A deal to use new site for Lower Merion school fields could signal shift in controversial plans for Main Line estate

A tentative agreement between the Lower Merion School District and Lower Merion and Haverford Townships to use a new site for middle school athletic fields may signal a shift in the district’s long-contested plan to clear-cut hundreds of trees — some estimated to be centuries old — from a historic Villanova property.

In a joint statement this week, the school district and townships said they had reached an agreement for the newly opened Black Rock Middle School to use the nearby Bryn Mawr Polo Field for baseball and softball, beginning in the spring of 2024. The deal still requires final school board and township approval.

The school district is expected to pay an estimated $275,000 for alterations to the 18-acre site, including dugouts and field grading, the statement said, “with a goal of improving community spaces and minimizing neighbors’ exposure to the fields’ use.” The Polo Field on County Line Road will be maintained through the Haverford and Lower Merion Parks and Recreation departments, according to the statement.

The status of the district’s controversial plan to develop middle school athletic fields at the Villanova Oakwell estate remained unclear this week. A spokesperson said the school district is in discussions with the Natural Lands conservation nonprofit, which “could result in a different field plan that might impact fewer of the natural and manmade features” at Oakwell.

But for opponents of plans to raze trees on the Oakwell property, the pending Polo Field agreement represents a glimmer of hope after a years-long saga over land, history, and a mission to build ball fields for the $90 million Main Line middle school.

» READ MORE: Lower Merion schools’ condemnation of storied Main Line estate for ball fields encounters growing resistance

The school district is still slated to break ground on the fields in June, but those who want to preserve Oakwell hope that the Polo Field agreement will result in a scaled-back plan.

In 2018, after several attempts to build elsewhere failed, the Lower Merion District used the oft-controversial power of eminent domain — or the ability of the government to pay landowners to seize their private property for public use — to acquire two plots off County Line Road, including the historic Oakwell estate, for a total of $12.9 million.

The district’s plans as of November showed that it would keep Oakwell’s 20,000-square-foot Tudor Revival manor and pool house, but would level a century-old teahouse, stone fencing, and brick-walled garden complex. Officials also planned to remove 462 of the property’s 691 trees, some of which are thought to be hundreds of years old.

In their place, the Lower Merion School District has said, it plans to build a baseball diamond and softball diamond, overlaid by two full-size multisport fields, and two half-size practice fields for hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and ultimate Frisbee.

The district has said the fields envisaged for the Oakwell property will be a short, half-mile bus ride for student athletes from Black Rock Middle School, freeing short-staff bus drivers to complete more routes in the afternoons.

The district has also noted that it intends to plant more trees than it cuts down, including more than 400 deciduous trees and 200 evergreens, as well as shrubs and perennials. But critics say the young flora can’t replace the sprawling heritage trees on Oakwell’s grounds.

While the future of that plan remains unclear after the announcement about the use of the Polo Field, officials said they see the move as a hopeful compromise.

“This tentative agreement among all three entities will allow for the students of Black Rock Middle School to have fields for their interscholastic sports in close proximity to the school,” Lower Merion Commissioner Andy Gavrin said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with the district to create a new plan for the remaining field needs at Oakwell that could greatly reduce the impact on the existing environmental and historic features of the site.”

“You rarely find an opportunity that is truly a win for all parties involved,” said Haverford Township Commissioner Laura Cavender.

Some members of residential and student groups protesting the development say they, too, see the tentative agreement as a win — but that the fight is not over.

The student-led Oakwell Movement issued a statement Wednesday saying “there is still more work to do.” The group called on the district to release any revised plan for the property in the wake of the agreement, to limit tree removal and maintain any heritage trees on the property, and to consider placing practice soccer and lacrosse fields elsewhere.

Holly Manzone, a Lower Merion resident and member of the Save Oakwell coalition, said that the group is “pleased that the Lower Merion School District has found an alternative site for baseball and softball” but that they will continue to protest until the district has “formally put an end to any and all plans to build playing fields at Oakwell.”

“We’re in it for the long haul,” said Manzone, who, along with half a dozen other residents, has participated in Save Oakwell’s “fire drill Fridays” for the last year — standing outside the Lower Merion Township administration building on the bustling Lancaster Avenue in protest of the development, holding signs reading “Honk to save the trees.”

“You have almost constant honking for an hour,” Manzone said. “We’re not letting up. It’s a very special property.”