By CARL ROTENBERG
Journal Register News Service

LOWER PROVIDENCE — Three full-press, legal challenges to the zoning ordinance; a failed attempt to require a multi-million dollar bond to continue legal challenges; two separate approvals of the preliminary site plan for construction, a late-year allegation that a contractor trespassed on Valley Forge National Historical Park (VFNHP) land and the hiring of a new point person for 2009.

The developing saga of the proposed American Revolution Center (ARC) on 78 acres of land off Pawlings Road this year has taken many dips and turns.

All of this year's controversy followed the passage of the overlay zoning ordinance on Sept. 6, 2007, by the supervisors.

Proponents for the 130,000-square-foot, multi-level museum, a conference center with 99 hotel rooms and a trailhead building for bikers and hikers have pressed forward despite two zoning challenges mounted by the National Parks Conservation Association and five Lower Providence residents.

The proposal is projected to attract 750,000 visitors annually to a parking lot with 852 automobile parking spaces.

On June 23, the Board of Supervisors narrowly approved preliminary site plans in a 3-to-2 vote. Supervisors' Chairman Craig Dininny, Supervisors Marie Altieri and Piero Sassu voted for the plan and Supervisors Richard Brown and Chris DiPaolo voted against it.

The five-hour meeting at Arcola Intermediate School, with about 75 residents attending, included dozens of development questions that were left unanswered by the non-profit developer. Sixteen residents speaking in opposition said it would bring heavy

traffic to the two-lane Pawlings Road site, disrupt farmland within the boundaries of the VFNHP and create future problems.

Joyce Cluley, an organizer of Concerned Citizens of Lower Providence, called ARC's plan "a horrible disaster."

Then-ARC President Thomas Daly said his non-profit organization had "incorporated almost all of the township's requests" in revised plans. We want to build this museum to interpret, celebrate and commemorate the history of the American Revolution."

Dininny criticized the NPS for not purchasing the 78-acre parcel to add to the acreage of VFNHP.

"Where is the Department of the Interior with a check?" Dininny said. "The park service decided not to buy it. They were not diligent."

Daly was replaced by ARC's Board of Directors in mid-November by Bruce Cole, the current chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in Washington, D.C. Daly had worked on fund-raising and the project's day-to-day development for more than 10 years.

H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, chairman of the ARC board, said at the time that Cole's appointment was aimed at reducing "friction" with the NPCA and the National Park Service, which has opposed the Lower Providence location because it would adversely impact the park. The park land surrounds 96 percent of the ARC property.

"Tom has done a great job bringing us to where we are today. He has caused friction with the NPCA and the park through no fault of his own," Lenfest said. "Bruce Cole is steeped in American history. He is very highly regarded."

"We felt we were at loggerheads because the NPCA might continue its court action," Lenfest said. "We might not see a light at the end of the tunnel."

Township Approvals

The supervisors gave a conditional use approval on July 17 for ARC to build several driveways and footpaths in the floodplain of the Schuylkill River.

The supervisors' 3-to-2-vote, preliminary approval on Nov. 3 requires ARC pay a $510,518 traffic impact fee, a $318,120 parks and recreation fee and $3 million for offsite traffic improvements.

Those improvements can include a study, design and construction for on- and off-ramps to Rt. 422 from Pawlings Road, the intersection of Pawlings and Audubon roads and/or the Route 363 interchange of the Rt. 422 (Schuylkill) river-crossing project.

Zoning Challenges

The Lower Providence Zoning Hearing Board rejected the first zoning challenge by the NPCA and the five residents in late February after several nights of hearings and legal arguments.

In early August, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Bernard Moore denied a request from ARC lawyers for a multi-million dollar bond from the NPCA, which is waging a legal battle against the ARC museum.

Moore issued the one-line order after ARC attorneys argued that a one-year delay in the proposed, $375 million project would cost the non-profit developer an estimated $25,452,000.

"We're gratified. Our concerns are serious and well founded," said Joy Oakes, senior regional director of NPCA, after Moore's ruling. "We're gratified the judge agrees."

The latest zoning challenge heard by the zoning board in August and September spanned a dozen nights of testimony and legal argument. Experts in land planning, the national park and township staffers and officials testified about the 78-acre purchased from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, future traffic problems and the mission of educating Americans, and their children, about the Revolutionary War.

The zoning board rejection of the second zoning appeal on Oct. 7 gave the five Lower Providence residents "standing" to bring the zoning challenge but rejected legal arguments that the overlay ordinance for the 78-acre parcel represented "spot zoning."

Zoning Solicitor Charles Mandraccia's 82-page legal opinion issued on Oct. 30 explaining the zoning board votes started a 30-day "clock" for a court appeal.

On Dec. 1, the NPCA filed a federal appeal in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and a state appeal in Common Pleas Court in Montgomery County challenging the seating of two disputed zoning board members (Chairwoman Janice Kearney and William Donovan) for the validity challenge; the numerous "factual findings" within the zoning decision and many of the "legal conclusions" of the zoning board decision.

In a second Montgomery County court filing, the NPCA asked the court to "stay," or hold off this legal proceeding, until the federal court suit is completed. The zoning board will defend their rulings in this court action.