At its meeting last Thursday, the Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved the University’s special exception application to install certain improvements on its athletic fields on the James J. Maguire ’58 campus. Modifications to the fields, appropriate for their use for intercollegiate and intramural athletics, had been challenged by a group of neighbors and the subject of a series of lengthy hearings before the ZHB.

In a message to the campus community, University President Timothy R. Lannon, S.J., said,” There will be athletics – varsity and intramural – on the Maguire playing fields. This is indeed good news, for our students and for the entire University community.”

Next steps for the University are to move forward with land development applications so that approvals for work on the baseball, softball and field hockey fields can be obtained and work can get under way as soon as possible..

“We are pleased with the outcome,” said SJU Senior Vice President John Smithson. “Our student athletes will now be able to use the fields as they were intended and this will enhance campus life for all of us.”

Plans call for modifying the existing fields, part of the 38-acre Episcopal Academy property which the University purchased in 2008, to meet NCAA Division I specifications; installing a public address system and permanent bleacher seating. Landscaping and protective ball netting will also be installed at the new baseball field along Latches Lane and taken down at specified times of year.