YMCA – ChaddsFordLive.com

Residents balk at proposed developments

A standing room only crowd at the Chadds Ford Township municipal building spoke almost unanimously with one voice and one word: No.

No to the YMCA, no to a K. Hovnanian Homes development and no to the southwest leg of the loop road around the intersection of Routes 1 and 202.

A special informational meeting of the Chadds Ford Planning Commission drew a larger attendance than almost a year’s worth of supervisors’ meetings. The crowd was made up mostly of residents from Painters Crossing Condominiums and from the Estates at Chadds Ford, the communities most directly affected if the proposals go through.

Hovnanian and the Y want to build in the township, but current zoning prevents that. Both have requested changes in the zoning code. Hovnanian is asking that the Brandywine Drive site be rezoned from Planned Business Center to Residential-Multifamily, while the YMCA wants a text change to allow for non-commercial recreational use in the LI, Light Industrial District.

While all speakers spoke against at least two or three planned developments, commission member Mike Ashmore reminded people later in the session that the township can’t prevent development. He said the Comprehensive Plan, last updated in 2008, is what guides current planning, including the focus on building up the Route 202 corridor with both commercial and residential development. He suggested that maybe the comp plan should be re-examined before there are any zoning changes.

Commission Chairman Craig Huffman opened the session with a quick rundown of 13 proposals under consideration in Chadds Ford and Concord Townships, but the primary concerns for the residents centered on three.

Margaret Faia, from the Estates at Chadds Ford and the Chadds Ford Preservation Society, said she and her group oppose the YMCA being built in the Light Industrial District at Hillman and Dickinson drives across from the entrance to the estates. She said the area is already too congested.

The loop road would also run along Hillman Drive and that will add to the problem, she said. According to her research, 90,000 vehicles go through the intersection of Routes 1 and 202 everyday.

“How many will use the loop road,” she asked.

Faia added that she opposes another possible business development along Dickinson Drive — one not yet before the commission. That, too, she said, would add to traffic congestion.

She added that doing business is a privilege, but safe residential areas are a right.

Richard Kaser, also from the Estates at Chadds Ford, said that since Evergreen Drive is the only access point — in and out — for the development, traffic from the YMCA would pose a serious problem.

“It’s a serious safety concern for us…Our children will be put in danger,” he said.

Another estates’ resident said the K. Hovnanian-proposed 120-townhouse development along Brandywine Drive would create an undue burden on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.

Harvey Lane resident Eric Goodman cautioned against the Hovnanian project because it would just increase traffic along Brandywine Drive and possibly bring unwanted people onto neighboring properties.

Only one person, another estates’ resident, spoke out in favor of the loop road, saying it was needed.

Three property owners from the Painters Crossing Condominiums — including township tax collector Valerie Hoxter — expressed concerns over the loop road proposal. As currently planned, the road would run within 100 feet of the 1500 building, Hoxter said.

That proximity of traffic noise and headlights shining into windows would adversely affect the owners and ultimately reduce property values for every owner of every unit in the entire complex, she said.

Hoxter added that the township did a good job in listening to homeowners on Summit Drive and Heyburn Road when it prevented those streets from being used for ingress and egress to and from Chadds Ford Estates. She wants the same consideration for condo residents.

Also taking aim at the loop road was Republican Party candidate for supervisor, Frank Murphy, who said truckers would wind up using the loop even if it’s marked for residential traffic only and they’ll drive at 55 mph even if marked for 35 mph.

“The loop road is a real problem and must be thought through,” he said.

Murphy added that he grew up in Upper Darby and lived in Aston, but “I don’t want Chadds Ford to be Upper Darby or Aston.”

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Overlay ordinance not a slam dunk in Chadds Ford

Local News

A possible overlay ordinance that would allow for mixed use in 100 acres along Route 202 is being viewed with apprehension. Developers want it, residents don’t.

It’s the Neighborhood Commercial Overlay Ordinance, formerly referred to as the Loop Road Overlay, and it’s needed to allow two proposed developments. One is a YMCA at Hillman and Christy drives in the Henderson business campus and the other, proposed by K. Hovnanian Homes, is a 120-townhouse development on Brandywine Drive behind Painters Crossing shopping center on the site of the former Brandywine Club.

The plan could also pave the way for work on the southwest portion of the long sought after loop road. That’s one of the sticking points.

Salvatore Faia, of the Chadds Ford Preservation Society, told Planning Commission members during their July 10 meeting that his group is opposed to any zoning change, but that talks about the Hovnanian plan and the loop road should be kept separate. He said any change would be “inappropriate.”

Faia, who lives in The Estates at Chadds Ford, said the society also opposes the YMCA.

“It would have a negative impact on the residents of the Estates at Chadds Ford,” he said. “Residents already have fire, police and emergency concerns because of traffic.”

Those residents have only one point of ingress and egress to and from their development, that being on Evergreen Drive at Hillman Drive, directly across from the proposed Y. Having that stretch of Hillman Drive be part of the loop road would add to their traffic concerns.

