North Park expansion: Hampton poised to help Allegheny Land Trust with acquisitions

To continue working toward an expansion of North Park, Allegheny Land Trust is seeking help from Hampton.

“They’ve been working the past few years to acquire parcels for an uncompleted phase of the Hemlocks plan, off Big Rock Road,” municipal manager Ryan Jeroski said about land adjoining a townhouse development in the western part of the township.

He provided an update at Hampton council’s April 10 meeting regarding efforts by the land trust, a Sewickley-based conservation nonprofit, to add to the acreage of the Allegheny County-owned park.

“The goal here would be for the land trust to acquire these parcels and then transfer them to the county,” Jeroski said. “They’ve already transferred 40 parcels, and they’re planning to do another 25 this summer.”

In the meantime, 91 parcels have liens and associated penalties against them. According to Jeroski, the land trust is requesting that both of Hampton’s taxing entities, the municipality and school district, provide exoneration for the properties involved.

“The face value of these liens is only about $6,500. With penalty and interest, though, the total value is $34,000,” he said. “We’re talking liens that have been in place for decades.”

Jeroski has talked with Hampton Township School District about the matter.

“There is — from their perspective, at least — an interest in moving forward with this if we would take the lead on it,” he told council. “They just want to make sure that legal costs are going to be covered.”

Council members expressed the same concern, and Jeroski said that the land trust and its legal representation are working out details of covering related costs.

The area of focus, to the west of Pine Creek, is heavily wooded.

“It was never developed, and so there’s no infrastructure or anything going to it,” township controller Jerry Speakman said. “They’re landlocked lots.”

Should the land become part of North Park, Jeroski expects the character to remain the same.

“I don’t foresee that being developed into anything,” he said. “It does wonders for open space and water quality.”

Adjacent to North Park is the land trust’s 73-acre Irwin Run conservation area, off Jackson and Irwin roads in Pine, to the east of Babcock Boulevard.

The protected property helps “buffer the park, connect the green spaces and protect the beneficial wetlands, densely wooded slopes and stream valley,” according to the Allegheny Land Trust website, while “providing natural stormwater management and water filtration.”