The push to prevent Toll Bros. from developing Crebilly Farm as proposed is continuing and litigants are looking to raise money as that litigation moves to Commonwealth Court. To that end, Neighbors for Crebilly, LLC. held a fundraiser Sunday at the home of Wendell and Jenny Fenton in Pennsbury Township.
Wendell Fenton said he chose to host the event because he believes in open space. About 30 people attended the fundraiser in Fenton’s barn to hear Vince Moro, of Neighbors for Crebilly, explain what’s needed and why.
“We’re looking for a different outcome than what’s been proposed,” he said.
Toll proposed to build 319 new homes on the 320-plus acre property on Route 926 near Route 202. Westtown Township supervisors denied the conditional use application last December and Toll appealed that decision to Chester County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Mark L. Tunnell upheld the township’s decision and Toll is now appealing to Commonwealth Court.
Moro said that as the appeal moves to Commonwealth Court, and possibly beyond, his group will need more money for legal fees, especially since they’ll need to retain an appellate attorney. In addition to raising money for that, cash is also needed to fund outreach to get people on board with the group’s efforts to preserve the old farm. He said they’d like to raise $100,000 as the matter moves through the appeals process.
“It’s the new Battle of the Brandywine,” he said. “We’re doing this because people in Westtown didn’t do their job.”
Moro explained that previous supervisors in Westtown didn’t work with the property owners — the Robinson family — years earlier to preserve the land.
“We’re Neighbors for Crebilly,” Moro stressed. “We’re for the Robinson family. We want to work with them, but we’re litigants.”
He said he’d like to see a stay in the litigation process so Neighbors for Crebilly can talk to the family to bring about that “better outcome.”
Moro said he’d like to see “total preservation” for possible use as a park and acknowledged what transpired a few years ago with the Woodlawn Trustees property in the Beaver Valley area of Concord Township. An approved development there was eventually overturned in court and then a consortium of conservation groups raised enough money to buy that tract of land for preservation.
He said there are enough groups to make that happen for Crebilly.
“I say wholeheartedly that can happen here because we’ve had those conversations. There's only one thing missing from that equation, and that is a willing landowner…We respect the rights of a landowner and their right to sell. However, when you have the largest remaining piece in the township that has been publicly subsidized by the public through Act 319, I believe it’s incumbent upon landowners to bring this out to the people and ask, 'How can we do this’,” Moro said. “I think this would not only be great preservation for that land but also be a great preservation to the legacy of the Robinson family to come forward to our group or the community and say, ‘We want to work with you,’.”
Pennsylvania ACT 319 is The Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Act of 1974. It provides landowners with a property tax reduction for managing their land as agricultural use, agricultural reserve, or forest reserve. The new assessment on the farm portion of the property is determined by the county tax assessment office.
Elizabeth Moro — who lost her bid to get the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. House of Representatives this past spring — likened the fight to dominoes.
“This property is like a domino,” she told the audience. “Other farmers are watching to see what they can get for their land.”
Jenny Fenton also addressed the visitors saying, “Preservation is important. Once the land goes, it’s gone.”
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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