Commonwealth Court Rules on Radnor Field Suit
A group of residents believe that Radnor's lease of its Radnor Memorial Park to Agnes Irwin School is not legal.
On Jan. 11 the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court's ruling that denied a petition to preliminarily enjoin Agnes Irwin School from constructing an athletic field on public park land leased from Radnor Township.
Citizens to Keep Radnor Park Public, a group of Radnor residents, had appealed an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County to the higher court on Oct. 15.
Read the court's ruling, including a dissenting opinion, by clicking here.
The residents believe that Radnor's lease of its Radnor Memorial Park to Agnes Irwin School is not legal. In June, 2011, Radnor entered into a 15-year lease with the school for them to build a turf field and use the park as an ahtletic field.
Under the agreement, Agnes Irwin would pay for everything it added to the land, which is located next to Archbishop John Carroll High School on Matson Ford Road. The lease also gave the school exclusive use of the field during certain hours.
Five citizens, all who live in the area near the field, filed a complaint shortly after the lease was approved and alleged that the lease was improper.
In February, 2012 Agnes Irwin started construction on the turf field, and the citizens sought injunctive relief to stop it. A lower court denied it at a hearing.
H. Thomson
8:16 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
What a huge waste of time, money and court time on something that only benefits Radnor. Just because 5 families think otherwise. I'm surprised it got this far and hope those that brought the suit have to pay court costs and Agnes Irwin's legal costs because that's the only thing that seems to keep these frivolous lawsuits in check.
Charlie D.
10:23 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
H.....Apparently you disagree with our legal system, don't understand it or likely both. The Citizen's are well within their rights to bring this suit and may well prevail in a trial.
H. Thomson
11:14 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
C...Just because I disagree does not mean I don't understand so there's no need for the insulting tone. These folks may well be within their "rights" but that doesn't make it right. God knows, our legal system is bogged down with enough similar, frivolous lawsuits. If they want to keep pouring time and money into continuing to pursue this, I suppose we'll have wait and see what prevails at trial.
Catherine
12:05 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
Time for the Murphys, Humphreys, McClusky,Thomas and their "Citizens to Protect" club to throw in the towel. Two courts have now upheld Radnor's lease deal.
MDN
1:18 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
There are Radnor residents who think it inappropriate for AIS, and other institutions, to have priority rights to a Radnor park when there are (public) Radnor High School varsity sports (Ultimate Frisbee) and possible High school sports (Rugby, etc) that can not get practice time on any Radnor township field. It is unfortunate when Radnor Township rules precludes access to township facilities/parks for it's public school students while private institutions get priority.
H. Thomson
4:23 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
Since Radnor Township did not seem to have any interest in doing what needed to be done to make this a user-friendly field (yes, that means turf) then we should be grateful that Agnes Irwin was willing to do so (and maintain it, too). I believe they have access to this field for 22% of its' usable time. Should be plenty of other times available for games like ultimate frisbee and sports like rugby and others.
Seems to me that more Radnor residents support this than not and it's unfortunate that this small group (Citizens to Keep Radnor Park Public) which represents 5 families, I believe, persists in this endeavor to invalidate the lease for the field.
P.S. No, I am not an Agnes Irwin parent just a forward-thinking Radnor one.
JBJ
2:02 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
Because Radnor fields are routinely closed because of any precipitation, turf gets our kids active more often. First the tree huggers prevent turf from getting installed at RMS. Now we get a fantastic deal that will clearly increase the amount of usable time (even with the AIS use) and now we have a few residents further draining our townships funds from a frivolous lawsuit? The lack of commitment to athletic activity that is exhibited in this township amazes me. We need to get our kids away from Facebook and XBOX as much as possible. More turf fields in Radnor gets our kids more active more often.
Annie Webb
2:34 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
I agree, JBJ. If Radnor wasn't able to spruce up Memorial field, then thanks to AIS for doing it. Radnor kids get to use this great field. All of Radnor's fields need to be updated (not necessarily with turf!), so that a sprinkling of rain doesn't cancel baseball, softball or soccer practice.