11 sites nominated for possible ballpark Among the places listed are the Wyeth-Ayerst plot and a spot in the Atwater Business Campus.

The call for possible sites to build a 4,000- to 5,000-seat baseball stadium in the county has resulted in 11 nominations, including a spot in the Atwater Business Campus in East Whiteland Township owned by a major developer.

The request for locations was made by the Chester County Stadium Project Task Force, which hopes that the stadium - or the promise of one - will help attract a minor-league baseball team.

In addition to the Atwater business campus site, other sites nominated include the former Phoenix Steel Co.property in Phoenixville; a privately owned area off U.S. Route 322 in West Brandywine; borough-owned property in South Coatesville; the former Wyeth-Ayerst site in West Chester; two privately owned tracts in Caln Township; another in Penn Township (Jennersville); one in East Pikeland; and one in East Vincent.

The task force also included a site on the West Chester University campus.

In many cases, the task force did not disclose the names of owners of privately owned properties that had been nominated until they had a chance to meet with the owners.

"All of them submitted responses although some were more sophisticated than others," said Tom McIntyre of the Chester County Economic Development Council and a member of the task force. In newspaper advertisements last month, the task force asked private land owners, developers and municipalities to recommend sites.

Recommendations were to be made through a Web site set up by the task force. The deadline was Tuesday.

McIntyre said the task force's review committee would look at the applications to see that they meet the criteria. Potential sights needed to have a minimum of 13-16 acres of gross usable land.

"We'll probably be taking some field trips in the next few weeks to look at sites," said West Chester Mayor Dick Yoder, who first raised the subject of a stadium on the 32-acre Wyeth-Ayerst property. Wyeth has agreed to sell the property to the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which is considering a number of options for developing it.

McIntyre indicated that a submission for the Atwater campus site by Trammell Crow, a development management firm, was among the more sophisticated proposals. The business campus is located on Route 29 north of 202, near East Whiteland's border with Charlestown Township.

South Coatesville submitted a site on Upper Gap Road that contains 51.6 acres. It surrounds another privately owned 10 acres which the borough would like to purchase.

"We'd like to do some revitalization in the borough," said manager Dennis Forrest, implying that a stadium would fit in. Forrest said the borough's initial plans were to put ballfields on the site. He submitted the application for the stadium site after seeing the task-force ad.

Proponents of the Phoenix Steel site were among the first to make inquiries to the task force. Although the site is privately owned, borough council has gone on record supporting the site for a stadium.