Woodlawn Trustees is back with a new plan. The group withdrew a development plan for 320 acres in Concord Township last year that would have required some zoning changes.
Now the group is filing a development plan for 230 of those acres, a plan that can be done by right, without any special zoning permission needed.
Woodlawn withdrew its previous application for the rezoning in May of 2013 amid a groundswell of complaints.
As attorney John Jaros told Concord Township supervisors during this month’s board meeting, “We heard the community loud and clear.”
The new plan would need only normal approval of the supervisors after a recommendation from the Planning Commission.
Jaros said the new plan calls for 171 single-family homes on roughly half-acre lots. It would leave 117 acres of gross open space, 93 acres after the necessary net-outs for the various rights of way.
Excluded from the development plan are the 19.9 acres of the Penns Wood Winery.
Jaros added that there is no commercial development included in the current submission, but there would be under a follow-up plan involving another developer.
The developers for the 230-acre residential development plan are Woodlawn Trustees-Penna. Inc., Eastern States Development Co. Inc. and McKee-Concord Homes, L.P.
According to Planning Commission Chairman Steve Miller, the plan will likely be officially received during the commission’s June 16 meeting. It would be reviewed in August, then sent to the Board of Supervisors for their vote in September.
It may not go down that way, however. Jaros said that his client is waiting for direction from the board to learn the best way to proceed.
Woodlawn’s Chief Executive Officer Vernon Green said before the previous plan was withdrawn that current zoning would allow 209 apartments, 249 townhouses, develop 20,000 square feet of commercial space in the 320 acres, but provide only 15 to 20 acres of dedicated open space. Under that previous proposal, he said, there would be more housing, but 209 acres of permanently preserved open space.
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.
