Brandywine Red Clay Alliance asks for waiver

Representatives from the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance asked the Pocopson Township supervisors to grant the organization a waiver from a special events ordinance adopted in December in response to a party that television personality Bam Margera was throwing at his Pocopson home.

“It would be hugely burdensome,” BRCA Executive Director James Jordan said at Monday’s Pocopson Township meeting. He asked the supervisors for a letter exempting the environmental organization from having to meet all the definitions of the ordinance. “We have a good track record with Pocopson.”

The ordinance was adopted at a special supervisors’ meeting Dec. 26, and it adds a “special events” section to the township code that sets definitions, permits, an application process, requirements, and fees for events held in the township.

The supervisors will send Jordan’s request to the township solicitor for review. Pocopson’s planning commission recommended that the supervisors grant the waiver to BRCA.

The BRCA offers environmental education, summer nature camps, events like the annual Polar Plunge, and watershed conservation on more than 300 acres.

“We had a rough December in trying to be responsive to this community,” Supervisor Alice Balsama said at the meeting.

More than 40 people attended the supervisors’ Dec. 17 meeting where the supervisors discussed how they responded to a Dec. 13 event at Margera’s home, and talked of creating a special events ordinance “to address what may be increased activity at the property going forward including a New Year’s Eve party, Airbnb activity, and use of the property as a wedding destination,” according to the meeting minutes.

Discussion of the ordinance continued into the supervisors’ Jan. 7 reorganization meeting when residents asked how the ordinance would be enforced and why the supervisors approved it before first sending it to the planning commission. The township planning commission discussed it at its Jan. 16 meeting and will send any possible amendments to the supervisors for approval.

Supervisors’ Chairwoman Ricki Stumpo thanked Jordan and the BRCA for being good neighbors.

About Monica Fragale

Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.

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