Shady Side Academy officials are expected to change their plans for an entrance on the west side of the Upper School campus.
Fox Chapel Mayor Alex Scott, borough manager Gary Koehler, several council members and others met with academy leaders behind closed doors to discuss the project on May 21.
The original proposal was to create an entrance along windy Riding Meadow Road between the private drives of Old Fox Hollow and Winterberry Lane.
The campus currently has one entrance, located to the east on Fox Chapel Road.
Scott gave a brief explanation of the academy meeting at this month’s borough council meeting on June 16.
“We wanted to meet with them and try to understand what they wanted to do,” the mayor said. “My understanding now is that they are revising their plans.
“We really don’t know exactly where (they’re) going with the plans, but we left the meeting with them understanding that our borough staff and engineers were available to assist in any way with their plans as they go along.
“They still have to go through all the processes with the borough, which would be the (Environmental Advisory Council), planning commission and council. It’s still a long process to go, but we had a nice meeting.”
The mayor also acknowledged hearing from constituents about the academy’s plans.
“We’ve got a lot of comments from a lot of residents,” Scott said.
Councilman Jonathan Colton was at the academy meeting. He said it would be premature to take a position on the academy’s plans until he saw revisions.
Academy officials did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.
Plan problems
One problem multiple residents have with the academy’s plans involve tree removal.
Residents said the academy wants to remove about 400 trees at least 6 inches in diameter and land disturbance of a high graded area.
There are numerous trees on the academy property marked with red and yellow bands. The ones with yellow are to be removed.
Academy plans show site landscaping would have 195 shrubs as well as a total of 37 deciduous and evergreen trees planted to help offset the removed vegetation.
Plans for the proposed west entrance were posted on the borough’s website, fox-chapel.pa.us.
The borough also posted on its site the land development application review by the engineering firm LSSE.
The review indicates several components of the application do not meet certain subdivision and land development ordinance criteria.
They include the lack of “a complete property boundary for the entirety of the site,” complete adjacent property owner information and the “location of the zoning district boundary relative to the subject property.”
The review also states that a traffic impact study has not been provided, indicating anticipated traffic volume onto Riding Meadow Road as a result of the proposed improvements.
Koehler said reports of the borough engineer working with academy engineers to ensure its revised plans meet borough ordinances are inaccurate.
“It is typical of a developer to submit revised or new plans after receiving the borough engineer’s review letter(s),” Koehler said.
It is unclear when and if the academy would submit revised plans or when the borough may act on the original proposal.
Parks Commission impact
Parks Commission chairman Wes Posvar said he also attended the academy meeting.
His nine-member panel penned a letter earlier this year objecting to the project.
The letter goes on to cite how the plan impairs the trail route from Beechwood Farms to the Allegheny River and has other negative impacts.
It suggests creating an access point east of Glade Run Lane as a “better, safer and more environmentally friendly choice.”
It also cites the academy as “a good friend and neighbor” and that the commission is grateful for its strong support of the community and natural spaces.
Posvar said he believes the letter made an impact.
“I think so because I haven’t found anybody that’s blindly for the project,” Posvar said on June 16. “It just seems like everybody is concerned about the aesthetics of the original project. It looks like we’re going to try and work together and mutually find what is the optimum solution. They may still come back and say that’s the only place to do this. I don’t know.”
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Posvar said he came away from the academy discussion with the thought of Shady Side considering alternative entrance locations.
“It seemed like we were going to look at the problem from a neutral perspective and see what was the optimum solution to their needs, which included public safety response,” he said. “They desire to have a second entrance for public safety purposes. That makes a lot of sense, but there are options that could be done on Fox Chapel Road.”