Three opponents of the city proposal to develop housing on Orchard Park in Logantown urged City Council Monday to scotch the project.

“You people picked a soft target,” said Glenn Bistline, former service member, community planner and contractor who moved to Beech Avenue, catty-corner from the park on the 200 block, decades ago, partly because of the park’s proximity. If the target were a better-known facility like Tuckahoe Park, “there would be an uproar,” Bistline said.

“You insult the Logantown community,” said Chuck LaMark, calling the city Redevelopment Authority plan for seven market-rate, single-family homes a “land grab,” while addressing council members. “Now is the time to speak up and make things right.”

Parks are meant to be “held and stewarded” by governments for the benefit of the people, and in Pennsylvania they may not be decommissioned without permission from the courts or via a vote, said Tim Smith, citing the Donated or Dedicated Property Act. “Let the law be the law,” said Smith, who previously said he may take the matter to court.

No one from council responded, except to thank the opponents for their presentations, and none of the members commented when asked after the meeting.

The Redevelopment Authority launched the project as part of an effort to develop additional housing to fortify the tax base, increase the city’s deficient stock of housing and to comply with a recommendation in in the city’s new Comprehensive Plan — although the plan also calls for adding parks, as project opponents have pointed out.

The city is free to take the park for housing because Orchard was never formally dedicated, and because there are no deed restrictions that would have caused the ground to remain a park, when it was conveyed to the city, City Solicitor Mike Wagner has said.

That conveyance from the developer of Logantown occurred more than a century ago, according to one of the park advocates.

“You’re going to destroy something precious,” said Bistline, who struggled to speak due to emotion at various points of his speech. Six generations of his family have used the park, including his young grandchildren, whom he dreaded to inform about the park’s demise not long ago, when they visited, he said.

“Do you care about the children of Logantown? …the elderly?” LaMark asked council members rhetorically. “You talk of making city improvements while you recklessly damage our city.”

The authority in December approved a proposal from developer Jeff Long to build the homes.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.