Is it possible that a former military hospital (pre-1970's) can never have a pokéstop or gym?

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My alma mater has ZERO pokéstops or gyms anywhere on the entire campus of the University. I have graduated and moved on, so I had moved on too. But now my oldest daughter is a student on campus, and she is asking me to help get some pokéstops submitted for approval. Which I have, and I have even had two approved. The first one was just over a month ago, and the 2nd one a few weeks ago. Both have not shown up yet in game. (I realize it can take time) I also noticed on the edge of the campus an Ingress POI that is also not in Pokémon Go (which I also realize happens).

It has me wondering why this University campus had zero stops or gyms to begin with, and why newly approved stops are also not showing up. Is it possible that the campus is flagged as a “Pokémon Go Free Zone” for one reason or another? If so, is there any way of seeing the boundaries and/or reason?

The University (University of Valley Forge) purchased the campus in the 1970’s from the U.S. Military, who used the campus as a military hospital for many years before decommissioning the hospital. (There is even a historic marker by the sidewalk on the edge of campus).

I don’t know if there is any way for me to link to the approved Wayspot Submissions, but the physical address is 1401 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville, PA 19460 (USA).

I’d welcome any insights that anyone may have to offer.

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Welcome to the forum @404NoSuchUser .

Sometimes one of the Niantic staff who are on the forums can let you know if there’s restrictions placed on an area by a landowner.

If there are no restrictions, it could be down to the way the area is tagged on Open Street Map.

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Thank you. It has been perplexing, and finally decided to see if I could reach out and learn something or get some answers. :slight_smile:

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First, top-notch username. Love it.

Second, I checked Open Street Maps and the area is marked as university grounds so I doubt that’s the reason that the Wayspots aren’t showing up. It’s possible that it was changed recently, and PoGO is working off an older version but the more likely scenario is exactly what you said, the campus is PoGO excluded. Are there spawns in the area, or is it a complete dead zone?

Which, as @hankwolfman said, is something only the Wayfarer team can answer.

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We have removed the in-game locations and restricted the addition of any new PokéStopaa/Gyms at this location on the request of the property owner.

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Thanks @NianticAaron

@404NoSuchUser not the answer you were hoping for but at least you have the reason for this behaviour.

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Thanks :blush:

Pokémon do spawn (thankfully).

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Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, not what we wanted to hear, but at least now we know.

I assume when locations are removed it is indefinite (or until the property owner reaches back out and calls off the cancelation), correct?

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Yes, that’s correct.

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Thank you!

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When it’s a college campus like this, I assume it could be any combination of these reasons for why they chose to go nuclear:

  • students exhibiting bad behavior while raiding in large groups
  • gyms drawing non-students onto campus, possibly causing parking issues
  • students playing while in class (they’ll just find something else to do on their phone)
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