Hearing continues for Chadds Ford land plan

A hearing for a planned residential development on Oakland Road in Chadds Ford is continuing. A second session for Wonderland Farms was held during the Chadds Ford supervisors’ Aug. 31 workshop and was continued to Sept 28.

Wonderland Farms is a residential development planned for both sides of Oakland Road on the Baldino, Goodman and Lenz properties near Brinton’s Bridge Road. It calls for 23 new single-family homes on the west side of Oakland and 12 twin homes in six buildings on the east side. The applicant is Harrier LLC, a Grace family business.

The applicant closed its case during the Aug. 3 hearing session. (For that story, go here.)During the workshop, supervisors and residents questioned engineer Marty Eustace and sewer consultant Susan Ahern.

One of the areas of concern for Supervisors’ Chairman Frank Murphy is the proximity of the onsite sewage for some of the single-family homes to the location of wells for some already existing homes on Webb Road.

Eustace said all of the septic locations are farther away from the wells than the 100 feet required by state law. The closest, he said was 130 feet away from the nearest well.

Under questioning from Vice Chairman Samantha Reiner, Ahern said all the septic sites on the west side were tested for primary and replacement locations. On the east side, standard seepage beds are planned, also with primary and replacement locations.

Another issue is traffic on Oakland Road. Throughout all the discussions on the project, beginning with Planning Commission meetings, residents on Webb Road and Belfair Lane have said the new homes would create more traffic on an already overly trafficked road. Adding to their unease is that the residents in the proposed twin homes would be able to walk across the street to use the recreational open space, something they say is inherently unsafe.

Eustace said one option would be to install crosswalks with speed humps, but some said those humps could be dangerous for emergency personnel, such as firefighters riding on the back of fire trucks.

Another suggestion was to have flashing lights at the crosswalk area. Murphy also picked up on a suggestion made previously by Planning Commission Chairman Craig Huffman who proposed closing Oakland Road to through traffic.

Harvey Road resident George Watkins said blocking Oakland Road would just cause more problems than it would solve.

Kathleen Goodier, of Webb Road, wanted to know who would be responsible for maintaining the open space, especially the trails through the wooded area.

The combined acreage on both sides of Oakland is 86.89 acres. Eustace said township code calls for 26.07 acres be kept as open space. The plan, he said, has 26.79 acres left open.

The Sept. 28 session is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

Other business

Supervisors announced that the Sept. 7 meeting would also start at 5:30 p.m., to have a conditional use hearing for a proposed assisted living facility on Route 202.

Also on Sept. 7, the board is scheduled to consider preliminary approval for the Hillman Road extension, a plan from The Henderson Group to complete the final section of the loop road system around the intersection of Routes 1 and 202. That will be during the regular meeting session that begins at 7 p.m.

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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