Radnor moves to acquire 14 acres of Valley Forge Military Academy by eminent domain

The Radnor Township Board of Commissioners is moving to use eminent domain to take 14 acres owned by the Valley Forge Military Academy, which has said it will close this year.

The Board unanimously approved a motion Monday night to begin the process and put the issue on its Jan. 24 agenda.

Monday’s motion authorized township solicitor John Rice to draw up legal paperwork to use eminent domain — a process that allows municipalities to take a property from owners, whether they want to sell or not — by paying an appraised value for the land.

The academy spans about 70 acres in Wayne in Delaware County. The Board said its goal is to prevent more development in the area around North Wayne.

Commissioner Jack Larkin cited a number of developments in recent years that have caused concern about overdevelopment and increased traffic.

He said the township has reached out to academy officials but have not heard back.

A representative for Valley Forge Military Academy could not be reached immediately for comment on Wednesday.

“We would need to get this started, to ideally negotiate in good faith, a friendly arrangement, which we started to do,” Larkin said. “And we just haven’t really heard anything back from the school.”

He said the school has not turned down a deal or set a price.

“They just kind of went radio silent,” Larkin said.

As a result, the township, Larkin said, decided to move ahead with a plan that would allow it to use eminent domain “to make sure that we’ve got access to that open space for years to come.”

Officials fear the land could be sold for development. Larkin said the land could be part of a solution for the township’s Sulkisio Gym on Wayne Ave. The gym needs repairs to its roof, HVAC, windows, and other issues, according to a 2024 account in Mainline Times & Suburban, a local news organization.

The rush stems from the school’s imminent closure.

What happened to Valley Forge Military Academy

The academy announced in September that it planned to close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year amid declining enrollment, financial challenges, and lawsuits over alleged cadet abuse. Its college would continue to operate on the main campus.

In December, Eastern University entered an agreement to buy nearly half the Valley Forge Military Academy property, which is less than a mile from the Christian university’s St. David’s campus in Delaware County.

The planned purchase by Eastern includes 33.3 acres encompassing the football stadium, track, and athletic field house, as well as multiple apartment buildings that will be used to house students.

In the academy’s closing announcement, school leaders cited declining enrollment and rising insurance premiums, in part tied to the school’s extensive legal battles.

The Inquirer has reported that even with the school’s finances in a tailspin, board members in recent years personally lent $2 million to cover operating costs, financial disclosure records show.

They tried other methods to drum up revenue, including franchising the academy’s brand to an Islamic private school in Qatar and unsuccessfully attempting to open a charter school on campus.

They leased out their buildings for private events and authorized the sale of nearly one-third of the campus to luxury home developers, according to federal filings and emails obtained by The Inquirer.

Even so, enrollment in 2025 fell to 88 cadets, down from more than 300 a decade ago, the school said.