North Huntingdon officials have approved a draft ordinance to govern the leasing of public land.

The move is intended to prevent a recurrence of the controversy that surrounded a proposal for a sports complex on the public works facility site.

Last month, the commissioners authorized advertising the ordinance, which would require anyone seeking to lease township-owned land to provide the municipality with a business plan, proof of securing financing, letters of support and conceptual drawings of the project.

The initial application would be reviewed for 60 days before the commissioners vote at a public meeting on whether to formally consider it. If the application receives initial approval, a 90-day public comment period would follow, including surveys and public hearings.

A competing proposal for using public land, submitted while the commissioners consider the initial application, would undergo similar requirements and review.

If the commissioners vote to enter negotiations for six months on a lease, either the township or organization could end the talks or extend them, according to the proposed ordinance. The ordinance could be adopted at the board’s Dec. 17 meeting. It will not apply to utilities governed by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Sports complex controversy

Commissioner Rich Gray said he pushed for an ordinance to regulate the leasing of township land to slow down any leasing process “so politicians couldn’t ram through a lease to benefit their friends in only one month.”

Gray’s request that an ordinance be drafted came after the township ended negotiations with two North Huntingdon businessmen who wanted to build a $30 million sports complex on about 42 acres of township land at the public works facility. When the proposal was presented to the township by North Huntingdon businessmen Josh Zugai and David Ponsonby, there was no policy or procedures in place for leasing public land to a private entity or a non-profit organization.

“I wanted transparency in the process, and for the public to be pointedly aware of the leasing of the property they actually own, and to have more than one meeting’s public comment period, ” Gray said, adding that the adopted ordinance is not as strict as it could have been.

“The adopted ordinance is better than nothing, but I think it has wiggle room for politicians and their cronies,” Gray said.

The proposal that generated the most controversy came from Zugai and Ponsonby, who wanted to build a $30 million multi-field sports complex, including an indoor soccer facility to be operated by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, the city’s professional soccer team. In return, the developers would have paid the township $1 a year on a 29-year lease, with three 29-year extensions that would have relinquished township control of the property for 116 years.

Their proposal was preceded by one from Shane Larkin of North Huntingdon, owner of the N Zone Sports franchise in Westmoreland County. He wanted to lease about 15 acres at the public works facility to develop a multi-field outdoor-and-indoor court sports complex with a dek hockey rink. Larkin presented his plan to commissioners in December 2023, but it was not debated in a public meeting and the commissioners never voted on it.

Opponents of the proposed $30 million sports complex questioned why North Huntingdon would lease the land for just $1 a year, with the developers having the rights to turn it over to a third party. Neighbors living near the public works facility said they did not want it near their homes because of traffic and noise. They repeated their opposition at public meetings over a period of several months.

After a public meeting in September 2024, the commissioners voted in October 2024 to end talks on a lease, only to revive the negotiations in November after the developers upped their offer to pay $1.65 million spread over the 116 years.

But the commissioners reversed themselves again and voted to end those talks in February 2025.

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