the meeting, said “if the sports complex is in New Hanover, Conshohocken or Pottstown, we don’t care. But we do know Montgomery County is ripe for a sports complex.”
But it is not a meeting Township Supervisor
Charles Garner thinks the township was ready to have at all.
At the last supervisor’s meeting, Garner asked about the township’s plans for the 64.55-acre parcel of land behind the township building, called the “Wassamer Tract,” and did not get what he considered to be a satisfactory or terribly comprehensive answer.
Then he found out that township officials met with the convention and visitors’ bureau about the property without discussing it with the full board, and he was not happy.
“The tourism bureau has been in contact with towns around the county. We’re not trying to keep anything from the supervisors,” said Supplee, who helped organize the meeting.
“I don’t understand why the township did not work through the township’s recreation committee. If this is such a big priority we should talk about it publicly,” said Garner. “This idea isn’t even in the top three priorities of the recreation plan.”
Agliano apologized and said the meeting was very informal and more informational than anything else.
“Nothing was agreed to,” he said. “Their feasibility study has a lot of potential and we thought it would be a good idea to open a dialog with them.”
Supervisor Andrew Kelly said he believes the Wassamer Tract “offers some unique potential,” who added that “things are not being done behind the scenes.”
But there is another hitch in considering the idea further, said Garner.
The property was purchased on May 26, 2011 for $3.2 million, according to township records. Garner said it was purchased “to prevent a subdivision from coming in, so we paid top dollar for it.”
The money used to buy it came from a township open space fund.
The fund was created in 2006 when the township residents voted to impose a .15 percent increase in the earned income tax to create a fund to purchase and preserve open space.
As such, Garner argued, it can’t be used for a commercial development.
“I think its disingenuous to say we bought it for open space and then use it for what seems like huge commercial recreation facility,” Garner said.
Pete Lukens, chairman of the township’s open space committee, agreed. “This was purchased with our tax money, not to enhance anybody’s business,” he told the supervisors. “To build some sprawling sports complex on open space that we purchased, doesn’t seem right to me.”
“To build some sprawling sports complex on open space that we purchased, doesn’t seem right to me.” Pete Lukens, New Hanover Open Space Committee Chairman