Crafton community discusses future use of Linden Avenue property
The second meeting in Crafton’s Imagine Linden public outreach process took place Monday evening at the Crafton Community Center with a variety of opinions on how 5.25 acres of land on Linden Avenue should be used for going forward.
The Carlynton School District owns most of the property – about 4 acres – and the borough owns the rest. The Carlynton High School baseball team uses the district property as its home field and the land – which years ago housed the former Crafton High School’s football stadium — also serves as a practice field for soccer and youth football.
Mayor Coletta Perry said Monday that there is activity in the area with children’s sports, and that there would be alternative locations found for the different sports that play there.
The school district received an offer in 2017 for $3.6 million for the property, and the school district is still looking to sell the property, according to borough Manager Jim Price. If the borough doesn’t want to do anything, the school district will attempt to reclaim the borough’s portion of the property and consider selling the entire 5.25 acres.
Carlynton school board President Jim Schriver attended Monday’s meeting and said there was a period where the district’s costs were skyrocketing, and the board was looking at every asset it had to sell to relieve the burden on the taxpayers. School board member Britney Bova said the district does not have any other recreational property to sell.
“Since then, we did get some offers for it, and we partnered with the borough since then to look at what are the options,” Schriver said. “(The property) was underutilized. We looked at all of those things, and we said we should consider alternative options, and if we can maximize the use of this, both in the short term, and we can help alleviate the tax burden on the taxpayers, we should at least consider it. We went through that path. This is another phase of that path.”
The borough’s portion of the property, which borders on heavily traveled Steuben Street, houses a miniature golf course. A small portion of the school district property is in Ingram Borough, the rest of the 5.25 acres is in Crafton and the property is zoned for community residential use.
OHM Advisors, a consultant hired to lead the visioning process, provided an overview of the situation at the first public meeting, held Aug. 10. Chris Riggert, a landscape architect and community planner with OHM Advisors, led the Aug. 24 meeting as well.
According to Riggert, the discussions were difficult because the property has been a green space, and there are mixed views of whether the current owners should take a different approach, including a dining space or a commercial location. He added that the goal for the project is to work with the school district and the borough to create a shared community vision that guides future development and decision making.
“This is not starting from ground zero,” Riggert said. “There is a legacy to this site, there is previous work that’s been done and everything we are doing is building from that.”
Riggert said it’s not often that a community gets the chance to actually put forward the vision of what the property could be while knowing it’s going to change.
At the first meeting, most of those who spoke said the current property owners should consider retaining the property and using it as some sort of recreation or community events space rather than sell it to developers.
This time, there was a mix of opinions from those who spoke, including using the space as just a green space or just using the space as just a commercial location. About 50 members of the public attended the meeting, and everyone wanted a use that serves the community in some way.
Borough Councilmember Justin Marks said both the borough and the school district are trying to get the community’s input because there is a balance between the options the community can choose from for the property. He added that none of the options are bad options, but that they all have tradeoffs.
Residents offered various potential uses for the property. Benjamin Valimont said the best option for the property is to make it mixed use because it keeps the community involved and gives them access to the property. Valimont added that the roof of a potential building on the property could have a green space or a mini golf course.
Resident Corey Roma was in favor of making the property a commercial space, stating that he is willing to compromise about something new being built there and having a green space at the same time.
New Crafton resident Patty Milligan said she does not have the same sentimental feelings about making the space solely a green space but could see blending commercial and green space options.
“I do feel that Crafton has a great park and has a lot of really good open space in the park that I think is underutilized,” Milligan said. “I am just wondering if there is a way to make everybody happy. (Crafton) has kind of lost its main drag of cute, quaint areas and the only place that’s really left is (the property).”
Several members of the public wanted the space to be utilized solely as a public green space, and not use any of it for a commercial project. Resident Deborah Reagan said on the Zoom call that there is concern about flooding on the property if it is developed.
Resident Christin Sciulli said on Zoom if the school district sells to a developer, that is not a guarantee of long-term tax revenue. Sciulli also expressed concerns about the property being vacant in a couple years and asked if the property could be leased instead.
Resident Terri Midgley said she’d like to see the property remain as community green space.
“I do not want housing,” she said. “I certainly do not want commercial property there. I think we have to look at what does that space have to offer Crafton?”
In addition to two public meetings, the borough and school district plan to meet with stakeholders and focus groups to get public input.
Final findings from the community input will be shared at a community open house in November, according to Riggert, and the community input process will be wrapped up by the end of the year.
A community survey has been available online since Aug. 14, and is open until Sept. 3. No final vote by borough council or the school board has been made regarding the property.
“We do want to continue with the planning commission the engagement we are having,” said Alice Pescuric, vice chairperson of Crafton’s planning commission. “Make sure you tell your neighbors. (It’s) the only way we are going to get more involvement. This borough does listen to the community.”
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