After four public hearing sessions, a plan to build an agricultural center and a new YMCA in Wayne County remains unresolved with another hearing scheduled later this month.
During the latest session Monday before the Cherry Ridge Twp. Board of Supervisors, the county, a co-developer of both projects, withdrew its application for a conditional use to build them. Instead, the county plans to apply separately through the township’s zoning hearing board. The YMCA of Wayne County, the other co-developer, is moving forward with its conditional use application before the supervisors.
The commissioners and the county YMCA want to build an agricultural innovation center and a new YMCA on 40 acres off Spinner Road and Leinert Lane, adjacent to state Route 191.
During the latest session, attorney John Martin, the county's lawyer, announced the county commissioners would withdraw their existing application and "immediately” apply to the zoning board for a special exception.
The property is in the township's Rural Resource District, which means the project cannot affect its neighbor's existing agricultural, residential and commercial uses.
“But I want to be clear of why we’re doing it,” Martin said roughly halfway through the two-and-a-half hour meeting. “We're doing this in an effort to remove the county as a co-applicant, as a possible appealable issue … since the county's proposed use is clearly a public or semi-public use.”
After the session, County Commissioner James Shook said the county would apply to the zoning board because it is a “public entity … [and the conditional use application] is for private enterprise."
"Andwe can't be in a joint application with them. We thought we could,” Shook said.
Martin announced the county's withdrawal after Mark Zimmer, the YMCA’s attorney, finished making his case. He also said his client plans to join the YMCA in a joint land development application pending conditional and zoning approval.
Martin said attorney Ronald Bugaj, who is representing residents Carol and Mark Leinert, who own adjacent property to the site, credited a “very good job in his cross-examination” during the hearings to show that the county’s proposed uses for the properties were public or semi-public.
Dennis Cheng, who says he lives about 700 feet from the proposed project and is representing himself as a party to the case, said after the session that he's concerned about whether the YMCA can afford to build a multimillion-dollar project. He questioned the county’s reasoning to build the agricultural center.
“I think that the entire reason the AIC (Agricultural Innovation Center) is being located at the Spinner Road property is to justify the construction of the sewer line to meet that need,” Cheng said.
He said the county owns “substantial” agricultural property in the area, which would benefit from incoming grant money from the agricultural center.
Commissioner James Shook: ‘We had to come off the application to allow [it] to go forward’
Shook said the county had tried to “combine … services” with the county’s YMCA organization, but that it needs to file under a special exception because the county is a public entity.
“We thought it could be approved that way (through a conditional use application) and speed up the process, but it's just one step back and two steps forward,” Shook said. “We realized once the application was submitted that we, the county, don't fall under a conditional use. We found [out] we fall under special circumstances (special exception), which is not a conditional use hearing … We had to come off the application to allow [it] to go forward.”
Other topics of interest: medical vs. agricultural uses
Two witnesses were called to testify Monday. The first was James Pettinato, Wayne Memorial Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer and the YMCA’s final witness.
Wayne Memorial Health System, the hospital’s parent organization, donated half the land to the YMCA and is in the process of signing off on a 99-year lease with the county commissioners for the agricultural center. Under a reversion clause, the hospital could take the land back from either entity if the respective project failed.
Pettinato testified he “would never recommend to take the property back” as the hospital determined that it is more financially viable to give the land to the YMCA, where it could lease space for healthcare uses. He said the hospital could lease up to 2,500 square feet for healthcare, according to its agreement with the YMCA.
Pettinato said the space could include gym equipment and physical rehabilitation services. He said the hospital had to trim its cardiac and pulmonary rehab programs because “third-party payers are paying less” for those services, “so it makes that program become less sustainable.” Leasing, he argued, would reduce some of the hospital's overhead costs.
Bugaj questioned whether the hospital’s decision to give half of the land in question for a YMCA and associated possible ancillary uses for the hospital was in line with a 2001 deed that states the land must be used for agricultural and silvicultural (forest and woodland management) use. He also pushed Pettinato on whether a central sewage system is feasible.
Pettinato said he “was told it was feasible,” but said he did not remember seeing that in writing as he handles “a lot of documents.”
Cheng questioned Pettinato on whether the YMCA would meet the hospital’s safety and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, to ensure all visitors could exit the building in case of emergency, regardless of health or mobility concerns.
Pettinato said the hospital often rents space in non-healthcare buildings, as long as they meet federal and state requirements from the Life Safety Code and Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Concerns over proposed sewer and central water line continues
Bugaj began to make his case representing the Leinerts. As his first witness, he called Robert Suhosky, who served as a former chairman of the Wayne County Central Sewer Authority’s Board of Directors and lives in Cherry Ridge.
Zimmer objected to the witness. He said Suhosky’s role with the sewer authority and in property development around the county was “too vague” for him to be an expert witness and Suhosky’s developed properties and residence are around a mile-and-a-half away from the proposed project.
“He’s got a dog in the hunt,” Zimmer said after Suhosky said he believes the project should be relocated on the intersection between Terrace Street, Wanoka and Schoolhouse Road, about two-and-a-half miles away by car from the current proposal.
Suhosky said that the current proposed location would not affect his businesses, adding his suggested location would be “unfortunately” closer to his properties, and it would be “tangential to the sewer” line. He also said the YMCA would benefit the county, but not at its proposed location.
Neither the county nor the YMCA owns property at Suhosky’s proposed location, according to the hearing testimony.
Suhosky also questioned the project’s fire safety, as it does not have a connection to central water and will offer a daycare program through the YMCA. He said he would also expect the applicant to build a new sewer line with the expectation that nearby landowners could join the line to offset building costs.
The next hearing date is set for Jan. 26 at 6 p.m., where Bugaj will continue his case on behalf of the Leinerts. Cherry Ridge Township Solicitor Brendan Ellis said the hearing will continue the following night, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. if necessary. He said he intends to wrap up public comment on the 27th.
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Editor's Note: Dennis Cheng, who is a member of WVIA's board of directors, is among residents who are speaking out against the project.
