Mars Area hopes to reach an agreement with PennDOT for land acquisition
PennDOT and Mars Area School District have mostly cooperated throughout the Route 228 Corridor Improvement Project, but one disagreement remains, according to Michael Hnath, district solicitor.
Both groups separately issued appraisals that do not agree on the estimated compensation PennDOT owes the district for land acquisition, he said.
“(PennDOT) did give us a value for the land that they took, which we think is a little bit low,” Hnath said. “That's the last remaining issue we have.”
Negotiations are ongoing, he said. Failure of the two sides to reach an agreement could result in a board of condemnation hearing.
“We’ll see if we can get it resolved,” Hnath said.
For the moment, PennDOT is set to pay Mars Area School District approximately $2.38 million in total for land acquisition and changes to some district infrastructure for the Route 228 widening and improvements.
The original figure of nearly $1.45 million had been approved in 2022, but additional construction work necessitated further compensation, Hnath said.
The school board unanimously approved additional compensation of $931,600 at its Nov. 4 work session meeting. Hnath said the payment has not been processed yet.
The Route 228 project has affected school district properties along the road and caused some impact from related infrastructure work, Hnath said.
Properties affected include Mars Area’s primary center, high school, middle school, centennial school and administrative building.
District officials knew they would lose some access to their properties, which would require some construction work to resolve, but Hnath said the scale of it exceeded early expectations.
“Until we saw further drawings, we didn't know what the extent of the impact on the district property would be,” he said. “It had affected the school grounds in a couple of locations pretty severely.”
One change for the project was eliminating an access road to the middle school. The district had to construct a new access road behind the baseball field, Hnath said. The district also lost some parking spaces due to the project.
Other key changes were a new roundabout constructed south of the high school as part of the project, according to Hnath, and a new jug handle near the centennial school.
PennDOT has mostly worked out the issues with the district, Hnath said.
“We weren't happy about everything, but for the most part they sat down (and) worked with us,” he said.
