Synagogue mulls plans for swim club property

The drama that began in June when a private suburban swim club broke a deal to allow visits from black and Latino children from a Philadelphia day camp is approaching its final act: the club's conversion into a recreational site for members of a Northeast Philadelphia synagogue.

Congregation Beth Solomon won a bankruptcy auction Thursday over four land-development companies with a $1.46 million bid for the 10.5 acres with pool in Huntingdon Valley. While the money will be parceled out to the club's creditors - and, potentially, the plaintiffs of lawsuits over Valley Club's treatment of children from the Creative Steps day camp - the fate of the property itself had long been a separate question.

The developers were bidding on a swath of open land in a built-up area just yards from the Philadelphia city limit. The U.S. Justice Department, in a court filing, expressed desire for the site to become a public swimming concession. Neither outcome is likely.

The synagogue plans to use the site mainly as a pool-equipped oasis for its 2,000-plus members, Congregation Beth Shalom lawyer Vlad Tinovsky said Friday.

"We expect to use it consistent with its existing recreational nature," Tinovsky said.

He said the synagogue has not laid down definitive plans for how - or how often - it will use the property, but will figure that out after the sale closes within 30 days.

In time, he said, the synagogue may invite other groups to drop by and swim.

"I suspect that there will be opportunities for outside groups to use the facility on mutually agreeable terms," Tinovsky said.

Altering the use of the site substantially could well require complicated negotiations with Lower Moreland Township.

Tinovsky said the only record of the specifics of the property's permitted uses he could turn up was a 67-page transcript of a zoning board hearing from 1953, the year before Valley Club opened.

"It's been a swim club as long as there has been anything there," township manager Rick Mellor said.

Last June 29, 56 black and Latino children from Creative Steps visited in the first of what was to be a series of arranged swimming trips. When regulars of the club, which had no black members, complained, the deal with the day camp was revoked, a $1,950 check was returned, and a national racial protest ensued.

The club was hit with lawsuits - from the family of one child and the U.S. Justice Department - and a state Human Relations Commission investigation. All are pending.