No decision on Penns Woods Winery

Penns Woods Winery will need to wait at least until June before learning whether Concord Township will approve an expansion. The winery took its land use application to Concord’s Planning Commission Monday night, but no decision was reached after a two-hour-long discussion.

Planning Commission Chairman Mark Elser requested that the applicant give the extension to allow the commission time to review all documentation and to check with the zoning officer to see that all conditions included in the Zoning Hearing Board’s granting of special exceptions have been met. Attorney Don Petrosa, representing the winery, said his client would agree to the extension.

The winery, at 124 Beaver Valley Road, wants to expand the size of the barn. As reported previously, the expansion would take the barn from 1,400 square feet to 4,500 square feet with a deck. The expansion of the barn would allow for a larger tasting area and for special events. An old house on the site is currently used as the tasting room.

Several neighbors in the Beaver Valley Road area of the winery, however, are concerned about increased traffic, noise, and light pollution.

In his opening remarks, Petrosa gave a brief history of the project, saying the land use application was made originally in late 2022 and that the zoning officer at the time said the winery would need a special exception for the expansion of a nonconforming use.

The exception was denied, Petrosa said, but the applicant appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. The judge reversed the decision.

“Judge Eckel issued an order reversing the decision of the Zoning Hearing Board, making a finding that it was indeed an existing nonconforming use,” Petrosa said. “She remanded it back to the Zoning Hearing Board to give the board an opportunity to impose some conditions for the special exception.”

Petrosa continued, saying he knows there are neighbors near the winery who are concerned about the use, but that matter has already been settled by the court and the ZHB.

“I think that we’re really dealing with or should be dealing with land development issues. As far as I’m concerned, the use issues have already been decided,” he said. “One of the concerns I’ve heard is about noise. In my opinion, that issue has been resolved. In the condition that the Zoning Hearing Board imposed, the applicant must comply with the standards of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for amplified music. Those standards are pretty specific, as opposed to things you’ll find in a lot of ordinances. Basically, the amplified music shouldn’t exceed 75 decibels at the property line.”

Petrosa added that the winery has been complying with that for every event it’s had, and that the LCB has sent people unannounced to check and they found the sound levels complying with the 75-decibel limit.

Petrosa called engineer Mike Ciocco, who said there have been several changes to the plan since it was first developed.

Ciocco said the barn is not in use at present. It’s in a dilapidated condition and can’t even be used for storage.

“The proposal is to redo the entire barn, enlarge it, and make it have a tasting room with a deck, and some interior space with additional storage,” Ciocco said.

Using the barn as a tasting room would allow for more people to taste wines if the weather is inclement.

Other changes include adding ADA improvements.

“Right now, it’s just a gravel or stone parking area. The parking area will be upgraded with paved ADA parking spaces, and then an ADA sidewalk that will lead from the parking lot to the front of the new barn,” he said. “It will also wrap around to the existing house that will continue as office space and storage.”

During questioning, he said there would be a total of 364 parking spaces. There would be 50 spaces at the barn, 52 on the gravel area, and space on the lawn for 262 vehicles to park.

Ciocco also said there would be changes to the stormwater management system with new seepage beds under the parking lot and new inlets. There will also be some added landscaping to comply with recommendations made by land planner Tom Comitta.

Prior to the meeting, Charlene Emlet, a community organizer who said she was representing about 40 residents of the Brandywine Summit neighborhood, disseminated a 35-page document expressing concerns and requests.

She said during the meeting, “The winery has the right to redo the barn and every right to improve their property. We have no concerns with the conditions that they’ve been granted, however I do have concerns about [some conditions],” she said, adding that she and the neighbors have some specific asks.

One of those asks involves noise. She said she has several residents who have signed a document saying they do hear noise from the winery. One of those neighbors lives 2,000 feet away from the winery and can still hear noise. She asked that the commission require the winery to adjust the buffer to include a sound-abating fence that has no gate, and that the fence shall be installed along. The entire length of the east side of the property. She added that evergreen trees should be planted along the full length of the property to abate sound.

There is also the issue of exterior lighting. Emlet wants the commission to require the winery to submit a visual impact plan to show that glare is mitigated.

Both of those issues were previously addressed. Petrosa had already spoken about the 75-decibel sound level, and Ciocco said all the lights would be facing downward with panels that black light bleeding into neighboring properties.

In her 35-page document, Emlet calls for the commission to also make sure that all the conditions from the Zoning Hearing Board are properly met.

Emlet also brought up the fact that there are several new ordinances pending in the township that deal with lighting and with wineries, and asked the commission to consider those when deciding on whether to recommend approval.

Petrosa countered that by reminding the commissioners that the Municipalities Planning Code says that once a land development plan is filed, “you’re protected from any changes in ordinances during the review process. So, those ordinances don’t apply.”

The Planning Commission meets next on May 13, after the next Township Council meeting, so the council can’t hear the matter until its June 3 meeting. The winery will go back to the commission at its May 13 meeting to get the decision on whether the plan is recommended.

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.