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Canon-McMillan loses land bid

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A senior judge assigned to Washington County Court dismissed Canon-McMillan School District’s attempt to condemn property on South Central Avenue for additional stadium and school district parking.

Judge John C. Reed, in an order filed Monday, sustained objections filed by 108 South Central LLC, which purchased the property just north of South Central Elementary School in 2012 from Bayview Loan Servicing for $330,000.

The school district already owns two strips of land adjacent to 108 S. Central Ave. along Van Eman Street and Black Alley, and 108 South Central LLC’s land “provided the ideal solution for solving the school district’s parking dilemma,” the judge wrote.

A school board member knew 108 South Central LLC was affiliated with Washington Hospital, so the Canon-McMillan superintendent contacted the hospital to discuss a property swap so the school district would end up owning the southern half of the city block and 108 South Central LLC would have the northern half.

The school district, however, abandoned the talks, exercised its power of eminent domain and condemned the property.

Reed convened a hearing in June and noted in his memorandum that school district officials attempted to justify the condemnation proceedings on the basis they heard a rumor 108 South Central LLC was anticipating “selling its property out from under the school district. … The school district could have condemned the property against a subsequent purchaser just as easily as against 108 South Central LLC, and this fails to explain the school district’s unilateral abandonment of negotiations.”

Reed said Washington Hospital is the parent or controlling corporation of many entities, including 108 South Central LLC. The hospital was renting facilities along Pike Street in Canonsburg for its Canonsburg Family Medicine office and associated facility for drawing patients’ blood for analysis. The hospital planned to eventually build a medical office at 108 S. Central Ave. and move the Pike Street facilities there.

Reed cited the 1949 School Code that notes “no board of school directors shall take by condemnation any land belonging to any incorporated hospital association” as long as the land is being used for hospital purposes.

Washington Hospital maintained in the court case that 108 South Central LLC also qualified as an “incorporated hospital association.”

The school district claimed that the incorporating documents of 108 South Central LLC did not identify it as a “hospital association” or that its purpose was related to the medical field. “This court is not convinced by this argument,” Reed wrote. “All the evidence indicates that 108 South Central LLC was established by the hospital, that they shared the same attorney, David Posner, and the same business address. The hospital was the sole member of the limited liability corporation, and it “advanced” to 108 South Central LLC the money necessary to buy the land.

“Clearly, 108 South Central LLC was created by the hospital to serve the purposes of the hospital and assist in providing medical care to the community,” Reed wrote. “For the reasons set forth in the foregoing discussion, it is the conclusion of the court that, as a ‘subsidiary’ or ‘alter ego’ of the Washington Hospital, 108 South Central LLC is a ‘hospital association’ within the meaning” of the School Code.

School Board President Manuel Pihakis on Monday was not aware that Reed had filed a memorandum and order, but he said, “We did it for the benefit of enhancing parking and recreation in that area. I’m surprised that it was overruled – 99.9 percent of the time eminent domain decisions go in favor of the school district.

“There’s a huge piece of property down there, and it would help us to do what we wanted to do. We already made a deal and then that fell through. I’m sure we might be able to appeal.”

Pihakis said additional comment should come from school district Superintendent Michael Daniels, but administrators could not immediately be reached for comment.

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