April 22, 2023 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Hillendale goes green

_1JF3506-Liz — Liz Allen, right, of Mt. Cuba Center, talks plants with volunteers at Hillendale Elementary School.

Hillendale Elementary School students, their parents, and other members of the community got together Friday to do some planting on school property. It was a joint effort between the school and Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware to plant native perennials in the school’s flower beds, according to Chelsea Wirth, Hillendale’s PTO beautification chair.

Wirth said the event, which coincided with an in-service day in the school district and the day before Earth Day, grew out of three years of cleanup days at the school.

“We decided to make our spring cleanup as close to Earth Day as possible and it happened to be an in-service day. So, we have students who weren’t going to be in school today and we took advantage of that,” she said.

Wirth said 50 people had signed up to help with the effort, but they were all coming at different times. She added that Pennsbury Township provided mulch and brought some equipment for the students to see.

It was the fourth-grade students who decided what should be planted. She explained that Mt. Cuba personnel introduced the kids to the idea of native and invasive — something the kids already knew — showed some plants and asked the students to vote on which ones they wanted to use.

The kids picked some plants based on their aesthetics. But they voted again after learning how the plants support pollinators and other species of insects.

“Once they understood how that plant was a part of our ecosystem, then they made their choice again and sometimes they changed their minds,” Wirth said.

She also noted another coincidence. The school learned Thursday afternoon that it had been named a Green Ribbon School, by the U.S. Department of Education.

According to Wirth, a Green Ribbon School is a program that “aims to acknowledge schools that are trying to work on being greener. We had different groups that worked on how Hillendale can conserve energy, how we can be sustainable, and how we can bring more outdoor education to our students. We applied to be recognized for that and we were selected as one of the honorees.”

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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Parking variance granted

A decision by the Chadds Ford Zoning Hearing Board paves the way for a coffee shop to move into the former location of the Bryn Mawr Trust Bank. One condition of the approval is for the property owner to pave the rear area.

The site is the little strip mall with the U.S. Post Office and Agave restaurant on Route 1. The back side of the strip hasn’t been kept up. Much of it is broken concrete, gravel, and potholes as well as problems with trash and stormwater runoff.

But the need for the variance was for the number of parking spaces. According to the township code, 143 spaces are needed for the entire strip mall, but the township said there were only 79 spaces available, making the site 64 parking spots short of what’s required. But according to property owner Casey Lafferty, there are more than 79 spaces.

Lafferty testified Thursday night that after going over the site with the township engineer, there are 102 spaces and there will be 37 more after the rear area is paved. His attorney, Ernie Angelas, called the site a pre-existing nonconformity and said the requested variance is now minimal.

Neighbors, such as John Grace, said there’s plenty of parking and he supports the request. His concern has been the lack of maintenance of the property, that it needs to be cleaned up and maintained properly.

Lafferty agreed with the conditions of the approval, that the rear parking area be paved and striped, and that the dumpsters be fenced. He added that along with the paving, the rear area will be regraded to allow stormwater to run off into the grassy area behind the property.

The decision allows barista Steve Sonsini to move forward with his plans to open a coffee shop in the old bank location. He testified in February that his shop hours would be 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. during the week and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, but during the April session, he said the hours would be 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.