Way to go community. You all have come together in spite of divisive local and regional politics for a greater good: preserving Chester County from hideous mega warehouses. I am referring to the Save Lionville Station Farm folks and the community at large, not the issue co-opting phony baloney fake professor school board candidate or the issue co-opting perennial baby kissing photo posing smarmy history teaching isn’t my wife hot county commissioner candidate and please do NOT vote for those two! I am talking about the real every day folks who have devoted blood, sweat, and tears to this issue.
So this issue IS NOT over, but FINALLY headed in the right direction. KEEP UP THE PRESSURE. Keep an eye on solicitors who want to “unwind” and make sure it’s not “unwinding” forever.
Git R Done people! This is the GREAT news! And existing school board directors? Your re-election campaigns depends on this, sorry to say. This needs to be unwound BEFORE election day.
North Wayne in Radnor Township. Used to be one of my favorite places. Leafy trees, amazing old houses. Now infill development is getting it. First up today are the million dollar townhouses on N. Aberdeen Ave. where it used to be the I guess pool supply office. I think it was called American Pool Service or something. Well now it’s million dollar plus townhouses.
The townhouses have a pretentious, almost absurd for location name—- Rockwell on Aberdeen. I hate to break it to them. It will always be N. Aberdeen Avenue in North Wayne and some might say Little Chicago adjacent if not Little Chicago.
I had gone down to Penn Medicine in Radnor. I always cut over North Wayne to Saint Davids to Radnor. Every time I go down, I see something different. First, it was the ridiculously huge townhouses on the corner of Plant Avenue and Willow Avenue. So those have been up a few years now. And it was where the scary house was quite literally it looked like it was falling apart and even when it wasn’t Halloween, it looked like it was Halloween. Of course, the thing with those places are is the additional parking on plant Avenue and I don’t really know how to park. Next are photos from when they were being built.
And of course getting through North Wayne today was an obstacle course starting at 1 Pennsylvania Avenue where John’s Village Market is. From what I have gathered noodling around on social media the building was sold, and John’s is still open.
Today I thought they were closed for good, and you could barely get by on the street. There were so many trucks. If I could have safely taken a photo to show people exactly how many trucks were there your mind would’ve been blown. The only thing I’ve been able to find is a photo posted about what John’s market looks like I think this July, but there were no trucks in front and literally where that is is this sharp triangular corner and there were just trucks everywhere.
I do not know how Radnor Township can allow this to go on every day except it’s Radnor Township and they don’t give a crap anymore. This is an area where you have people walking to the train station as well as kids walking into Wayne, getting on a school bus, etc. maybe this new landlord has a lot of work to do on the building, and I don’t want to judge as far as that goes, but there’s a safety component that’s clearly being ignored here, and that is inexcusable.
So after seeing the ridiculously over, priced townhouses on Aberdeen, and going to Penn Medicine, I wound my way home, again going through North Wayne. What I saw along Radnor Street Road almost made me drive off the road. I’m guessing this is old Valley Forge Military Academy land that was sold to a developer. Fox Lane Homes “North Wayne” priced around $2.7 million. Never heard of this developer, but that doesn’t mean anything one way or the other. There are so many developers these days.
And again with the naked acres.
Main Line McMansions don’t need trees. It doesn’t matter that North Wayne had as one of its most beautiful points besides the Victorian and early 20th century architecture … the trees…..glorious trees and tree canopies.
And then, across the street from this development on land that I guess was also maybe possibly from Valley Forge Military Academy but I don’t know, was another house. Not a bad looking house truthfully, but no trees. Don’t people want trees or plants or gardens anymore?
And again, it’s North Wayne so North Wayne without trees is pretty weird. And it changes the whole ecosystem.
That’s why I call this post the rape of North Wayne. Infill development is bad enough when there is so much volume, but where a lot of these places are being developed had places with established gardens, mature trees. Like where the Wayne Bed & Breakfast Inn was torn down for the next CasVille. I didn’t have the opportunity to take photos of that today, too much traffic, which is just as well because it’s utterly depressing to drive by.
Now I am sure that these McMonsterosities will sell…the townhouses of pretentiousness on Aberdeen seems like the sold for over a million each?
But what is Radnor Township thinking? It used to be they gave a crap, but now? What are they thinking? How many will this add to an already bursting school district? How will this affect infrastructure including first responders pushing their limits now?
Come on now, you know what I am going to say: yet MORE examples of WHY the Municipalities Planning Code needs to be comprehensively updated. What makes where we live and even places we just drive through special are disappearing one bulldozer at a time.
But on a bright note to end on, I also visited the Wayne Natatorium historical marker. I did that. It was dedicated 13 years ago this month on October 17, 2010.
