Mar 28, 2016 2 min read

CANONSBURG – The Canon-McMillan School Board voted 7-0 to abandon the district’s appeal to secure land by eminent domain held by Washington Health System.

Instead, the district reached an out-of-court settlement to acquire a piece of property it sought to condemn for parking in exchange for two similar-sized parcels adjacent to at 108 South Central Ave.

The push to acquire the parcel through eminent domain was ultimately dropped after senior judge John Reed dismissed the district’s initial request to condemn the property in December. The condemnation bid was rejected, Reed wrote, because 108 South Central LLC, which owned the property, was a legal group operating in the hospital’s interests and was immune to eminent domain.

The property has been owned by the South Central group since 2012, when it bought the land just north of South Central Elementary for $330,000.

The hospital had been renting facilities along Pike Street for its Canonsburg Family Medicine office and was planning to move its facilities to the property at 108 Central Ave, according to court transcripts. The district initially conducted talks with the hospital but abandoned those talks in favor of exercising eminent domain.

“The parties have reached an amicable agreement on exchanging the parcels – two for one – to mutual benefit. We are sharing fees to subdivide the land but an exact settlement agreement has not yet been signed,” said district solicitor Jocelyn Kramer.

The original agreement had the district taking the southern half of the block while the hospital takes the northern half.