The YMCA of Wayne County withdrew its plans Tuesday for a new building in Cherry Ridge Twp., but will likely submit a revised project plan soon, a top official said Wednesday.
YMCA board of trustees chairman Paul Edwards said he expects the YMCA will likely reapply 60 to 90 days.
The original plan would have cost an estimated $20 million. Edwards said he does not know what the new plan will cost.
A new plan will require reapplying for permission to build and starting the approval process from scratch. That will mean more public hearings. Four hours-long hearings took place before Tuesday's 21-minute one.
The YMCA, which has operated out of a former armory in Honesdale for more than 40 years, wanted to build a new, 38,000-square-foot facility on 40 acres off Spinner Road and Leinert Lane and next to state Route 191.
Its decision to withdraw comes less than two weeks after Wayne County Commissioners halted plans to build an agricultural innovation center next door. The county pulled out as a co-applicant to the YMCA’s project at the last hearing, Dec. 29, and had planned to refile in a separate application to the township zoning-hearing board.
On Tuesday, Vicky Botjer, who worked on the county’s side of the project, read a statement from the county commissioners that said the county could not afford to spend $6 million on the agricultural center. Commissioners Brian Smith and Joceyln Cramer told WVIA in a prior interview they also did not have sufficient support from farmers and did not want to invest on leased land.
Botjer said the county is looking at other locations for the agricultural center, but did not say where those locations might be.
The county and YMCA received land from the Wayne Memorial Health System, which donated half the land to the YMCA, and planned to sign a 99-year lease with the county agricultural center.
Before the YMCA withdrew, it asked for a postponement of Tuesday’s hearing to submit additional evidence because the county dropped out. The township denied the request, which prompted the YMCA's withdrawal.
Edwards said Wednesday the YMCA needs to reapply because its initial plan depended on Wayne County's portion of the project for stormwater control and well systems.
He said he was surprised by the county’s decision, but will push forward to build a new YMCA “for the good of the community.”
“I can’t tell you how transformational this (a YMCA) is for a community … I’ve traveled to … a number of YMCAs, both here and out of state. I can’t tell you how many people have said, ‘This (YMCA) has saved my life,’” Edwards said.
YMCA plans to move forward
Edwards said he knows pushback against the project comes from neighbors who live nearby. He said the YMCA wants to be “a good neighbor” and will make reasonable accommodations for surrounding residents.
“I sometimes wonder if they really just don't want the thing to succeed," Edwards said. "I mean, we're reasonable, but they often say – they being the objectors [to the project] – ‘Yeah, we're not against the YMCA, but [say] we're against the YMCA here [at this location].’”
“This property was a gift, a donation from the Wayne Memorial Hospital. It's valued at over $500,000. We would never, ever have been able to start this project without that piece of property,” he said.
Residents frustrated
While the meeting Tuesday lasted only 21 minutes, four previous meetings 2 1/2 to three hours. Several meetings happened around Thanksgiving and Christmas, making the sessions difficult for residents to attend. However, attendees often needed to pull out extra chairs as about 40 people packed the small township hall each time.
Lauren Lienert, a project opponent, said she's frustrated the project has moved into “limbo.”
“It was a little disheartening that both sides have put in as much work as they have, and to basically scrap everything and have to start anew … I have small children at home, so we have to find people to watch them so we can attend all of these meetings and prepare,” she said. “Especially during the holidays, it was a lot to sacrifice that time as a family."
Lienert lives on Lienert Lane, right next door to where the new YMCA would be built. She said her family already experiences stormwater runoff and worries the project will make that worse.
She also said she wished residents had a chance to speak, but the project was withdrawn before the hearing opened to public comment.
“We've had people in the community who have wanted to speak their part and have not been able to … And every time we come prepared, and every time we sit here for hours and hear the arguments and then have to go home and say, ‘Oh, next month, we'll try again,’” Lienert said.
She said she and others had to work up the nerve to speak in public only to see the opportunity “squashed again.”
“It's kind of hard going high to low … waiting this entire time, but we'll just have to hope that whenever it is reconvening … we'll be able to still speak our pieces,” she said.
Lienert was far from the only resident who shared her irritation with the project’s incomplete conclusion.
Dennis Cheng, another opponent, invited "the YMCA to engage the community and maybe we can get this done right.”
“I guess I'm happy that the YMCA kind of came to their senses," Cheng said. "Tap the brakes, pull back, regroup, come back with a more thought out … version of the project. [I’m] disappointed in a way, because we wanted some finality.”
Shaun Dieterich, a member of Cherry Ridge Residents for Responsible Development, which opposed the plan, said he wishes the YMCA well and awaits the new plans with interest.
“It was never about whether or not the YMCA was a good thing … They're a great thing … We'd be very interested in collaborating and trying to figure something out together,” Dieterich said.
Edwards said the YMCA is for the community’s future and its project is less controversial than a proposed agricultural use or other proposal.
The YMCA is “all all about health and children and seniors and daycare. It's all for the good. It's not one of those usages that would be objectionable to many people, like a data center or … agricultural use or an industrial use with noise and pollution,” Edwards said.
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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.
