NEWS

Development near First State National park up for vote

Xerxes Wilson
The News Journal

A contentious plan to develop property adjoining First State National Monument land will face its biggest hurdle on Tuesday.

The preliminary development plan for Vineyard Commons is scheduled to be voted on by Concord Township Board of Supervisors after receiving recommendation by the township planning board last week. Opposition to the development has been fierce, with groups levying technical challenges and organizing protests in the planning process.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. at Garnet Valley Middle School, 601 Smithbridge Road in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

About 160 houses on mostly half-acre lots are planned. The development will ultimately take up 230 acres within a mile of U.S. 202 on either side of the Pennsylvania portion of Beaver Valley Road, stopping yards away from the New Castle County line.

The plans have already been approved by Delaware County. The land is being sold by Wilmington’s Woodlawn Trustees and developed by Eastern States Development of Wilmington and McKee-Concord Homes L.P. of Springfield, Pennsylvania.

Groups like the Brandywine Conservancy have said that plans to clear more than 100 acres of mature woodland will damage the water quality of the Brandywine Creek watershed. The land being used is part of a contiguous area of partially protected open space including First State National Monument land connecting with Brandywine Creek State Park in Delaware.

The property also is home to structures opponents consider of historic significance. Some barns and farmhouses will be demolished to make way for the development.

“The core of the argument is this isn’t ready for prime time,” said Jack Michel, co-founder of the Beaver Valley Conservancy, which opposes the plan. They said problems range from what they see as incorrect interpretations of the zoning rules to the development’s need for several waivers from requirements of the township’s development codes.

“There are a number of provisions that protect mature trees and they have asked for a waiver from all of them,” Michel pointed out as an example. “Under the law, the mere fact their property will be less valuable does not constitute a hardship.”

Manycomplaints center on environmental concerns like potential damage to the watershed and questions about stormwater drainage, which opponents feel developers have not provided adequate plans for handling.

John Jaros, a Kennett Square land-use attorney for Woodlawn and the developers, said they’ve follow all rules.

“The supervisors look to their planning commission, township engineer, township planner and township fire marshal and township sewer engineer on whether the plans are compliant and I contend that the most recent letters from those reviewing agencies say we are compliant,” he said.

More detailed information about things like stormwater runoff will be provided in the final plan phase, Jaros said, noting the development must be brought to the supervisors for approval again in that phase.

Opposition to the plan has been mobilized by Save the Valley, a citizens group started by Wilmington resident Jason Hoover.

“People are engaged,” said Hoover, who fostered an appreciation for the land running the trails through the property. “It is almost like a cultural heritage phenomenon.”

When the project was seeking the township planning board blessing last week, some 100 opponents attended holding signs and shouting their disapproval during the meeting.

“I understand the level of emotion that this application has generated, unfortunately the people who are focusing on this is whether this property should be developed, but that is not the question. That boat has sailed; Woodlawn sold the property to my client,” Jaros said.

Hoover and Michel said ultimately they’d like to see consideration of how the land could be preserved.

“Yes, property rights are real, and we can’t take away property rights, but it is not within their right to build it,” Hoover said. ‘They are taking a plan that requires a rezoning and stuffing it into a by-right envelope.”

Contact Staff Writer Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.

If you go

WHAT: Concord Township Board vote on Vineyard Commons project.

WHEN: 6 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Garnet Valley Middle School, 601 Smithbridge Road