Despite objections, Rustin land sale approved

Developer to buy almost 50 acres of land in Westtown from district for $5.05 million

WEST CHESTER >> A Common Pleas Court judge has approved the sale of almost 50 acres of land owned by the West Chester Area School District on the campus of the Bayard Rustin High School.

Although the proposal to sell the property was approved without argument by Judge William P. Mahon on March 11 after a hearing at the Chester County Justice Center, it did not come without some comment — negative in the main — from students at the school.

In a petition signed by 82 students that was presented to Mahon by Rustin junior Jack Billow, the signers said that although they agreed that much of the land in question is unused, “sizable amounts … are currently being used to facilitate cross country practices, rugby practices, etc.”

The petitioners asked the court not to approve the school board’s request to be able to sell the property to a Delaware County home builder “or any other potential buyer.”

Mahon, however, found the board’s solicitor had properly made the case that the land should be sold as unneeded for the high school. He signed the order immediately following the hearing on March 11.

The West Chester district purchased approximately 175 acres of land along East Street Road and Shiloh Road in 2002 from the estate of the late Westtown farmer Marshall Jones for the spe-

cific purpose in building the district’s third high school.

According to discussions about the land sale at school board meetings in 2015, a corner of the property was initially slated for location of a new elementary school to replace two aging schools, Penn Wood and Westtown-Thornbury. But residents objected to closing those two neighborhood schools, and the board dropped the new construction plan at some point.

Instead, the district submitted a subdivision plan to Westtown proposing the 49.7 acres as the site of a 50-lot housing development along Shiloh Road. The subdivision plan, which the township approved in May, includes 30 acres of dedicated open space. The board solicited bids for purchase of the subdivided property, and in November agreed to sell the land to Flintlock Associates, a Media-based development company, pending court approval.

The company agreed to pay the district $5,050,000, about twice the $2.6 million value that it had been appraised as having prior to the subdivision approval.

The board’s vote to sell the land met with some opposition from Westtown residents who wanted the property kept as open space. But the board noted that the $5 million would help pay for the capital program to renovate the aging elementary schools in the township.

The court hearing was set for March 11, and that afternoon Solicitor Ross Unruh and a team of colleagues and school district officials appeared before Mahon. Also appearing, however, was Billow, a high school wrestler, who appeared nervous about entering the courtroom during the hearing.

But he rose and spoke to Mahon about the students’ opposition to the sale, presenting him with the homemade petitions.

In comments from the signers, it was clear that the sale was an unpopular idea, and evoked the enthusiasm of youth.

Along with comments such as, “We must maintain the beauty,” “Don’t do it man,” and “More land for running” were those such as “Taking the land from cross-country — Tyranny!!!” and “They can take out land but not our freedom.”

Mahon accepted the petition from Billow and entered it into the record, but approved the sale nonetheless. The judge said recently that he was impressed with Billow’s presentation, and encouraged him to consider a career as a courtroom advocate.

The district must now wait for the sale to go through, and report back to Mahon when it has been finalized.