Frustration, no action at Valley Forge hearing

Nothing was decided last night at a zoning hearing on a development that could dramatically impact the future of Valley Forge national park.

Attorneys' arguments and procedural questions delayed and lengthened the proceeding, at which a conservation group and several Lower Providence property owners are seeking to stop a nonprofit organization from building a museum and conference center on private land located inside the park.

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a Washington advocacy group, has joined five local petitioners in filing a zoning appeal with officials in Lower Providence, Montgomery County. The township has given the American Revolution Center at Valley Forge, known as ARC, preliminary approval to proceed with plans for a big and controversial development.

Yesterday's hearing went on into the night. At 10:45 p.m., nearly four hours after the hearing began, precisely one witness had been called to testifiy, frustrating many in the crowd of 75 who had come to hear and offer comments on the proposal.

"A travesty," one older man grumbled as he walked out of the hearing, held at the Arcola Intermediate School in Eagleville.

The appeal contends that the project would trample the National Park Service's congressional mandate to manage and protect its lands. It also maintains that the ordinance governing the development constitutes "spot zoning," illegal in Pennsylvania.

Thomas Daly, president and chief executive officer of the American Revolution Center, said after the hearing that he had no comment.

The proceeding is scheduled to resume on Aug. 12. It operates much like a trial, with attorneys calling witnesses, entering exhibits into evidence and making arguments. The sole witness to testify last night, called by the conservation group as it opened its appeal, was landscape architect Colleen Eckman, who said the development would cause soil erosion that could potentially harm nearby wetlands. She also said that parts of the planned buildings would be clearly visible from surrounding areas -- an argument intended to show that the proposed use of the property differed from that of the land around it.

The night started with a summer-evening exhuberance, with the Lower Providence Concerned Citizens Association setting up a table to sign new members, and the NPCA giving away T-shirts - green, of course - emblazoned, "Save our heritage." But as the hours wore on, many people in the crowd tired and slipped away.

When first proposed nearly a decade ago, the museum was to be built near the park's welcome center as part of a public-private partnership. But the alliance between the National Park Service and the American Revolution Center fell apart amid disputes over fund-raising, management and control, and ARC is now moving ahead on its own.

ARC owns 78 acres on the north side of the Schuylkill, a pocket of property virtually surrounded by the national park. The group plans to build a three-story museum, a four-story conference center with up to 99 rooms of lodging, and a structure containing bathrooms. Funding for the $150 million project has been pledged from state, county and private sources.

ARC describes its project as a needed and valuable supplement to Valley Forge: The first museum and education center dedicated to interpreting and promoting the story of the American Revolution. The museum and learning center, ARC officials say, will generate 855 jobs and $50 million in "economic impact." Most important, it will offer the full and compelling story of the Revolution and its legacy.

But ARC's opponents, which include the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, the Friends of Valley Forge and others, believe the project will alter and damage the park, causing noise and pollution and ruining the park's sanctuary-like settings.