It will take the Chadds Ford Planning Commission at least one more month before it votes on whether to recommend a new building for the Painters Crossing shopping center.
As has been reported, The Henderson Group, which owns the center, wants to erect a new 15,000-plus square foot building with five units in the southeast corner of the center where Farmers’ Road, Arby’s, and the first location for El Gran Rodeo had been. Plans call for a drive-thru lane for one possible tenant and two outdoor dining patios for two potential tenants. There are no signed tenants so far.
What Henderson needs is a recommendation from the Planning Commission for the subdivision and land use (SALDO), and a recommendation for a conditional use hearing to allow for the outdoor dining and a drive-thru. The drive-thru would be for the southernmost unit of the five. Henderson has filed for both a conditional use hearing and for preliminary/final land use approval.
(The shopping center is in the PBC-1 Zoning District which allows for outdoor dining and drive-thru service but only with conditional use approval.)
After two previous sessions, the applicant returned to the Planning Commission on Feb. 5.
According to Marc D’Amico, the attorney representing Henderson, the drive-thru has been an issue because there is no specific tenant lined up for that unit.
He said Henderson is willing to work with the township to come up with an objective condition to deal with the fact that there is no signed tenant for that end unit. The applicant does, however, expect that user to be a fast, casual restaurant.
A list of possible tenants was supplied to the township, he said, but there were some objections, and that list was pared down.
“Where we are with the condition is that no matter who that user is, [the drive-thru] will be subject to the review and approval of the township engineer,” D’Amico said. “No matter who that user is, it will go back to the township just to make sure everything is OK.”
John Grant, the engineer on the project, told the commission members that the plan was revised to put fences around three sides of the two designed outdoor dining patios so there would be no intrusion into sidewalk areas. Those areas are at the ends of the building.
There were also meandering discussions about landscaping and how to shield the area from the headlights of vehicles traveling on Routes 1 and 202, and how the backside of the proposed building would appear from Route 202.
The headlight issue was brought up by commission member Tom Bradley. He said vegetation and landscaping alone won’t block the light pollution from headlights, only a solid fence can do that.
As for the appearance of the front and back, that was addressed by David Urffer, of JKRP Architects, said this project is “as nice as we’ve ever done” in referring to the materials, textures, and colors used for the proposed building with the aim of breaking down the mass “so it’s not a monolithic building.”
To that end, the roof line is not one single straight line, rather it’s staggered, and the same lines and color scheme is used for the front side as well as the Route 202 side, so they have the same appearance.
Nothing definitive was established to the point that would allow the commission members to make a decision on whether to recommend. Henderson will need to return to the Planning Commission.
Commission Chairman Craig Huffman said he would put the applicant on the agenda for March.
“I think we should be in a position to vote,” Huffman said. “I want to get us in a position for everybody to vote next month. We’ll get everything squared up and lined up ready to vote next time,” he said.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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