Radnor moves to acquire 14 acres of Valley Forge Military Academy by eminent domain

The Radnor Township Board of Commissioners is moving to use eminent domain to take 14 acres owned by the Valley Forge Military Academy, which has said it will close this year.

A motion Monday by the board authorized township solicitor John Rice to draw up legal paperwork to use eminent domain — a process that allows municipalities to take a property from owners, whether they want to sell or not — by paying an appraised value for the land.

The Board expects to introduce an eminent domain ordinance at its Jan. 24 meeting. The ordinance would have to be approved after a second hearing and public reading. No date is set for that.

It’s likely the township would use the land to build a new recreation center and park.

Valley Forge Military Academy spans about 70 acres in Wayne in Delaware County. The board said its goal is to prevent more development in the area around North Wayne.

Commissioner Jack Larkin cited a number of developments in recent years that have raised concern about overdevelopment and increased traffic.

He said the township has reached out to academy officials but have not heard back.

“We would need to get this started, to ideally negotiate in good faith, a friendly arrangement, which we started to do,” Larkin said. “And we just haven’t really heard anything back from the school.”

He said the school has not turned down a deal or set a price.

“They just kind of went radio silent,” Larkin said at the meeting, and added that, as a result, the township decided to move ahead with a plan that would allow it to use eminent domain.

However, a representative of the Valley Forge Military Foundation said said Thursday the school was unaware the township planned to move so fast.

Larkin said in a separate interview Wednesday that the township is eyeing the land as a solution to the township-run Sulkisio Gym on Wayne Avenue.

The gym needs major repairs, and its lease will be up in coming years. So the township needs to consider whether it’s worth putting more money into the facility, given that it might not remain a tenant when the lease expires.

As a result, the township is considering a new gym and park for the 14 acres, which are bounded by Eagle Road to the south, the Oak Hill development to the east, and the buildings of the academy’s main buildings to the west.

“We’re on the hunt for another alternative,” Larkin said. “This would be the place we would hope to build a replacement rec center. But that’s not going to take the entire 14 acres. So we would favor the balance would have some flavor of a park.”

Larkin said whether the park has trails, a playground, or a community garden will be subject to public input.

He said the township knows the value of real estate in the area and has a ballpark price per acre it’s willing to pay, but he would not disclose a total figure.

“My real hope,” he said, “is that we end up negotiating a deal and this is not an exciting process. They want to sell, and we want to buy.”

Larkin did not believe the 14 acres would conflict with land being eyed for a charter school.

Currently, a group seeking to open Valley Forge Public Service Academy Charter School on land at the closing military school is already equipped with a leadership team and board, but it cannot open as a publicly funded charter school without approval from the local school board.

Radnor school board officials are now considering the plan for a charter school that could open in the fall.

» READ MORE: Radnor school board is considering charter’s plan to open on Valley Forge Military Academy campus

What can eventually be built on the land is restricted by the current institutional zoning to educational, medical, religious, and museum uses, although zoning variances can always be sought.

John English, board chair of the Valley Forge Military Foundation, said Thursday that the academy was aware Radnor had expressed interest in buying some of the property.

“We were not aware that the Township believes it needs to proceed as quickly as it is,” English said in an email statement. “While Valley Forge Military Academy is closing, the Valley Forge Military College is still very much active and thriving on our campus as it continues its national security mission of training and commissioning future officers for the United States Army.”

English said the trustees are, “undergoing a thorough analysis and evaluation of the future needs of the Foundation and the College.”

Once they establish a path forward, English said, they would be “pleased to share those plans with Radnor Township.”

The rush to buy the land stems from the school’s imminent closure.

The academy announced in September that it planned to close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year amid declining enrollment, financial challenges, and lawsuits over alleged cadet abuse. Its college would continue to operate on the main campus.

» READ MORE: How Valley Forge Military Academy fell apart nearly a century after its founding

In December, Eastern University entered an agreement to buy nearly half the Valley Forge Military Academy property, which is less than a mile from the Christian university’s St. David’s campus in Delaware County.

The planned purchase by Eastern includes 33.3 acres encompassing the football stadium, track, and athletic field house, as well as multiple apartment buildings that will be used to house students.

» READ MORE: Eastern University to purchase nearly half of Valley Forge Military Academy’s property

In the academy’s closing announcement, school leaders cited declining enrollment and rising insurance premiums, in part tied to the school’s extensive legal battles.

The Inquirer has reported that even with the school’s finances in a tailspin, board members in recent years personally lent $2 million to cover operating costs, financial disclosure records show.

They tried other methods to drum up revenue, including franchising the academy’s brand to an Islamic private school in Qatar and unsuccessfully attempting to open a charter school on campus.

They leased out their buildings for private events and authorized the sale of nearly one-third of the campus to luxury home developers, according to federal filings and emails obtained by The Inquirer.

Even so, enrollment in 2025 fell to 88 cadets, down from more than 300 a decade ago, the school said.