I had help from some amazing friends, two of whom are no longer with us, but this was my baby and it is a state, not municipal marker.
Why do I point this out? Mostly because it’s super cool history and I am proud of this as an accomplishment, but also because my critics love to say I never do anything.
Radnor Township Parks and Recreation Department could take the time to trim the tree in front of the sign, however. Except knowing Radnor Township they will just ignore the tree until one day they will probably just hack it down.
Hi it’s me, the development critic. Weston is selling on West King Road across from Johnson Matthey. This is in West Whiteland, JUST over the East Whiteland border quite literally. I have written about this before:
So there was a meeting last night in West Whiteland. Planning. The Weston Development came up again. If it wasn’t for a West Whiteland resident looking at the agenda because they were at another meeting last night, I would not have known Weston was up again and with a zoning change going to zoning with I presume planning approval.
Now I have not seen the property change hands as of yet, but there is the possibility the sale is through since Chester County seems behind in what they record almost always.
I am kind of pissy about this. Right or wrong.
One reason WHY I am pissed is I have been on zoom calls of other meetings involving this property in the past. I even contacted them in writing as did many others from EAST WHITELAND. As a COURTESY, you all should have let East Whiteland residents know. I know full well they know how to reach me, and if not me the peo in East Whiteland Township.
This plan will drastically impact residents of East Whiteland who live on roads off of W. King or who are in the many houses that pepper W. King Road in East and West Whiteland.
It would be common courtesy to let your neighbors know when ANYTHING happens with this property because ANYTHING that happens with this property or the acreage across the road being sold by Johnson Matthey WILL AFFECT MORE THAN WEST WHITELAND, correct?
There is quite the eco system on that property. Has a property search been done as to any special special like bog turtles which might reside there? How many and what trees will be removed and how large will the trees be? And any tree planting should NOT be developer specials lined up like for a firing squad (what Toll brothers does) and left to die.
Also, the neighbors want a traffic signal as in yes a light right there at the mouth of that development at King and Weston Way. Otherwise, NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO GET OUT. And speaking of not getting out, has West Whiteland been monitoring the intersection of Ship and King lately? They should. And the guy who zips around on W. King in the motorized wheelchair in the lanes of traffic with nothing reflective? They should pay attention to him as well, and get him like those big reflective triangles Amish buggies have. It’s terrifying to be on W. King with traffic with him zipping around like he is driving a car.
West Whiteland approving a development of this size is going to affect the neighbors in more than one municipality. I saw a reference in old materials about a neighbors’ meeting in 2022. I don’t recall hearing about that. Thankfully this development will only overload West Chester Area School District.
I feel East Whiteland is completely out of the loop on projects that they border with West Whiteland and other municipalities and this has to stop. Soon we will not be able to navigate around the area with the development approved in West Whiteland on Route 30 from the Laborers past but including Ship Road and east on Lancaster to the municipal border with East Whiteland. Oh and this latest developer seeking big bucks at the expense of Chester County residents has a very similar plan to this brewing in Willistown. They are from Blue Bell which I sadly remember the farms and open space there before the developers moved in.
I am pretty tuned in to what happens around here, and I was a little distressed to see this all moving forward without us lowly East Whiteland folks being clued in.
Also has West Whiteland forgotten the pipelines that run through this property? Still want people running uphill or whatever?
I go out of my way to try to get East and West Whiteland to communicate. It’s only COMMON SENSE. Yet here we are.
Like I said, I can’t stop this development but I will talk about it. West Whiteland will have conditions of approval on this project and respectfully, one of those needs to include A TRAFFIC SIGNAL as well as answers to environmental questions.
It’s nice they are saving the historic structures, but as is the case with a lot of these things, seeing will be believing.
When I lived in Lower Merion they would create resident email lists for development projects. Someone in planning and/or zoning would notify residents of actions on a particular plan. A lot of your projects don’t just affect residents of just ONE municipality, they also affect residents of bordering municipalities.
It drives me CRAZY that no one in Harrisburg wants to get off of their asses and do a comprehensive non-Band-Aid update to the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), since hello the MPC drives our zoning. The last comprehensive update circa 1969 is what cause the first monster project to tear apart Chester County and blow up a school district: Chesterbrook.
It drives me CRAZY that municipalities that border each other and often have similar issues act like independent island nations. When there is collaboration there is often greater success. And West Whiteland and East Whiteland had success, great success years ago over what Rouse had planned for Church Farm. More recently, residents banned together to stop a hydrogen plant.
It’s an epidemic. This is being proposed on a historic site in Montgomery County in Limerick and there’s a meeting tomorrow and I guess they broadcast live on Facebook as well.
Just a crazy idea, but perhaps people should tune in to this meeting, because apparently a lot of us across Southeastern PA have a similar issue, and the more people who object to these warehouses the better off, we will all be.
