The Henderson Group is one step closer to getting a new building at Painters Crossing shopping center. Chadds Ford Planning Commission members Wednesday night voted to recommend approval for a land use plan calling for a 15,580 square foot building for five potential tenants, including a fast casual restaurant with a drive-thru and an outdoor dining area. The vote to recommend was 5-0.
While no tenants have been lined up yet, two restaurants, one on each end of the proposed building are anticipated. The drive-thru will be for the restaurant on the south side of the building, the side nearest Route 1.
Final approval for the building is up to the Chadds Ford Township Board of Supervisors. Supervisors will also need to conduct a conditional use hearing for the drive-thru and outdoor dining. The shopping center is in the PBC-1 Zoning District which allows for outdoor dining and drive-thru service but only with conditional use approval.
Plans call for the building to have up to five units in the southeast corner of the shopping center where Farmers’ Road, Arby’s, and the first location for El Gran Rodeo had been.
By definition, a fast casual restaurant is a dining establishment that blends the convenience of fast food with the quality of casual dining. There is counter service, but no full table service. The atmosphere is more upscale than a typical fast-food restaurant, and prices are slightly higher but not as high as a full-service restaurant.
The plan has been before the commission since the fall, with Henderson making revisions based on comments from commission members, as well as the township engineer and the land planner. More landscaping has been added, and parking spaces have been adjusted on the plan to reduce the chances of a pedestrian being struck by a car in the parking area.
In addition to added landscaping with more plantings and taller trees, Henderson President and CEO Brian Coyle said the grading of the new building would be lowered by about six inches to help ensure that headlights from the vehicles in the drive-thru lane won’t shine into the eyes of drivers on southbound Route 202.
“Headlights won’t be a nuisance,” Coyle said.
Planning Commission Chairman Craig Huffman read a list of conditions that go along with the recommendations. Most are housekeeping matters related to adhering to the various review letters from the township engineer and land planner and to the township zoning code. Others are more specific. The drive-thru must be for a fast casual restaurant, and Henderson must pay a fee-in-lieu for open space and recreational considerations. That fee will be determined by the Board of Supervisors.
Other business
Following the recommendation for Henderson, the commission heard a sketch plan for a possible medical office at 1720 Wilmington Pike, at the intersection of Hillman Drive and Route 202. That address is the site of William Bunch Auction, now owned by Carlino Commercial Development, and used as a temporary space for overflow inventory parking by David Dodge.
Peter Miller, president of Carlino Commercial Development, said the idea is to construct the medical office and a bank on the site. There was a previous plan by Carlino to put a Wawa and a bank on the site, but that plan was withdrawn.
According to Miller, the medical office will be about 15,000 square feet and the bank, a Chase bank, would be about 3,400 square feet. Both buildings would be served by public water and sewer.
There was some discussion about what type of medicine would be practiced at the proposed building. Miller said it would not be a surgical center, but didn’t specify what it would be since there is no tenant, though there are “active discussions” with several possible tenants.
Another part of the conversation dealt with the location of a drive-thru lane for the bank. Huffman suggested that it would be safer for pedestrians if the drive-thru was on the Hillman Drive side of the property.
In addition, Carlino still wants to widen Hillman Drive, something they proposed with the previous plan. Traffic engineer Nicole Kline said the widening would come from Carlino’s side of Hillman so that the Hillman and Route 202 intersection would align properly with the entrance to the Wegmans property and no land would be taken from the Goddard School side of Hillman.
That alignment, she said, allows for one lane onto Hillman from Route 202, but three lanes leading out from Hillman. Each lane would be dedicated, with one lane for left turns, another for straight through, and a third lane dedicated to making a right onto Wilmington Pike.
To make room for the buildings, the auction house would need to be demolished. Miller said there would be no action for at least a year and a half. The approval for the site to handle the David Dodge inventory overflow expires on Oct. 22, 2026.
Since it’s only a sketch plan at this point, the was no decision and Carlino would need to return with a formal plan.
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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