What exactly is a “best effort,” and have the developers of The Flats at Kennett done that with regards to a township request to create a trail from the new apartment complex to Anson Nixon Park?
That was the question that Kennett Township supervisors discussed at their March 3 meeting when trying to decide whether to approve a request for a $1.2 million escrow release for the Flats at Kennett. The escrow release had nothing to do with a trail but included money for erosion control, earthwork, a stormwater basin, sanitary sewer, and site improvements, among other things.
Following a lengthy discussion, the escrow release was not approved. Supervisor Scudder Stevens voted against the escrow release, and supervisors’ Chairman Richard Leff and Vice Chairwoman Whitney Hoffman abstained. Any decision by the board of supervisors needs a quorum or a majority of the vote.
“The motion does not pass, and we will have to write a letter to the developer to advise that the release was not approved, and the reasons for that,” township Solicitor Dave Sander said at the meeting. “That will certainly send a message that I hope is taken in the spirit in which it was intended.”
Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, the supervisors had 45 days from Feb. 1 – the date that township engineer Stan Corbett submitted his report on the escrow items to the township – to make a decision on the release.
Township Manager Eden Ratliff said in a phone interview that the 45-day timeframe would expire before the supervisors’ next meeting. If no action is taken, the release is deemed approved. The 1-0-2 vote by the supervisors meant that the escrow release was not approved.
Sander and the supervisors are “currently working with the developer to address the concerns of the board of supervisors,” Ratliff said.
During the supervisors’ meeting, Stevens said he was concerned that nothing appeared to have been done regarding a trail or crosswalk to the park.
“To tell us that they’re going to do their best efforts and we have nothing to show for it, leaves me very cold and uncomfortable, and I’d like to hear from them,” Stevens said.
One of the conditions that is part of the land development plan is that the developer “use their very best efforts to provide a safe pedestrian walk to Nixon Park,” Sander said. “That requirement is outstanding.”
At the meeting, Leff said the supervisors would welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue with the developer.
“At this point in time, we would like to hear their best efforts … and we look forward to continuing this discussion,” Leff said. “And at some point in time when we are satisfied, we can call another vote on this item.”
Ratliff said he would contact the developer to invite them to one of the supervisors’ meetings.
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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