The letter below is starting to land in resident's inboxes: If you STILL (despite the school board walking away from the idea) think a new Anderson High School should be part of the Comprehensive Plan, now is your time to do something about it. If a new high school is not the #1 proposition to increase our property values, what is? Whatever your idea for the Beech Acre property, now is your time to get involved. Let's think outside the box! Look around - what are other communities doing that would work well for us? What would be best for ALL of Anderson? What will take us from good2GREAT? We are still asking!!! Increased property values are a good indicator if the plan is/was a good one. Our school status is the #1 economic driver - let's keep it that way! What is a comprehensive plan that does all it can for the Forest Hills School District? January 28, 2016 To the Residents of Anderson Township: You are receiving this message because you expressed interest in the Anderson Township Park District’s effort to acquire the Beech Acres Parenting Center property, adjacent to Beech Acres Park and home of the Anderson RecPlex. Following is an important update on this effort: The Park District has worked toward buying the Beech Acres Parenting Center property for more than two decades. We have leased part or all of the Geiger Center (“RecPlex”) since 1990, and we have a barter-trade arrangement on most of the remaining acreage. Most of our indoor programs and leagues, as well as our summer camps, take place in the RecPlex, the only dedicated public indoor recreation space serving Anderson Township’s 44,000 residents. This building is inadequate. For our current winter basketball and volleyball leagues — almost 1,000 participants — we lease additional space in schools and churches in Anderson, Mt. Washington, and Newtown. We are exploring leasing space outside the community to meet our residents’ needs. There simply are not enough adequate, available facilities to meet the community’s demand for indoor recreation. This is why the Park District has worked to put the community in the position to acquire this property for immediate and future growth. At the October 1, 2015, joint meeting of the Anderson Township Trustees, Forest Hills Board of Education, and the Park Board, the Trustees and School District asked the Park Board to temporarily step out of the process so they could fully explore the feasibility of the Anderson High School Relocation idea, to build a new AHS at the Beech Acres property and develop the current AHS campus. As outlined in the attached October 8, 2015, letter from the Trustees, the Park Board rescinded the November 2015 capital levy required to purchase and enhance the property ourselves and asked the landowner to assign our purchase contract to the Township Trustees. The “intermission,” so to speak, was contingent on the promise that the Township Trustee Board would buy the property, and it would ultimately become a school or a park. Here’s part of what the letter said: “By doing so, all three public entities would have an extended period of time in which to determine whether or not the Anderson High School relocation plan is feasible. Once that determination is made, the School and/or Park Districts would purchase the land from the Township.” On January 4, 2016, the Forest Hills Board of Education passed a resolution that said they would no longer pursue the new AHS Relocation idea, as it wasn't possible to do for a variety of reasons, funding, legal, and zoning being the largest issues. On January 26, 2016, the park board received the attached letter stating the Trustee Board: “… does not, and never has intended to lease, sell, donate, or otherwise convey all of the Beech Acres land to the ATPD.” This was not what the Park Board agreed to on October 1. The footprint required for a community building with multiple gym floors and the necessary adjacent parking is significant. (The Trustees’ Anderson Government Center on Five Mile Road sits on 20 acres.) We believe the Trustees’ determination to limit us to the one-gym building we outgrew a decade ago is short-sighted and prevents the Park District from meeting our obligation to the future generations of this community. Please read the attached two letters and the approved minutes from the meeting and see the contradiction for yourself. The letters raise a serious question of bad faith. Naïve as we may have been to agree to the Township’s arrangement, we absolutely believed that we would have the opportunity to make the property a public park and grow our recreation offerings and facilities, if the school relocation idea was not feasible. The Trustees have said that patio homes and office buildings are some of the ideas they have in mind for this property. We believe that the community would prefer a park that benefits all current and future residents. The future of this property should be decided by the residents and taxpayers, and not just by those who can benefit personally and professionally from development which they recommend. We encourage residents to weigh in on the fate of this iconic property in the Township’s public input portion of their Comprehensive Plan Update process. Here’s what you can do: • Voice your opinion about this matter by writing to the Trustees via Vicky Earhart, Anderson Township Administrator, vearhart@andersontownship.org, 7850 Five Mile Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45230, or by attending the next Trustee Meeting on Thursday, February 18, 2016. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m., but typically begins with a closed executive session. The public portion usually begins at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will be at the Anderson Center, Five Mile Road. (Confirm their meeting schedule on their website.) • Notify Mrs. Earhart you want to participate in the Comprehensive Plan Update process. • Notify Mrs. Earhart you expect to be included in the public input portion of the Comprehensive Plan Update process. • Share this information with interested residents. Please consider helping us save this special property as a public park for future generations. Few decisions made today will matter much in 100 years, but this one will. Thank you for your interest in your parks and our community, both now and in the future! Sincerely, Nadine Gelter, President, ATPD Board of Park Commissioners Wayne Hermann, Anderson Foundation for Parks and Recreation, Former Board of Park Commissioner If you would like not to receive future updates on this matter, simply reply and we will promptly honor your wishes. To learn more about the Anderson Parks, visit: www.AndersonParks.com For more information about the Trustees 2016 Comprehensive Plan Committee, which will decide the future of this property and other prominent properties in the township, visit: http://www.andersontownship.org/committees/economic-development-.aspx