The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board will be weighing school safety against granting an easement for an already existing trail on school property.
Other concerns include the legal ramifications of conveying an easement as well as whether it can be done on a trial basis.
At issue is a private trail that runs through part of Chadds Ford Elementary School property. Currently, it’s open only to members of the Wilmington and Chester County trail clubs. If the easement is granted to Pennsbury Township, however, the trail will become public and use will increase. That concerns School Board Director Kathy Do.
Do said she wants to make sure that people using the trail can’t get into the playground area. She wants an extension of the chain link fence that runs along the east side of the school property adjacent to the trail.
That trail, part of the Brandywine Creek Greenway, enters school property through the driveway off of Route 1, then cuts to the east by the stream where students re-introduce shad into the Brandywine Creek. It then turns north and veers onto private property that borders the school.
“I favor this,” Do said, “but I want to make sure it’s safe…If more people will use [the trail],” our children’s safety is of primary interest.
Fellow Director Frank Murphy agreed with Do, saying the safety issue must be studied.
Director Holly Manzone said it is safe. She said that people need to walk and exercise more to be healthy and it’s safer to walk on an existing trail than along heavily trafficked streets.
Do added that she had spoken with CFES Principal Mark Ransford about the trail and, according to her, Ransford said he’s never seen anyone use the trail during the week.
Board President Eileen Bushelow said the board needs to be more fully educated on the legal ramifications of granting the easement, and Director Vic Dupuis wanted to know whether there could be a trial easement for a year or two before easing the property in perpetuity.
Sheila Fleming from the Brandywine Conservancy and Michael Lane from Pennsbury Township made a presentation about the trail to the board during the March 11 work session.
Fleming said that while the trail segment through school property already exists, there was never any formal easement. By granting the easement to Pennsbury Township, the trail would become public, allowing for greater use.
She said the goal is to have the entire 30-mile Brandywine Creek Greenway open to the public so that “people can walk from the Village of Chadds Ford to Honeybrook Borough.”
A parking area on conservancy property is being planned.
In response to Dupuis’s concern, Fleming said there could be a trial period written into the initial agreement so the school district could assess the trail’s impact before committing to a permanent easement.
There was a consensus of members that a trial basis was the way to go. None of the directors expressed any outright opposition.
Negotiations with private property owners are going on all along the trail where there are as yet no easements.
Lane said easements are needed to preserve the trail. He said it was “endangered” because new people moving into the area might not want it unless the land is already eased for public use.
Public easements through school property are nothing new in the district. Rick Hostetler, director of buildings and grounds, said there is already a trail easement through Pocopson Elementary School.
It could take three months to a year to convey the easement, Fleming 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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