Is it too late to save Beaver Valley or was a meeting at state Rep. Steve Barrar’s office a good first step toward that end?

That’s the question that arose from an exploratory meeting hosted by Barrar, on Friday, March 27.

Two developers, McKee-Concord Homes and Eastern States Development Co., are equitable owners of the Woodlawn Trustees property. They want to build Vineyard Commons, a proposed community of 160 new homes on 160 half-acre lots on 230 acres of the 325 acres owned by Woodlawn.

Concord Township supervisors gave preliminary plan approval for the project during a special March 18 meeting, but they also announced that they were earmarking $500,000 of open space funds to help any conservation group willing to buy the land. Delaware County also agreed to give $250,000 for the effort.

Members of the press were kept out of the first part of Barrar’s meeting, but were allowed in toward the end. Barrar said the initial lockout was to have participants comfortable enough to speak freely without reporters present.

More than a dozen people attended the session designed to determine what grants — state and federal — might be available to any entity willing to buy and preserve the Woodlawn property.

Among the attendees actively participating in discussions were the three Concord Township supervisors, Delaware County Councilwoman Colleen Morrone, Sherri Evans-Stanton from the Brandywine Conservancy, Jeff Knowles from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as well as Diana McCarthy and Jack Michel from the Beaver Valley Conservancy.

No one knew how much money it would take to buy the property, but Barrar said he’s been told the property is valued at anywhere from $20 million to $30 million. He also said that Concord Township couldn’t buy the property on its own because of the expense.

Concord Township Supervisor Dominic Pileggi said the township’s borrowing limit is between $10 million and $11 million. He previously said taking out such a loan would force a major increase in township property taxes.

Also attending was Tom Singer, representing the Chadds Ford Planning Commission.

“I think it might be a little late in the game,” Singer said after the meeting.

He thinks the developers are so invested at this point that there might be no turning back.

“I don’t think Woodlawn holds much of an interest now; I think it’s strictly the developers who have command of the situation. I’m not sure of that, though,” Singer said.

In an email exchange later Friday, attorney John Jaros, representing the developers and Woodlawn, declined comment on whether it was too late for someone else to buy the land.

“I cannot respond at this time upon direction from my clients. My charge is to move forward with obtaining final subdivision/land development plan approval for the project,” Jaros wrote.

Singer’s opinion was in the minority of meeting participants. Concord Township Supervisor Kevin O’Donoghue, Evans-Stanton and McCarthy all think the meeting, along with another tentatively planned for the end of April, might bear fruit.

“This is a great first step,” O’Donoghue said.

While the press wasn’t privy to the main discussion, O’Donoghue said there would be an effort to get representatives from the state of Delaware involved.

On March 18, the Delaware Congressional Delegation of U.S. Rep. John Carney and U.S. Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons wrote a letter to Woodlawn asking for a cooling-off period so that private conservation groups had a chance to buy the property for preservation.

Evans-Stanton, too, said it was a “great first step.”

“It was very helpful for Representative Barrar to set this up, and he wants to have a follow-up meeting that includes both the Pennsylvania and Delaware Congressional Delegations and to really move forward on this if we can do something to protect [Beaver Valley],” she said, adding that saving the valley would take local, state, federal and private sources.

McCarthy also felt positive about the meeting.

“We’re very encouraged to have so many people within the government helping because up until now, it’s just been the grassroots citizens organizations,” she said.

McCarthy added that she has no sense of too little, too late.

“We’re moving forward at this point. We have substantial amounts of private funds that have been committed already; we have the Brandywine Conservancy willing to help, and state and local officials willing to help. So, we’ll see where this goes. We’re going to try as hard as we can. We’re not going to give up.”

In addition to the $750,000 promised by Concord Township and Delaware County, the Beaver Valley Conservancy has received pledges for $4 million, according to McCarthy.

Jeff Knowles, from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said there is a C2P2, or Community Conservation Partnership Program, grant available.

He said the C2P2 grant is a merit-based matching fund grant, with a deadline of April 16.

Knowles said it’s an annual grant program with about $30 million available for all approved requests. “Of that, we have around $6 million to $8 million available for open space preservation work,” he said.

The largest C2P2 open space grant given was $1.6 million two years ago to the Heritage Conservancy. Knowles said he thinks that’s the amount that could be received in this situation, should the developers be willing to sell.

Barrar said he’s working to get more state money involved from the proposed tax increase on Marcellus Shale. However, getting that money must wait until the tax hike is approved and political negotiations on how the money is divvied up takes place. He said the governor wants the money to go toward education.

 

Photo: State Rep. Stephen Barrar, at the head of the table, hosts a meeting to explore the possibilities of preserving Beaver Valley. Facing the camera, from left, are Concord Township Supervisors  Kevin O'Donoghue and Dominic Pileggi.