It will be at least two more months before Jack Heilman knows what he’ll be able to do with the former Getty gas station at Route 202 and Dilworthtown Road.
Heilman, the owner of the Sunoco station at the intersection of routes 1 and 202 has an agreement to buy the closed Getty station and wants to turn it into a service station but also to sell used cars. He would not be selling gasoline there, he told members of the Chadds Ford Township Planning Commission.
According to his attorney, Mike Naseef, Chadds Ford ordinances allow the service station use because the property was already used for that purpose, but Heilman would need conditional use approval from the Board of Supervisors to sell cars at the site. He attended the May 13 Planning Commission meeting seeking the commissioners’ recommendation for that approval, but the commissioners weren’t ready.
The commission’s concerns, as expressed by Vice Chairman Maurice Todd, center around landscape buffering, the use of signs and the number of used cars for sale that would be on the property at any given time.
Todd said he doesn’t want the site to be loaded with banners, streamers or pennant- style flags. “It can’t look like a used car lot,” he said.
He also wants to see some greenery, such as bushes, on the plan. That greenery would act as a buffer, preventing auto headlights from the lot interfering with motorists driving along Route 202 or Dilworthtown Road.
Factors affecting that buffering are the number of parking spaces and the total number of used cars that would be on the lot.
Jim Fritsch, the engineer for the project, said there are a total of 38 parking spaces on the property with 15 needed just for the service and repair part of the planned business. That would leave 23 spaces for used cars.
Todd suggested replacing some of those parking spaces with some landscaping.
Fritsch said his client could work with the township to reduce the number of cars and ad the buffer.
Heilman agreed saying, “I’m dramatically improving the site.”
He will return to the Planning Commission next month with updated plans.
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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Just what the community needs…the property is an eye sore now and has been the last few years…and a used car lot will not improve the site…hope the Planning Commission uses good judgement and says NO…or they be gone…sell the property to Wawa…they will at least beautify the site…