By Carol Ann Gregg

Allied News Staff Writer

The fight to stop Slippery Rock’s Madison Grove development is over.

Area residents who had been fighting to stop the 50-unit apartment complex from being built in their backyards withdrew their case against the developer this week.

To the surprise of many, the Slippery Rock Zoning Hearing Board canceled its June 24 meeting, at which they planned to give their decision on the citizens’ appeal of the development.

Attorney Gwilym A. Price III, who represented the parties bringing the appeal, said June 25 that his clients, Terry and Stacey Steele, had struck a deal early on Wednesday with Madison Grove’s developer, the Woda Group of Westerville, Ohio. Woda had planned to build on property adjacent to that of the Steeles and their neighbors on Poplar Forest Drive.

“On the advice of counsel, we decided to drop the case,” Stacey Steele said Thursday.

The couple knew all along that there was the possibility that they would lose in their efforts to stop the development, she said. They determined that the time had come to stop their efforts against Madison Grove becoming a reality in Slippery Rock.

Jeffrey Woda, president of Woda Group, was not available for comment.

In a December 2006 report in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, it was reported that the 50-unit Madison Grove housing complex in Slippery Rock had received a $610,000 funding commitment from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

According to a press release from Governor Edward Rendell’s office on June 10, Madison Grove has been chosen to receive $7,430,783 for the development of the 50-unit apartment complex.

According to Luke Webber, spokesperson for the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), this money is part of the federal stimulus funds received in Pennsylvania. This grant is to provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families.

The development will feature nine one- and two-story buildings on a five-acre site along Grove City Road (Route 173).

The units will include six one-bedroom, 16 two-bedroom, 16 three-bedroom and 12 four-bedroom apartments and a community building.