BUTLER TWP — The township zoning hearing board on Wednesday night continued a hearing on a proposed sports complex in the Highfield neighborhood.

Gwilym Price, board solicitor, said he had received a letter from Jim Coulter, attorney for partners Matt Clement and Daryl Patten, asking that the board continue its decision on a requested variance until the May 9 meeting.

Board members Greg Haughey, Tom Holman and Heather Starcher voted to do that.

Clement, a former major league baseball player and current varsity basketball coach for Butler High School, and Patten have been working since 2009 to build an inflatable sports complex on Butler Road behind the Highfield Community Association.

The building would stand 65 feet high, above the township ordinance of 40 feet, so they asked for a variance to build the complex.

Nearly 100 people attended a March 19 township commissioners meeting to protest the complex.