can you hear the people NOW, east goshen?

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East Goshen Township meeting 10/25/2018. Residents from multiple municipalities packed the board room. Inside and outside the room.

East Goshen got a good dose of the public’s ire in three municipalities over their proposed zoning changes last evening.

Now I am still not sure how the meeting ended other than I don’t think anything was completely decided and the supervisors were clearly annoyed that the public had the temerity to pack the house . I was watching on YouTube and fell asleep.

Here are two photos people sent to me. One from inside the meeting room, and one from the standing room only overflow in the hall. I really do not know what ails the newer commissioners to the East Goshen board but I hope they snap out of it. But I don’t know that they will, do you?

Prior to this East Goshen has always been such a jewel because it avoided this kind of development and it avoided rezoning that would ruin it.

But now? They are all short-sighted. Changing the zoning to add cluster development is a mistake. Not just my opinion apparently given the turn out last night would be my guess. What they want to do isn’t visionary. It’s stupid and greedy.

It adds more traffic, it will crush the infrastructure, it could very well affect the school district, and what about those of us on wells and stuff as all this development affects us too?

What about nature in the equation? These parcels support a lot of magnificent wildlife and more so what about that?

In my opinion, the majority of developers don’t care. It’s all about their profit and the more they can do high density housing no matter how a property sits the more profits they make. Because face it they are clustering the houses because they can’t use all of the land. Another example would be the hideousness going on over on Church Road in Malvern. Or even within the same school district East Goshen sits in. What about Greystone Hall in West Goshen?

It’s all about the money, honey. These municipalities do not care about the existing residents. Neither do the developers. It’s about profit margins. Ratables. Nothing about reality. Nothing about us.

The reality is more meetings throughout Chester County need to be packed. If we don’t stand up a lot more often and demand our open space and farms be saved and respected the pace of development will never slow.

We also need to elect better local politicians. And better state level politicians. The Municipalities Planning Code needs to be updated with better protections.

We need more land conservation and fewer plastic mushroom house farms. We need more real farms.

And we need a county planning commission run by someone from Chester County, not Lower Merion which is a land of infill development. I asked at least 15 years ago what was actually smart about “smart growth” and I am still waiting.

If we all don’t get more active in our communities we are going to look like parts of Bucks County, Montgomery County, and outside Harrisburg where it used to be open space and rolling farm land. Now it’s development after development punctuated by some version of a strip mall.

Thank you to all of the residents who went last night. Everyone can watch a replay by following this link.

I will note at the end an East Goshen supervisor took a jab at neighboring municipality East Whiteland for not letting residents know this was happening. O.k. not wrong but hey East Goshen did you really go out of your way to get this issue out there? Come on now, wouldn’t you have been just as happy with stealth mode?

Here are the names of the East Goshen Supervisors:

Here is a link to their page on the East Goshen website. It’s time to start contacting them (politely). If the public does NOT keep up the pressure, this zoning will become reality. Even if you live in a neighboring municipality, if you are against this, you should contact them. And contact your own supervisors in your municipality.

Be vocal. Be present. And East Goshen residents? If you don’t like the decisions change the faces of who governs you. Be a stakeholder where you live. Not a sheeple.

East Goshen Township meeting 10/25/2018. Residents from multiple municipalities packed the board room. Inside and outside the room.

8 thoughts on “can you hear the people NOW, east goshen?”

  1. This sort of thing has been a recurring theme in politics and government for longer than any of us have been around. Real estate development = money and that is what this is all about. The difficult challenge an interested public faces is determining who is paying and who is getting paid. It is very likely that partisan politics is involved as it permeates every level of government. Rest assured, this has nothing to do with what is in the interest of most township residents.

  2. Definitely a sensitive topic. I will tell you though, I did receive a letter, regular USPS, about 2 weeks ago with notice of the meeting. So I’d say there was adequate notice even for people who may not be on social media often. I will say the letter said I was receiving it because I live within 1000 feet of one of the areas in question, so I can’t speak for folks NOT within 1000 feet, but i’d say there was fair notice.

    • People who lived outside the boundaries were largely unaware this was happening. And I was told people in East Whiteland were not notified by the Township even though the township received notice from East Goshen. Can’t speak for Willistown they are generally speaking pretty proactive.

  3. I liked the title of your post, but it makes me wonder if you were able to see the whole video. Check out the end around 3:09. At that time most people left. Notwithstanding that it was understood that no action would be taken tonight, the board decided to move forward and allocate more money to the consultant to draw up plans. When one woman in the audience shook her head, a board member singled her out, and said he wanted to know why she was shaking her head. She reluctantly went to the mic, having listened to the Board and other residents for over 3 hours, began to state her thoughts (she is not a fan). Another Board member interrupted her, STOOD UP (?) and went on a tirade that included that he was “sick” of the “negativity” tonight. I am appalled by this behavior on every level. It’s very clear, at least to me, that whatever the interests are of this board, it is not to “hear the people.”

    • I have watched a good bit of the meeting and I was also appalled by the way the supervisors behaved. So disappointed in East Goshen.

  4. The real pity in all this is that even at the local level, politicians are unwilling to tell us the truth. There can be little doubt that one or more of the parcels in question are sitting on a proposal from a developer just waiting for this zoning change. “Carriage homes” are just a sexy and oft more expensive term for twins and townhouses. Time marches on. Properties are passed from one generation to the next. At some point they lose their appeal as a posh residence in favor of the pile of cash they could potentially generate. Some of that cash inevitably motivates the local pols and results in “positive change”. Money is the mother’s milk of politics. No one in the game is immune.

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