BUTLER TWP — The VA Butler Healthcare health center won’t be built in Butler Township, but the township commissioners still are airing concerns about the former project site and other work they say is connected to the plan.

At the township meeting Monday night, Commissioner Sam Zurzolo sought a way to mandate improvements at the Deshon Woods property — the former prospective home of the VA center — but was told by solicitor Rebecca Black and zoning officer Jessie Hines that the township has no options.

Black and Hines said the township doesn’t hold any applicable legal interests on the land — those are held by the county conservation district in the form of site permit agreements — and they don’t believe the land’s condition violates the terms of that agreement.

The property was clear-cut in 2013 by the development company VA Butler Partners, which is an arm of Westar Development, but infrastructure work on the land never began, Hines said, because the company did not have the proper permits.

“I don’t know that they’re in violation to the conservation district right now,” Hines said, adding that he believes the district is “monitoring” conditions at the site.

Conservation district officials said the company’s site permits cover erosion and wetlands impact mitigation because of the clear-cutting and grading done at the site.

Black said the most commissioners could do is draft a letter to the conservation district advising it of the township’s concerns — something she said would likely already be obvious to the organization.

“This is not a secret that people are unhappy with the Deshon Woods property,” Black said.

The commissioners also expressed anger over a proposal from the state Department of Transportation that would remove and abandon Lion’s Road Bridge in the township, saying the department is not being honest about the reason for the work.

Controversy over the plan began in July last year when a state inspection uncovered collision damage to the bridge’s superstructure and the department proposed its rehabilitation.

One option at that time was the rerouting of traffic and the removal of the bridge. That proposal was revived Monday morning by a PennDOT design manager who sent township manager Ed Kirkwood an e-mail detailing proposed road improvements at the interchange of Route 422 and New Castle Road.

The manager, David Layman, says in his e-mail that the district is “focusing” on those changes and the construction of a new road from the interchange to Lion’s Road that would replace Lion’s Road Bridge.

“We would remove the Lions Road Bridge ... as the new road would meet the needs of the traveling public being able to access Lions Road across 422 via the interchange,” Layman says in his e-mail.

That option doesn’t sit well with Kirkwood or the township commissioners, who say the project would add more stop signs and potentially another traffic light to separate traffic from the on-ramp from southbound traffic on New Castle Road.

Kirkwood said those installations would slow down EMS response times to that area of the township and make the road itself less safe for drivers.

“For all practical purposes it’s going to isolate that part of the township,” he said.

While he acknowledged that it’s “not definitive,” Kirkwood said the possible extension of the road to the Herold property in Center Township, where the VA has picked for the new health center to be built, is, in his mind, likely a factor in the department’s decision-making process.

That was an opinion echoed by the commissioners, who expressed anger at the development and said they believed the project is an attempt to improve access to the VA’s project site in Center Township.

“I think they’re playing games with us,” said Commissioner Dave Zarnick, referencing the department’s claim that Lions Road bridge is unsafe.

Commissioners’ Chairman Joe Hasychak also agreed with Kirkwood’s assessment.

“This whole thing reeks of — I just don’t understand it,” Hasychak said. “We can’t get any answers from the VA, and they’re sneaking around doing things like this.”