COATESVILLE - City officials yesterday challenged three proposed home-rule charter amendments that would strip City Council of its ability to develop a golf course and recreation center on what is now a family farm in Valley Township.
The council filed the three challenges in Chester County Court, one for each proposed amendment, alleging that the Saha family, which owns the land in question, and its supporters tricked and misled more than 300 voters into signing the three petitions supporting the amendments.
"From what I'm hearing, I don't know if everyone who signed the petition knows what they were signing," said Stephon Hines, council president.
The challenge also contends that the proposed amendments run counter to state law and the state constitution by impairing the city's ability to pay off bonds related to the project. Yesterday was the deadline for filing a challenge to the proposed amendments.
Patrick Sellers, a Coatesville resident and longtime opponent of the city's plan, said residents fully understood what they were signing. He also said the council should interpret the petitions as a message to stop its four-year-old project.
"It reflects what people want, and that is for the city not to build a golf course and recreation center and start focusing on downtown," he said.
Hines, however, said redevelopment work is in progress within the city limits. He pointed to housing projects in the East End, as well as efforts by the Coatesville Cultural Society to rehabilitate certain downtown buildings.
The council's case will be heard by Chester County President Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. at a hearing on Aug. 22.
The Sahas' proposed amendments were filed with voting officials last week, putting them up for vote on the Nov. 4 ballot.
If approved, the amendments would require the city to obtain permission from voters before it could develop a golf facility, compete against a similar private enterprise, or lease the property to a private operator.
Two prior petitions designed to overturn the council's 1999 condemnation decision failed.
Council members also questioned whether voters understood the implications of the amendments, warning that the body would essentially cease to function if the charter amendments were approved.
"The damage it's going to cause if it were to go through is astronomical," said Councilman Kevin Rolston.
The Saha family members and Winifred S. Mayo, the only council member so far supporting them, could not be reached for comment.
"We were the ones that were voted in to make decisions such as this," Hines said of the plan. If people were really opposed to this, he said, "I would think that more of those who voted us into office would tell us."
