[EastSideHBG]

DERRY TWP.

Parking lot plan draws fire

Thursday, April 27, 2006
BY DIANA FISHLOCK
Of The Patriot-News

Derry Twp. officials last night heard why using part of the former Parkview Golf Course for overflow parking for Giant Center events is a good idea -- and they heard why it's a bad idea.

The township's zoning hearing board did not make a decision, delaying action after board member Roy Wells said he preferred to wait for the solicitor's opinion. The members said they might call a special meeting within two weeks to decide on the issue.

Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co. wants to use 30 of the former golf course's 130 acres as temporary overflow parking. It also hopes to turn the area into permanent parking by the end of the year.

The extra parking would improve traffic flow when 30,000 concertgoers enter and exit the area at once, causing traffic delays in the parking lots and along Route 39 and nearby streets, said Jay Robertson, Hershey Entertainment's director of event services and safety and security.

The temporary parking would just involve painting lines on the grass, company officials said. They said specifics for the proposed permanent parking have not been decided.

The company also would use the lot about 12 times a year for large events such as car shows and RV shows, Robertson said. The company has used about 30 acres at the base of Milton Hershey School's Senior Hall for that purpose, but construction and renovations at the school have made that site unavailable.

Derry Twp. resident Sandy Ballard presented a petition signed by 150 residents opposed to the parking lot plan.

"We've lost so many of Milton Hershey's treasures. I believe that we need to do all we can to preserve what is left," Ballard said.

Milton Hershey built the course in 1927. Hershey Entertainment owned it until 1994, then bought it back in 2002. The company closed the course in November, citing declining revenue among other factors.

Rumors swirled then about the future of the course.

"We have no intentions of turning Parkview into a water park, and we have no plans on moving any of the holes around," Gene Meoni, general manager of the golf club, said at the time.

"Unfortunately, over the years, Parkview has experienced an ongoing decline in golf rounds, due in large part to the abundance of other daily-fee golf opportunities, within a close proximity to Hershey," CEO Scott Newkam wrote last fall via e-mail.

Ballard, who is not a golfer, said she and hundreds of other residents would love to see Parkview return to being a golf course.

Resident Roger Olson said he hopes Hershey Entertainment will give the land to the township as a park.