North Huntingdon sports complex developers must revise lease

Developers who want to build a sports complex in North Huntingdon with multiple athletic fields — including for Pittsburgh’s professional soccer team — likely will have to amend a tentative lease with the municipality to move the project forward.

North Huntingdon commissioners Thursday said the revised version of the initial lease between the township and North Huntingdon residents Josh Zugai and David Ponsonby would have to undergo additional changes and include a master site plan. The developers want a 29-year lease for 43 acres of public works property off Route 30 with options for three renewals, giving them control of the land for 116 years at rent of just $1 per year.

Neither Ponsonby or Zugai, as NHT Investment Partners LLC, nor township officials provided a time frame for when an amended version of the lease might be finalized. None expect the lease, which would be negotiated between township solicitor Bruce Dice and the developers’ attorney, to be ready for the board to consider at its Sept. 18 meeting.

“We’re regrouping and deciding on our next steps” while reviewing the feedback from residents and the commissioners, Zugai said Friday. “We’re in a holding pattern” since no decision could be made until October, he added.

Without taking a vote, the commissioners let expireNHT Investment’s requirement that it have the exclusive rights to negotiate a lease for the public works land. Shane Larkin of North Huntingdon, owner of an ‘N Zone Sports of Westmoreland franchise for organizing sports leagues, proposed construction of a $10 million sports complex last December, prior to NH Investment Partners’ plan.

Commissioner Richard Gray, who has opposed the lease, claimed the township would relinquish its rights to the property if it signs the agreement. He suggested seeking bids for the sale of the land, thus eliminating township involvement in a lease, but received no support for the idea.

“I feel that once we sign that …. we get no leverage in saying what is in it for the township residents,” Gray said.

Commissioner Zachary Haigis said he still has concerns about the revised lease, including an option that gives the Ponsonby and Zugai control of the land for 116 years.

“A 116-year lease is basically purchasing the property,” Haigis said, adding there is no language to end the lease.

As it stands, the tentative lease only requires the developers to create one field within the first five years, Haigis said.

The developers have proposed building five multiple sports fields, in addition to the indoor field for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer academy. The Riverhounds would sublease the land from NHT Investment for its complex. The plans were unveiled in May.

“I have more questions than answers. We need to put more teeth in the language,” Haigis said, adding he would like the township to have the right to approve what is being built on the land.

Zugai said he and Ponsonby believe they have met some obligations in the lease.

While the proposed site plan shows multiple sports fields and related buildings, they can’t make those commitments until tests and engineering work on the southern side of the property is complete.

“We’re trying not to over-promise and under-deliver,” Zugai said.

Inclusion of a master plan of the site in the lease would be an additional element, he said.

“The goal posts already keep moving,” Zugai said, referring to what the commissioners are asking of the partners.

Zugai told the commissioners that they have the opportunity to take the project to other communities.

Dice, meanwhile, said he does not believe that any applicant that invests ina master site plan would agree to be subject to an arbitrary decision by the township in the future.

Responding to complaints from some residents that they do not have information about the lease, the commissioners Thursday voted unanimously to post a copy of any revised future lease on the township website, once it is finalized.

Gray said he favored releasing the revised lease to the public before any amendments are made. But, releasing a version of the lease that could still be revised could cause confusion among the public, Haigis said.

A group of residents who live near the township public works property again raised their concerns about having an athletic complex with illuminated fields that could create noise and light pollution.

Jim Feczko of Charles Drive said that their neighborhood is peaceful and that there will be noise from games played on the fields from spring to late fall.

“There is nothing that is going to block that (noise) pollution,” Feczko said.

Reacting to the complaints by some people at recent meetings, Zugai noted that the township has more than 33,000 residents.

“We think it is a very small minority” who oppose it, he said.