YES, IN-DEED!
LAWYERS JOUST OVER WHETHER OLD DEED CLEARS WAY FOR BUILDING OF NEW SCHOOL
UPPER DARBY >> Clifton Heights officials say deed restrictions on the property known as Clifton Fields prohibit the Upper Darby School District from building on it.
The school district officially says otherwise.
At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, district Solicitor A. Kyle Berman said he was happy to report that the more than 13 acres of the fields property on North Springfield Road in the borough is indeed titled to the district without restrictions to use the field to build a new school.
“What we discovered from the title search and the other research that we gathered was that the title company gives a clear bill for the field,” said Berman. “So, the district does have title to the entire Clifton field. The district also has the right to use the field for the district’s intended purpose, which includes building a school and upgrading the fields for school and community use.”
Clifton Heights Solicitor Frank Catania at a late March borough council meeting said he uncovered a restriction on the deed for the right side parcel (known as the MoyermanGibson Tract) that says it can only be used by the borough for “recreational and/ or municipal purposes and for no other purpose.” Catania said in an April 5 letter to Acting Superintendent Dan McGarry that the title search revealed “a number of unresolved issues.”
A Clifton resident pressed Berman about this issue at the board’s April 9 meeting. At the time Berman responded that the district was looking into the matter.
“The deeds say what the deeds say, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the restriction applies,” Berman said of the resident’s inquiry.
Berman said the title search covered the entirety property, but did not verify what firm underwrote the search. He said after the meeting that it was a quick update and that official documentation about the title search is forthcoming.
There was no comment from either school board members or district administrators, save from a thank you from board President Rachel Mitchell to Berman for the work that was completed.
Catania on Wednesday afternoon said he could not comment on what the district’s title search discovered without official documentation, but that he wasn’t sure how Berman came up with the conclusion he did.
This is just the latest piece of information in the ever-evolving dispute between the district and borough over the fields.
Clifton Heights has annually leased the fields from the district since 1977 for a nominal $1 fee. To many in the borough the fields are considered “sacred ground,” the spot where generations of kids took part in youth sports activities and home of community events such as the borough’s Fourth of July and fireworks celebrations.
The proposal to build a much-needed middle school on the site has sparked intense opposition in the borough. Many residents object to the possible loss of the last large piece of open space in the borough, as well as the focal point for recreation and community sports programs, as well as fundraising events. The school board last month took the necessary step to end the lease agreement effective in August of this year to continue preliminary viability work on the land to potentially build a 160,000 square foot middle school and update the athletic fields.
Residents held a rally at the site several weeks ago that drew more than 500 residents, many of them wearing the borough’s traditional colors of orange and black.
Clifton Heights Borough Council is prepared to pass two ordinances on May 28, one that will remove the land’s by-right zoning option to have a school built on it. The ordinance would make building a school on that land a conditional use option that would require borough council approval. Catania said Wednesday that after council’s meeting, certain lawsuits are expected to be filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas but did not elaborate on their nature. On May 2 he sent a letter to the district asking them to preserve a slew of documents pertaining to the Clifton Heights middle school project that will “likely lead to litigation in the near future.”