The Haws Lane Disaster
MEH Investments has been embroiled in controversy over its long-standing relationship with Springfield Township, particularly regarding a contentious land deal that favored their interests over community needs. It is hard to remember a more rotten and smellier hash than the still ongoing Haws Lane development.
Controversial Land Deal
Here is what you need to understand: Springfield Township owns the Flourtown Country Club. You own it. Not one family. We do, all of us together.
MEH Investments, owned by members of the Halligan family, is a company that invests in real estate and just so happens to have held the contract for close to 20 years to operate the Flourtown Country Club for the township. Despite numerous gaffes and more than one failed property transaction, MEH continues to float along here. Truly, there is no place like home.
In the past six years, MEH started a land deal to acquire a 5 acre parcel in the township on Haws Lane. The saga of this property and transaction is long, but the highlights include asking to build a four story apartment tower in the middle of a community of single family homes, threatening to build a drug rehab when they could not get the permissions and zoning that they wanted, and then finally getting permission to build townhomes in a deal that gave them a zoning density far surpassing anything in the neighborhood on a property that was actually zoned for institutional use.
The egregious part involves the misuse of public funds to acquire land through eminent domain. That too is a long saga, which involves lies and manipulation from township officials.
Along the way, when an open space group was collecting signatures on Election Day at the polling location that also happens to be the township-owned and MEH-operated country club property, MEH threatened to forbid the use of the facility as a polling place going forward as punishment for the open space campaign’s activities. Township officials reached out to the open space group to relay the threat and discourage their campaign.
Controversial Land Deal
Here is what you need to understand: Springfield Township owns the Flourtown Country Club. You own it. Not one family. We do, all of us together.
MEH Investments, owned by members of the Halligan family, is a company that invests in real estate and just so happens to have held the contract for close to 20 years to operate the Flourtown Country Club for the township. Despite numerous gaffes and more than one failed property transaction, MEH continues to float along here. Truly, there is no place like home.
In the past six years, MEH started a land deal to acquire a 5 acre parcel in the township on Haws Lane. The saga of this property and transaction is long, but the highlights include asking to build a four story apartment tower in the middle of a community of single family homes, threatening to build a drug rehab when they could not get the permissions and zoning that they wanted, and then finally getting permission to build townhomes in a deal that gave them a zoning density far surpassing anything in the neighborhood on a property that was actually zoned for institutional use.
The egregious part involves the misuse of public funds to acquire land through eminent domain. That too is a long saga, which involves lies and manipulation from township officials.
Along the way, when an open space group was collecting signatures on Election Day at the polling location that also happens to be the township-owned and MEH-operated country club property, MEH threatened to forbid the use of the facility as a polling place going forward as punishment for the open space campaign’s activities. Township officials reached out to the open space group to relay the threat and discourage their campaign.
This is what we had:
This is what we got:
Conflict of Interest Exposed: Springfield Township Officials Renew MEH’s Country Club Lease Amid Threats and Overlapping Interests
Just 2 months ago, the Township renewed the lease of the country club property to MEH in a No-Bid deal. This was after the threats to the community for a drug rehab. This was after the threat to remove a polling place for the community. First they threatened the community, then they threatened democracy, then they got rewarded with a no-bid contract. That’s what happened here. These commissioners are not protecting you. They are pushing an agenda that is not remotely concerned with you.
At some point, WB Homes became a beneficial owner of the Haws Lane property from MEH. The township solicitor (lawyer) for Springfield is also a solicitor for Lower Salford Township, also in Montgomery County. However, the Vice Chair of Lower Salford Township is named Chris Canavan. Canavan is the President of WB Homes. You will see the name WB Homes prominently on the sign for townhouses being constructed on Haws Lane.
So, while holding the solicitorships of both Springfield and Lower Salford, this firm facilitated the negotiations between MEH, WB Homes and the township, standing on both sides of the transaction. In other words, a big, fat conflict of interest. Our lawyers were negotiating “against” Chris Canavan and WB Homes, who was their boss in another township. This should never happen. Ever.
WE CAN FIX THIS. Our township cannot have an attorney who thinks it is ok to sit on both sides of the transaction. We are going to lose every time when our lawyer is negotiating against us. Of course, this is not the first time nor the first township where this solicitor has been working closely with developers.
Our township needs a watch dog, not a Golden Retriever who wants to sniff and lick developers.
