Posted on 11/05/2003 10:23:48 AM PST by End Times Sentinel
Coatesville voters yesterday approved three ballot measures aimed at killing the city's plan to put a golf course on farmland outside the municipal limits.
"I'm ecstatic," said Jeff Voelcker, son-in-law to Dick Saha, whose Valley Township horse farm the city has sought to take for a recreation complex, which includes the golf course. "Let us go on with our lives," added Voelcker, who also lives on the farm land.
"I'm disappointed that the residents of the city didn't realize the importance" of defeating the measures, City Council member David DeSimone said. "And I hope the charter changes will not affect the development of the city."
He said City Council would now consider whether to challenge the measures in court.
Patrick Sellers, organizer of the ballot-measure proponents, said he expects a legal challenge.
"I'm hoping City Council doesn't waste any more of their tax dollars challenging us," he said last night.
City officials, and a citizens' group hastily organized to defeat the proposals, said the measures were shortsighted and could have effects far beyond determining the fate of Saha's 48 acres, and approval of any one of them could hamstring their plan.
The city was plastered with signs yesterday. Some read "Vote No: Save Coatesville." Others read "Vote Yes: Save the Farm."
The city has said the golf-course project - meant to generate revenue and draw people to the city - is a vital part of a wide-ranging revitalization effort.
Supporters of the ballot measures - which would require the city to submit a wide range of activities for general voter approval - said city officials needed to be reined in.
"If this plan is contingent on a golf course in Valley Township, it's a flawed plan," Voelcker said as he campaigned for the measures.
"Everybody'd like to see Coatesville revitalized, but they can't revitalize Coatesville with a golf course," added Nancy Hannum, a West Marlborough Township resident and a friend of the Saha family.
Two of the measures would change the city charter to require voter approval of a golf facility outside the municipal boundary, or condemnation or sale of real estate not in the city.
The third would require voter approval of any city-operated "enterprise" that would compete against a similar privately owned enterprise.
In addition to pursuing the recreation complex on its fringe, the city recently named developers to head a proposed $300 million rebuilding of the city's downtown.
Those developers, Donald Pulver of Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp., West Conshohocken, and Bart Blatstein of Tower Investments Inc., Philadelphia, signed a letter distributed last week by opponents of the ballot questions.
In it, the developers urge voters to reject the charter amendments and call the golf course "an important part of the overall revitalization of Coatesville."
Supporters of the ballot measures said they were not opposed to revitalizing the city but were intent on keeping City Hall's effort within the city's border.
Kevin Gill, 39, a volunteer firefighter and owner of Gilly's, a Coatesville sports bar, said he voted no on the measures. "It's going to cause delay, or stoppage, either in part or in totality, of what the city wants to do," he said.
Owl_Eagle
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When will this idiots realize that it is ... We The People and not We The Courts???
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When the courts stop giving these cases the time of day.
When the lawyers get some morals.
When We the People start tossing judges in elections, either directly (some judges are voted in) or indirectly (toss the politicians who appoint the judges).
Insane, isn't it? However, Coatesville, being a "third class city," has the power of eminent domain of property that BOUNDS it (even though it's outside city limits) as long as the purpose is "recreation." That's why all the references to the project are as "recreation center."
Coatesville is in Chester County, about 30-40 miles west of Philadelphia, on the way to Lancaster.
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