Leetsdale withdraws objection to Quaker Valley School District request for Leet Township zoning exception

Leetsdale officials have withdrawn their objection to a special exception request from the Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board for a new Quaker Valley High School.

Meanwhile, several township residents testified Tuesday night that the proposed main entrance of the facility is on a winding, treacherous road with additional traffic likely to cause more backups and accidents.

The proposed school is on 150 acres of land off Camp Meeting Road. It straddles Leet Township, Edgeworth and Leetsdale.

The preliminary plan for the school would use 47 acres for the building and grounds. The site already has 10 acres cleared out, but the district wants to leave a lot of landscape as a buffer.

No further construction can take place without first obtaining approval from Leet’s zoning hearing board.

The Leet Township office was packed with residents and attorneys representing both project objectors, supporters and the school district.

Leetsdale Solicitor Megan Turnbull said the borough’s objection centered around “downhill neighbor concerns.”

She said there was not a whole lot of planning for stormwater with another development on a hillside in Quaker Valley, and borough officials wanted to make sure that did not happen again.

“This site needs to be really thoughtfully designed so that runoff doesn’t hurt our municipal systems,” she said. “We have some challenges being on the downhill receptor of the rainwater that comes down from Leet Township in general. We’ve had some significant expenditures over time about that.

”The hillside stability is (also) a concern.”

She withdrew the objection at Tuesday night’s session noting both the borough and school district approved a mutual cooperation agreement, which is available for review at the borough’s website.

In it, the district agreed to take into consideration noise control efforts as well as obtain site plan approval from the borough for stormwater-related facilities within the borough as well as grading plan approval for work within the borough.

The district also agreed to naming Leetsdale as an additional insured on all insurance policies through the course of construction through the date of occupancy.

Turnbull declined to enter the agreement into evidence at the hearing.

She said it is a public document and people could check it out online.

Attorney Louis DePaul, who represents a group of families objecting to the special exception request, argued the agreement should not be considered as evidence without proper procedures.

“The proceedings that happened at Leetsdale, and the proceedings that happened with Quaker Valley School District, are separate and apart from this proceeding,” DePaul said. “To give this particular document any weight at all in this proceeding would require some testimony regarding the document including whether it be good or bad.”

He also accused the district of trying to use the agreement “as a sword to support their position.”

Attorney Daniel Gramc, who represented the district at the hearing, said that was not the case and declined to motion the agreement into evidence.

Leetsdale has not formally offered support for the project even after withdrawing its objection.

Turnbull said it is very early in the process, and the borough reserves its opinion until a formal site plan is submitted.

Testimony

All of witnesses called on by DePaul testified to their concerns about traffic including teenage drivers and buses coming and going early mornings and afternoons as well as other issues.

Resident Michele Antonelli said there was an accident along Camp Meeting Road a few weeks ago. The road was blocked off and people could not get around for some time.

Despite her concerns, Antonelli said she did support having a new school.

“I just don’t think that’s a very good location,” she said.

Resident Marilyn Vettorazzi testified that proposed high school is to accommodate 1,000 students, while district figures indicate current and previous school years’ enrollment was less than 650.

She suggested new high school plans be “more on the practical (side) than beautiful.”

Vettorazzi also testified about Camp Meeting Road being dangerous.

Resident Marc Connelly testified the curve at Camp Meeting Road and Myrtle Hill Road is referred to as “Dead Man’s Curve” and fears there will be more crashes as a result of more traffic from a proposed school.

DePaul said he plans to call at least two more witnesses in the coming hearings, and declined further comment.

District officials have given project updates at school board meetings as well through the Blueprint QV section of the district’s website. There are other tabs, such as “questions and answers” and “research and studies” about the project on the Blueprint page.

Charlie Gauthier, district director of facilities and administrative services, said traffic experts from David E. Wooster & Associates plan to testify Nov. 2 and address the Camp Meeting Road concerns.

He declined to comment on Leetsdale’s withdraw.

Zoning hearing board members and Restauri declined to comment on Tuesday night’s proceedings.

QV Strong is a group of about 1,000 district families in support of the new high school.

Kirk Fordham, one of its steering committee members, was at the hearing. He said he and several other supporters plan to testify in November.

“Every year that passes that this isn’t approved is another graduating class that is deprived of a high quality high school building,” he said. “There is strong support in the Quaker Valley community to move forward with the high school plan on Camp Meeting Road. We are eager to see our kids in a safer, more modern, technology-rich learning environment.”

There is no deadline for the board to act on the special exception request.

Hearings are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 2, 9 and 16 at 194 Ambridge Ave.