Residents of Painters Crossing Condominiums would also be affected. Plans for that southwest leg of the loop show the road so close to the condos that the headlights of traffic moving toward Route 1 would shine directly into some of the residential units.

One condo resident, township tax collector Valerie Hoxter, asked the commission to consider that close proximity and requested they move the planned road farther away if possible. She also wanted to know what the timetable is for the ordinance.

Commission Chairman Craig Huffman said there was no way he could give an exact time frame. Maybe by the end of this year, maybe not, he said.

“An overlay ordinance will be developed and then we will take a fine-toothed comb to it…We will take our time to do it right,” Huffman said.

He explained that extensive traffic and financial impact studies must be done and that they would happen while the commission works on language for the ordinance.

In response to concerns expressed by Open Space Committee Chairman Deb Reardon, Huffman said that working on language for the ordinance before the impact studies are complete doesn’t mean that the project can’t be stopped if new information indicates the rezoning would be a bad idea.

A planning commission is a recommending body that reviews land development plans and is also responsible for writing land use ordinances. Actual approval of those plans and ordinances is the responsibility of the board of supervisors.

Township planning consultant Ray Ott started the discussion by giving a general overview of the project.

The area in question straddles Route 1 on the west side of Route 202 from north of Brandywine Drive to south of Hillman Drive. He said there are currently six different zoning districts in that area, all of which are for single use only, all business, commercial or light industrial, not residential or recreational.

Ott said the township’s Comprehensive Plan, which he wrote in 2009 and was later adopted by the township supervisors, calls for adding mixed-use areas to accommodate growth while protecting sensitive areas.

He said it makes more sense for the township to consider creating the overlay than to address development needs on a piecemeal basis. It makes it easier to plan for the future, he said.

Another reason for the overlay, he said, is that it makes it easier to develop a sense of community that’s not so car-oriented. The overlay can improve what he called the “streetscape,” even allowing for sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. Citing the Hovnanian specifically, he said that people would be able to walk from their homes to the shopping center.

Supervisor Deb Love said connectivity has become important with residents saying they want the ability to walk and not rely on their cars to shop.

Ott also said that a townhouse development, such as the one proposed by Hovnanian, would have a positive impact on the school system because there would be fewer school-aged kids in townhouses than in detached single-dwelling units.

He also said it would help prevent “the big box phenomenon.”

Representatives for Hovnanian and the YMCA were on hand to give updates on sketch plans for their proposals. Neither of which can be presented as formal plans unless and until an overlay ordinance is adopted to allow for their use.

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Chadds Ford going after back taxes

Local News

Chadds Ford Township is going after businesses that haven’t paid their Business Privilege Tax. Supervisors voted 3-0 during their June 5 meeting to seek collection going back to 2007.

As part of the resolution, they will also go after unpaid Local Services Taxes from employees of companies in the township, but only back to 2012.

An earlier consideration was to go after back taxes for both categories from 2007 onward.

Supervisor Keith Klaver said going after the BPT was fair because some businesses did pay, but that going after the LST beyond one year was problematic because it would put an unfair burden on businesses to attempt locating former employees.

The BPT is a tax of $100 per year per business operating in Chadds Ford Township. The LST is a tax of $1 per week, or $52 per year, on those employees who make more than $12,000 per year. Those taxes are supposed to be withheld by employers and passed on to the township.

As reported in December, former township tax collector Bruce Prabel, investigating on his own, discovered that at least 100 businesses — possibly 132 — operating in Chadds Ford were not on the tax rolls dating back to 2007. They were never billed for the LST and never paid them. Some businesses paid the LST, but not the BPT.

By Prabel’s figures at the time, between the uncollected business taxes, employee taxes and some property taxes that were never collected when properties weren’t properly reassessed, the township lost an estimated $740,000 over the years.

Other business

• During the June 4 workshop session, supervisors heard from representatives of the YMCA of the Brandywine Valley. The group is considering purchasing land from the Henderson Group for a facility in Chadds Ford.

Denise Day, president and CEO of the group, said they have signed a letter of intent to buy, but still want to see the best way to proceed. They’ve made no formal application yet and, so far, such use it not permitted under current zoning regulations. [That could be rectified by a commercial overlay. See below.]

If the plan goes through, the Y would build a facility on Henderson’s lot 12 that’s bordered by Hillman and Dickinson drives. It would have a first floor of 53,000 square feet and, possibly a second floor bringing the total square footage to 60,000 or 65,000 square feet.

• That possible commercial overlay is to be on the Planning Commission agenda for June 12. It is strictly a concept at this point, but one possible change would be to allow for a facility such as the YMCA.

If the overlay — the Neighborhood Commercial Overlay Ordinance — would come to fruition, it could also allow for a medium density housing development on the other side of Route 1 between Brandywine Drive and Painters Crossing shopping center. K. Hovnanian Homes has shown a concept plan of 114 townhomes on that 20-acre parcel. That, too, however, would need a zoning change before it could happen.

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