Concord Township supervisors have continued for 60 days a hearing on a text amendment that, if passed, would allow for greater density in some residential zoning districts throughout the township.
The request for the continuance came from the attorney for the Hall family, owners of a 17-acre parcel at Bethel Road and Featherbed Lane, after supervisors considered the opinion of another attorney representing one of the residents who opposes the density change.
During a hearing in May, roughly three-dozen people requested party status in the proceedings to oppose changing the zoning. If the changes were to go into effect, the property could be developed to accommodate 44 homes. Current zoning would allow for 12 homes.
Residents objected to the density proposal and urged against the text change that would have affected all R2 and R2D districts in the township.
According to Supervisors’ Chairman Dominic Pileggi, attorney Jack Michael asked the board look at the proposed change to determine the effect on other properties. Michael represents Concord resident Ken Hemphill.
Pileggi then said the board approached the attorney for the Halls, Paul Padien, to pass on the concerns. Padien then requested the continuance.
According to Pileggi, the board could have voted yes or no during the June 10 meeting, but agreed to the continuance so the applicant could consider options other than the text amendment. One of those options would be to create an overlay district — an Infrastructure Overlay District — that would not involve other areas in the township.
“It zeros into a specific area,” Pileggi said after the meeting.
That specific area is in the area of Route 322, Bethel Road and Featherbed Lane. Supervisors plan to hold a public meeting sometime within the 60-day period to get resident feedback. Pileggi said residents of Cambridge Downs, Clayton Park and those who live on Featherbed Lane and Bethel Road would get specific notice for the meeting.
Referring to the possible district as an infrastructure overlay is based on developer plans that extend Perkins Lane from the Cambridge Downs development through the proposed Hall development to Bethel Road. That would provide safer access to and from Route 322 once the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation widens that highway and limits left turns to and from 322.
The plan also includes building a sewage pump station that would accommodate flows from an estimated 150 homes and from the Garnet Valley School District property to the north should the school district choose to abandon its own treatment facility.
It’s the cost of those infrastructure improvements that, the project engineer said, require the extra density. It would be too expensive to build the road and the pump station if only 12 homes were to be built.
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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