The following letter was sent to me. Apparently it was read aloud at the most recent West Vincent Board of Supervisors meeting:

West Vincent Board of Supervisors
March 26, 2012

To the members of the Board of Supervisors, past and present; the Township Manager; the Zoning Officer and the solicitors who oversee our township business:

My husband, George T. Graham, D.D. S., and I, Suzanne M. Roth; wish to express our profound disappointment with the lack of oversight displayed by the Board and its advisors to protect our Historic School House property.

We now face a 10,000 to 12,500 square foot office complex on this 2.78 acre property which far exceeds reasonable development. We do not believe that a Fiscal Impact Statement should be waived. This is an historic village with roads to match. If the property is developed as planned for each parking space allotted there will be 8 cars trips anticipated to travel our roads. That would mean approximately 256-270 more cars passing our house on a daily basis or turning around somewhere in the village to enter the office complex. With this amount of volume we will need a traffic light at the cross roads of School House Land and Flowing Springs Road and a 3 way stop at the juncture of Hollow Road and School House Lane to prevent accidents. The steep grades and lack of sight lines should make this necessary.

The township police cannot enforce the 15 MPH speed limit on the lower portion of School House Lane now. I believe this added volume will make us ripe for accidents. As it is now most of the people who travel this portion of the road DO NOT OBEY the speed limit and many small collisions occur as evidenced by the amount of mirror glass on the road and its verges. In inclement weather we have had 2 very major accidents at the corner of School House Lane and Hollow Road; one when a car went airborne off School House Lane and clipped the side of the Sladek house and moved the LP gas tank and another when a car again went airborne off Hollow Road and entered the Sladek barn on the second floor level.

Working plans drawn by Edward B. Walsh in May 1991 to enable the installation of utility sheds on this same property show an active stream and wetlands. In fact the buildings were moved to comply with a then 50 foot set back from the stream. As the plan stands now all evidence of these natural resources has been removed. The stream has been piped and the wetlands denuded and filled with stone. We believe these changes have adversely impacted a tributary of the Birch Run, an exceptional value stream.

Has the capacity of the well been determined? Can it support 4 buildings and their occupants?

The sewage facilities have been placed along School House Lane above the planned buildings. If this site fails where will the alternative site be? Is this sewage sight 150 feet from the still shown wetlands?

There has been No Notification from Birchrun Village, L.L.C. to the surrounding neighbors regarding any of the changes or proposed changes to this property.

With the addition of 3 buildings on this property the increase in light pollution will magnify. Now, if lights are left on in the evening or overnight the light enters the bedrooms of surrounding neighbors. What will be the effect when a parking lot for 32-34 cars is illuminated?

We would like to see the separate plan sheet submitted showing truck and emergency vehicle access around the entire development as suggested by John Caruolo, P.E. We understand there has been a letter written to the township by the local fire departments. We would like to have copies and review these letters.

We strongly believe that the Birchrun Village, LLC. should not be given a waiver to put buildings and parking spaces within the 150 foot set back of streams. Our zoning calls for a set back of 150 feet from an historic building. Their plan calls for placing one of the buildings within 62.5 feet of the School House.

Developing this Office Complex will forever change the nature of this historic village. This type of development belongs at Ludwigs Corner or at Routes 113 & 401 not in the village.

We strongly ask the supervisors to reject the waivers asked for by Birchrun Village, LLC.

Huh. Well isn’t that just delightful? How do these people stay in office? Does West Vincent have a sunshine issue too? Lordy. (Did I mention yesterday someone asked me why I refused to patronize Birchrun Hills Farms at farm markets? They got an earful.)

Oh and here is the latest (and somewhat related) from Chickenman:

Hi

Monday’s meeting seems to be an interesting one for several reasons.
1. The Dunn TDR’s appear to be back. I have discussed this in depth with attachments and you should read it here:

http://tinyurl.com/chickenman1

This is where the Township defaulted on a signed agreement to buy the balance of Transferrable Development Rights from the Dunn Family. The Township, with no legal documentation, gave the Dunn’s a $50,000 deposit and then forfeited the money. Your money. The Dunn’s had the right to sue to force the township into the agreement but thankfully did not. Of course, the Township didn’t HAVE enough money to buy the Rights, they had spent it on other things.

Now the Township is back to the table. Let’s see if the Dunn’s deal to preserve a huge tract of land is finally honored for the agreed $1.33 million. Of course, any leverage they had vanished when their statute of limitations to sue expired back in November of 2011.

2. Nothing on the Dave Brown Restriction of Free Speech Resolution is listed. Don’t expect it to come back alive until after the election for Republican Committee people. He has to keep that quiet for now because nothing is more un-American than defiling the First Amendment. If people know about it, they won’t vote for him.

3. Birchrun Village is on the Agenda. The old Township Building in Birchrunville is being developed into a little shopping center. There are many issues including the amount of buildings and intrusion to the Pennsylvania mandated riparian buffer (no building within 150 of any waterway). Strangely, the same people that fight to protect the waters of the Birchrun are once again silent on this issue, just like with the Ken Miller, Roadmaster and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors pollution runoff the EPA documented and the brown water runoff from construction last year.

4. Lastly, according to Township e-mail subscribers, the Agenda that is sent every Friday before a meeting was never sent this week. With hot topics such as the Birchrun Village and the Dunn’s perhaps finally getting their money, I suspect the Supervisors don’t want people in attendance. I didn’t know that West Vincent could hit an even higher level of censorship. Will it ever plateau? Here is where you can see the agenda: http://www.westvincenttwp.org/images/docs/032612%20Agenda.pdf

ATTEND THE MEETING MONDAY AT 7:30. MAYBE THEY CAN THROW IN AN EMINENT DOMAIN WHILE THEY ARE AT IT.

To see my previous mailings please click on http://tinyurl.com/westvincentinfos As usual, if you want to be on or off my list, or have some comments or suggestions, or know someone who would like to be on the list, please let me know. Feel free to forward this email on to anyone you think might be interested. Especially though, if you don’t want to continue to receive my mails, please tell me, it will be done. Just hit reply to this email or write to chestercountynews@gmail.com

Best wishes

Chickenman