North Huntingdon officials are canceling the $30 million sports complex that would have housed the Pittsburgh Riverhounds

A $30 million sports complex that would include an indoor field operated by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer team will not be built on municipal land in North Huntingdon.

Commissioners on Thursday dismissed the possibility of another round of lease negotiations with developers NHT Investment Partners LLC, founded by township residents Josh Zugai and David Ponsoby.

Commissioners Fran Bevan, Tom Hempel, Rich Gray and Zachary Haigis voted to end talks with the developers, while Jason Atwood and Ron Zona opposed the move.

The resolution also prevents future discussions about the disposition of public property without a prior public vote by the commissioners.

The decision was met with applause from an audience of about 50 people, some of whom reiterated their objections to the project because of concerns about traffic and noise in their neighborhood.

Neither Ponsonby nor Zugai attended the meeting. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Riverhounds spokesman also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The resolution prevents a repeat of the situation in which Zugai and Ponsonby spoke with some commissioners about using about 40 acres of public land on Route 30 for the sports complex.

The developers discussed the project in a board meeting with commissioners after Shane Larkin, owner of a youth sports league franchise in North Huntingdon, unveiled plans for a $10 million sports complex at the same site.

Commissioners were scheduled to discuss a request from developers to give them a 90-day exclusivity period to negotiate a lease. The developers’ initial 120-day deadline, which gave them the exclusive right to negotiate a lease, expired on September 15. Commissioners had originally planned to vote on the lease next week.

The commissioners’ resolution approved Thursday stops those plans.

“It is unfortunate that we cannot negotiate. We had to get rid of it before they (developers) had a chance to address those concerns,” Atwood said.

Zugai said last week that developers had considered banning the construction of access roads to adjacent properties.

Opponents who live near the public building site wanted this assurance in writing.

Other objections to the preliminary lease included the developers’ desire to hold onto the township property for 29 years for just $1 per year, plus three 29-year options, also for $1 per year. Theoretically, the builders and successors could have control of the property until the year 2140. The requirement for a long-term lease remained in the second and third versions of the document.

By breaking off any negotiations on a different version of the lease, Zona said last week’s four-hour meeting to solicit public input was a waste of time.

Gray, who pushed for negotiations to be broken off, said the entire process was flawed. The developers approached them with a lease that they wrote on their own terms. North Huntingdon never voted to promote the land being available, Gray added.

“I think the process was backwards from the beginning,” Haigis said.

Gass, who missed the vote, said he would have declined to break off negotiations before the developers had a chance to present their latest version of the ground lease. If the community and developers couldn’t agree on this new version, Gass said he would have supported ending the talks.

“We absolutely need it,” Gass said of a sports complex.

As of Thursday, Bevan would not reveal whether she supported the planned sports complex.

“It was a bad deal for the community,” Bevan said after the meeting.

Hempel maintained his position that the municipality should not lease public property to a private company.

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Related:

• Some opposed the proposed North Huntingdon sports complex
• Developers of the North Huntingdon sports complex must revise the lease
• Complaints are mounting against the proposed $30 million complex in North Huntingdon to house the Pittsburgh Riverhounds

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