Forward Township roadmaster Charles Behm and supervisors Mark Wilson, Susan Oliver-Stough and Sheryle Long deliberate during the township supervisors meeting on Tuesday night, May 14. William Pitts/Butler Eagle
FORWARD TWP — A sports complex featuring four pickleball courts, two pole vaulting tracks and two soccer fields — one outdoor and one indoor — is coming to Forward Township.
The Forward Township board of supervisors approved plans for the proposed Cashdollar sports complex to be built along Watters Station Road at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 14.
The approval follows the stamp of approval given by the township’s planning commission at its April 30 meeting.
The approval from the supervisors was made contingent on the developers meeting certain conditions. These include obtaining permits for water service and sewage from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as an erosion control and sedimentation permit from the Butler County Conservation District, and reaching a stormwater operations and maintenance agreement with the township.
According to township manager Tom Hartwig, the Cashdollar representatives have already applied for those permits, and that process usually takes months.
“Those could take anywhere from three to six months,” Hartwig said. “We’re giving them as much time as the process permits, because no one has any control over the DEP or the conservation district.”
Once the water, sewage and erosion permits come in, the operations and maintenance agreement should be relatively easy to obtain. Afterward, the application would be considered complete and recorded at the county courthouse.
“The operations and maintenance agreement is just a matter of executing a township-standard document,” Hartwig said. “So that can happen any time.”
Other than the permits, the board ruled that the Cashdollar representatives had met every condition laid out in a letter from the township engineer, including a request for the developers to continue to add landscaping along Watters Station Road.
“We asked them to continue with some landscape planting along Watters Station Road,” Hartwig said. “They have some existing pine trees there, and we wanted those extended the length of the proposed soccer field, and they have done that.”
The plans for the sports complex were made public and brought before the township in October. The complex is to be built on land the Cashdollar family once used to grow and sell Christmas trees.
