Leet commissioners seek hillside stability, pedestrian access assurances for $100M Quaker Valley High School

After appeals, multiple revisions and public hearings, additional conditions are being imposed on the proposed Quaker Valley High School project.

Leet commissioners want Quaker Valley School District to monitor the stability of the hillside along Camp Meeting Road where the district wants to build a new high school that could cost more than $100 million, as well as create pedestrian access to the upper section of the 150-acre site near the Quaker Heights neighborhood.

Commissioners asked the district to include those conditions in its plans before they approve them, and during a special meeting on Sept. 30, they tabled the vote until 7 p.m. Oct. 22.

Quaker Valley School District solicitor Dan Gramc said these conditions were not brought up at previous meetings.

Superintendent Tammy Andreyko said via email after the meeting that she remains optimistic that plans will move forward.

“I remain very optimistic that we will reach a positive conclusion,” Andreyko said. “We have worked diligently with our engineers to present a project that has incorporated all aspects of sound design and safety. As we prepare for our next meeting, we will consider new opportunities presented this evening. This project needs to move forward.”

The 167,000-square-foot school is planned on district property that straddles Leet Township, Edgeworth and Leetsdale, but the school will be in the township.

“It would bring peace of mind to the residents below,” commissioner Dan Peluso, vice president of the board, said after the meeting regarding the hillside monitoring request.

Township officials asked about electronic hillside monitoring to help remediate risks and suggested the use of inclinometers — sensors that go into pipes and measure the magnitude of slope, tilt, elevation and possible movement among other factors — according to Ackenheil Engineers technical operations manager Burton Holt.

If the devices do show movement, it could provide an alarm for possible landslides, he said.

Monitoring would help address concerns from people living below the proposed school, McDaniel said.

He also cited other Quaker Valley schools that have pedestrian and bike access.

“I would hope that we can work something out where a large development like Quaker Heights would potentially have pedestrian access for safety reasons.”

The township planning commission recommended approval of the plans in August, but township commissioners have the final say.

The planning commission’s recommendation came with 15 conditions, including a highway occupancy permit and other approvals from Allegheny County, a developers agreement and storm water agreements with the township, various state approvals — including those from the Department of Environmental Protection — an agreement with the Leet Township Municipal Authority regarding a sewer system and ensuring a design engineer would oversee construction efforts.

Peluso said those conditions would also be imposed by township commissioners.

The district submitted a site plan in November and made three revisions in response to various engineering notes and public input.

Commissioner Martin McDaniel, president of the board, said the district’s previous plans included a sidewalk, but it was removed in subsequent submissions.

He expressed concerns about students missing the bus on occasion and needing a safe way to walk to and from school.

Charlie Gauthier, district director of facilities and administrative services, said after the meeting the new requests would be addressed.

“The district is supportive of the conditions being discussed and looks forward to collaborating with the township,” he said via email. “The earlier plans featured a crosswalk on Camp Meeting Road, but there wasn’t a pathway leading to Quaker Heights.”

It’s unclear what kind of pathway could be created.

Commissioners heard from Gramc as well as township engineer John Valinsky of LSSE and Holt, who did a geotechnical review of slopes and other issues in the site plan on behalf of the township.

The district’s plans will be in compliance with the township’s subdivision and land development ordinance, Valinsky said.

Legal challenges

School district officials hope to avoid more legal challenges to their plans — a previous zoning issue made its way up to Commonwealth Court.

A Pennsylvania appellate court on Jan. 26 affirmed a decision by the lower court that said that the Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board did not have the authority to deny the district’s application to build and instead was attempting “to control development issues.”

Those concerns, the three-judge panel wrote, should be addressed later in the land development and permitting phase of the project.

The Leet Zoning Hearing Board held 11 hearings about the project between June 2021 and February 2022 before ruling against the construction. It said the district’s failure to implement an emergency management plan and roadway created substantial risks to public safety.

The district appealed the decision to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, and Senior Judge Joseph James issued a decision in November 2022 overturning the board.

In his opinion, James said that Leet’s zoning ordinance expressly allows a special exception for school construction, and does not require the district to present any emergency management plan to obtain one.

James said the board has no jurisdiction over road design.

There are two main access points off Camp Meeting Road to the school — Gauthier and the district’s design team addressed the issue of additional emergency access via a wide sidewalk with safety bollards off Beaver Street to the lower entrance of the school.

The current high school was built in 1926 and has been renovated several times.

School district officials set the maximum building construction costs for the proposed high school at about $72.1 million and the maximum project cost at $105 million.

More information about the project is available on the district’s website under the Blueprint QV section of the “District” tab.