Letter: Complete the loop road

In my first term as a township supervisor, I was happy to push forward the opening of the northwest leg of the loop road with the aid of then township engineer Jim Kelly and building inspector Rich Jensen.

This was followed by meetings with the then board of Painter’s Crossing Condominiums, Henderson Developers and other landowners adjacent to what would be the southwest leg of the loop road. At a financial cost to the township, plans were delivered, meeting the sound and traffic control requests of residents. This would complete a future-thinking venture that has its origins from the 1970s from PennDOT and the township leadership of the time.

A failed campaign promise of my second term was to complete the last section of the loop.

This failure was due, again, to a vocal minority who chose to react to a new loop as a detriment to our bucolic town.

This reaction caused the demise of a town home development on the northwest corner, a YMCA on the southwest corner as well as traffic controls for the community in which we all live.

As a supervisor, I fought to keep unnecessary traffic off of Heyburn, Longview and Summit roads with the Toll Brothers development. Heyburn, as well as Ring and Ridge roads, have become the alternative to a shorter, more efficient loop road. The impact, besides traffic on our local residential areas, is the cost to maintain the legs of those roads versus a shorter loop at the intersection.

Is the vocal minority so unhappy with any type of business in the township that it is acceptable that anyone working or using a business on Dickinson and Christie drives have major back-ups to get onto Route 1, even to head north? I guess the answer is to go out onto Route 202. Well that doesn’t fair well for an already overburdened road to go north, with an absent fourth loop in Chadds Ford Township.

A response I know will be coming is, “Well all those townships around us have too much commerce.” A more open-minded thought is we are a crossroads to many attractions — residents who work in one state but live in the other, the tourists wanting to see the beautiful Brandywine Valley, the path from I-95 to all tourist, residential, and professional attractions in our state as well as the local commerce. This is what happens in the corner of a tri-state area. With this open mindedness, I hope the completion of the last loop is soon to happen. If you are a resident of, or business owner in, Chadds Ford Township, speak out to your township supervisors to get this job done. If you support this road, make sure your voice gets heard, for too long the minority has been louder.

Deborah F. Love
Chadds Ford Township
Deborah F. Love was a Chadds Ford Township
supervisor from January 2002 through December 2013

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