A derelict swim club sitting on five acres in Chesterbrook is finally becoming a public park, but the project's price tag has tripled along the way, now projected to top $2.3 million. Tredyffrin Township supervisors seized the Chase Road property through eminent domain and sped up construction plans for a tennis and pickleball complex that will replace the long-shuttered Picket Post Swim and Tennis Club.
According to PHILADELPHIA.Today, the township paid $625,000 upfront in 2025 for the Chase Road parcel and has since authorized roughly $1.7 million in construction spending, with supervisors budgeting $725,000 for renovations this year alone. Board Chairman David Miller has defended the $1.7 million outlay, and officials say the finished cost could climb further as the eminent-domain case continues to work its way through the courts.
The property spent years tangled in zoning disputes before the township stepped in. A developer had bought the former swim club site with plans to build townhouses there, according to Savvy Main Line, but the parcel's Rural Conservation zoning prohibited multi-family construction, and Tredyffrin's Zoning Hearing Board rejected the developer's rezoning appeal in July 2022. That denial, first detailed by Springdell Village, triggered a multi-year court appeal before condemnation proceedings ultimately began.
Decades of Neglect Before the Seizure
Picket Post Swim Club closed its pool back in 2016 amid declining membership revenues, and the property sat mostly abandoned afterward. The site traces back even further to the 18th-century Green Valley Farm, an 800-acre spread that once adjoined Alexander Johnston Cassatt's Chesterbrook Farm, and it contained a timber-frame barn built around 1890 that the developer demolished in late 2023 after its roof began collapsing, Savvy Main Line's reporting notes.
Years of neglect left an undrained swimming pool and other hazardous structures on site, prompting Tredyffrin Township police to issue public safety warnings in July against trespassing on the construction grounds, per Patch. Residents had already raised alarms during public hearings that the abandoned pool created severe drowning hazards, concerns that helped push the township toward eminent domain in the first place.
Cheaper Alternatives Were on the Table
Before settling on Chase Road, township leaders had floated a far less expensive option: installing four pickleball courts at the nearby 90-acre Wilson Farm Park for an estimated $300,000. Former township supervisor Mike Heaberg publicly urged the board to pursue that route instead of condemnation, and he has continued urging Chesterbrook officials to reconsider the current plan.
The 2025 seizure marked Tredyffrin's first land condemnation for a public park since 1996, when the township took property to build Wilson Farm Park itself — a move that sparked a court battle lasting three years to settle. Officials say the Chase Road acquisition and construction are being funded from the township's $18.2 million general reserve fund along with state and local grants, and Miller has said purchase caps were kept confidential during the condemnation process to preserve the township's leverage in court.
Residents Demand More Scrutiny of Spending
Escalating costs at Chase Road stem from a combination of factors: climbing material prices, deteriorated courts, vandalized bathrooms, and upgraded sound-dampening fencing meant to address noise from the pickleball courts. Residents have generally welcomed the idea of replacing the eyesore with a park, but many say the ballooning costs and lack of public input deserve more scrutiny, and they are pushing for competitive bidding and a phased rollout rather than the current approach.
Part of that criticism centers on procurement. The township used Pennsylvania's COSTARS cooperative purchasing program for park construction contracts instead of open competitive bidding, a choice reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. COSTARS lets municipalities buy through pre-negotiated state contracts without seeking separate local bids, a shortcut that has fueled resident complaints about transparency under the township's home-rule charter.
What the Finished Park Will Include
Once complete, the site will feature six pickleball courts, four tennis courts, a pavilion, a storage barn, a new restroom building, and open community green space. Tredyffrin Township supervisors are also weighing whether to add a basketball court and whether to connect the new park to nearby Wilson Farm Park.
The finished project will become Tredyffrin's 14th public park, joining a system that already manages 12 park sites covering 259 acres plus five preserved open-space parcels totaling more than 20 acres, according to the township's own accounting. The site sits within Chesterbrook, the 865-acre master-planned community of 28 residential villages that Niche ranked the “Best Place to Live in America” in both 2020 and 2021, as reported by NBC Philadelphia.
