Posted on 06/04/2002 6:23:39 AM PDT by calvin sun
Dick and Nancy Saha didn't think of themselves as pioneers when they traded their Delaware County rancher with wall-to-wall carpet for a farm once owned by William Penn's sons. But after you tuck five kids into bed inside a pop-up camper because the 300-year-old farmhouse you're renovating has dirt floors and no plumbing, something inside you changes.
In 1970, the Sahas plunked down $35,000 for 48 acres in the Chester County countryside, just over the hill and around the bend from the seen-better-days city of Coatesville.
Most everything they've done to the property since has come from their hands and hearts. The farmhouse reborn with recycled wood from an old Downingtown mill. The rhubarb, concord grapes and gooseberries planted to sweeten summer suppers.
Lipstick-red poppies are sheltered from the sun by a dogwood parasol. Dick's horses feast on alfalfa grown on six acres at the foot of the hill. The barn cats scarfed up all the koi in Nancy's pond outside the breakfast nook, but at least the fox and deer in the woods remain entertaining.
One daughter loved the homestead so much, she got married on the lawn. Two of the girls are so rooted there they built houses for their families on acreage Dick and Nancy gave as gifts.
Without planning it, the suburbanized Sahas found serenity in the country for three generations. Given how difficult that is these days, who can blame them for fighting to keep it?
On thin ice
And what a battle it's been, ever since Coatesville decided to take their land and build a giant recreation complex - as if golf and go-carts can reverse a steel city's slide.
Six years ago, one of my first assignments at this newspaper was to write about the plight of Coatesville, a town hit hard by bypasses, malls and suburban sprawl. There was talk of sprucing up the main drag and doing away with all the drug dealing - anything to get people back into town.
A few years later, officials decided that a $60 million 230-acre fun zone with bowling, ice skating and rock climbing would provide the necessary jobs and income to give Coatesville a much-needed makeover. And they knew just where to put it: in Valley Township, outside city limits.
Never mind that city folk - especially the poor, elderly and immigrants - aren't likely to use the front or back nine. Never mind that wealthy suburbanites who do will come and go in Land Rovers, never dropping cleat in Coatesville proper.
Never mind that the city doesn't even own the land in question. That's what eminent domain is for, right?
Coatesville's threats to condemn and seize the property paid off, with many owners giving in and selling out. The Sahas simply refused.
Teed off
"It would be one thing if they wanted our land for something necessary, like a school or a highway," Dick Saha 72, explains. "But a golf course?"
The Sahas have caused a bona fide standoff, full of requisite drama. In April, their son Ricky was arrested for threatening a city councilman. In May, someone set their barn on fire.
And, at another heated meeting last week, a politician ordered their 12-year-old granddaughter to put down a sign she was holding because it was "profane." (To see her controversial caricature, go to the Saha Web site, www.saveourfarm.com.)
Pete DiMaio doesn't need the Net to know the Sahas are right to fight.
Pete was hemming pants in his tailor shop and dry cleaners downtown when I first met him in 1996, and he was still at it when I dropped by last week.
Remember all the empty storefronts? Look around, he says, still there. That revitalization we talked about? Pete's 78. He's still waiting.
If Coatesville wants to reinvent itself, Pete says, it better start by bringing useful businesses downtown, like clothing shops, restaurants, a grocery. Who does he know who would pay to climb a fake rock wall, anyway?
All this nonsense about taking people's property has Pete thinking, once again, about closing for good. If this is Coatesville's bright future, he thinks he'd rather not be around to see it.
Contact Monica Yant Kinney at 215-854-4670 or myant@phillynews.com.
The fight is indeed brutal. Janssen and his cohorts are a bunch of Marxist thugs and the fight has turned vindictive on their side. They are out to DESTROY the Sahas personally now.
Most of Coatesville is apathetic because the proposed "entertainment complex" won't affect them at all. Perhaps 200 jobs will be created -- mostly in the service industry.
I hope some of the PA FReepers will join me in making some noise and helping the Sahas out.
Tar and feather time???????????????
Redevelopment agencies and open space districts are among the worst. The redevelopment thugs take the property for a pittance and then sell it at below market to a politically favored developer. The open space districts manipulate boundaries and target specific owners to profit those politically favored developers who have adjoining or "in-fill" parcels.
One time there was an article about property rights. This
one dealt with the same concerns you mentioned in your
post. It said something about a worry by many that socialism
was creeping into the state, and getting in on the local city
and county level. It's author warned about city planning,
specifically. At least some cities. They get some disturbing
ideas in on the local city level. They condemn property,
and threaten to take it, whether someone wants to sell it
or not; just like what's happening to these people in this
story.
Now not all of these people in the planning commissions,
or the developers are going to socialist ideas, but it suggested
some of them may be falling for them, in a mild-mannered
form. I sure wish I could remember just what all the article
said. It was awhile ago, and this paper doesn't have a website;
but it does have a e-mail address.
Seeing the high-handed manner that the town has taken, I doubt anyone got to any offer. That the Sahas were not 'willing' sellers makes any offer from the town moot, as that price is negotiated after the base agreement that a sale will occur. If someone walked up and told you they needed to take your property from the front door to the road, but you could keep the house and the rest -- would you just accept their price only for that portion?
True, there is a lot we don't know; but the price seems irrelevant as the Sahas never wanted to sell or entertain thoughts of selling -- especially to the town they don't live in.
Neighboring properties were all sold without entering into eminent domain proceedings.
Everybody has a price. It's my impression that the Sahas are merely holding out in order to bilk the taxpayers with an exorbitant price that exceeds fair market value.
Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!
Molon Labe !!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.