Location: Possum Hollow Road Review Phase: Preliminary Plan
CB Limerick LLC proposes to subdivide the 117.9 Acre tract fronting W. Lightcap Road into five lots and construct four storage facilities totaling 1 Mil SF and one 30,000 SF and one retail space with associated loading, parking and stormwater facilities. The project also proposes to construct private road connecting W. Lightcap Road (at the light at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets) to Sanatoga Road. Project will be serviced by public water and sewer.
This is being proposed by I think some people from New York. A subsidiary of the Iconic Group (whomever they are.) I will note as a related aside to Chester County residents that apparently the old Saint Gabriel’s Hall is something Audubon has their paws in.
And Limerick isn’t that far from the Chester County border and there is a lot of development being planned there. It’s pretty frightening but it’s also Montgomery County, which is where the head of Chester County Planning Commission hails from – and you know I think Brian O’Leary is a carpet bagger and too pro development.
So back to Limerick. What is so atrocious is once again a historic property is at risk because of a mega warehouse plan.
Hood Mansion located in Limerick, PA was built in 1834 by John M. Hood, an Irish immigrant. He built it as a summer home for his wife and his thirteen children.
The Hood’s son, Washington, was the 500th graduate of West Point in 1827. He then went on to become Captain of the Corps of Topographical Engineers in the US Army and mapped out most of the Oregon Territory and Northwest. After he died at the age of 32 of Yellow Fever, his father erected a monument in his honor. The monument is still located on the estate, as well as the original family crypt.
The Hood Mansion would be demolished. It would be replaced with mega warehouses. So this beautiful historic structure with ties to national, local, and cultural significance with a retaining pond would be lost forever along with more open space. Please note the Hood family also advocated and helped enslaved persons reach freedom during the Underground Railroad. So there is that too.
This is not a structure to just be bulldozed and forgotten…. this is just as horrible and egregious as what’s being proposed for Lionville Station Farm and Happy Days Farm in Chester County.
All of these pieces of land have historic import. And while we can’t save every old house, there are some we should just save. And the way Hood is being left at present to rot is just as bad as Lloyd Farm in Caln. Why can’t we ever have adaptive reuse in part with any of these proposals? It’s just demolish and build and it’s like mega warehouses have become the new apartment building plans. They’re all bad. They all suck. They’re not anything to do with our communities or the people that live there let alone our history.
In Southeastern, Pennsylvania is seems any open space with serious history that isn’t being turned into ugly ass apartment buildings and townhouse developments is being proposed for mega warehouses now.
I swear I used to think it was just Chester county where we had to band together. I think we have to band together in multiple counties.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS PUBLIC MEETING 19 SEPTEMBER 2023, 7:00 P.M. – LIMERICK TOWNSHIP MUNICIPAL BUILDING
646 West Ridge Pike, Limerick, PA 19468
I don’t usually curse in my posts but this is bullsh🤬t. Just like Lionville Station Farm and Happy Days Farm.
Development in West Whiteland – Route 30 to Ship Road and down both sides of Ship Road. Bad, dense, not even particularly affordable- just another bunch of Tyvec wrapped cram plans.
The development from various predatory developers in this area heads east until it practically hits East Whiteland. Then you proceed to Easttown and Tredyffrin all the way down to Radnor Township.
Too much, too dense, cheap, fast build and rather pricey. Nothing affordable. This is stressing our infrastructure including the human variety, and squeezing our school districts to a breaking point.
Wherever you live get active in your community. Make elections have a focus on all this overdevelopment from local to state to federal elections. Start talking about the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It hasn’t been updated comprehensively since 1969…and one of the things that first got built THEN was Chesterbrook.
I put together a small reel. Pictures speak louder than words. Be horrified because progress shouldn’t hurt our communities and that’s what is happening.
Ahh development. This is Greystone in West Goshen. One word: HIDEOUS.
Living cheek to jowl. No real gardens. No individuality.
This was once a glorious estate. Of course, while it was a glorious estate in recent memory, there was a failed eminent domain attempt. So then after a few years the owners sold to developers. Was one action a direct result of a prior action? We’ll probably never know.
One of the things I love about this development is if you look at the last little bit at the edge of the road it looks like bad military base housing.
It is just too much development. It stresses the infrastructure in West Goshen.
Of course, in West Goshen there is a lot we will never know because everything is a state secret isn’t it? And there is still the questions about the recently deceased West Goshen employee by suicide, but has anyone else notice how no one is talking about that or what the cause was?
Sorry about that little segue, but it was kind of necessary wasn’t it?
OK back to bad development. Another amusement yesterday occurred as I was being horrified by the side of it is the giant Catalyst billboard on Lancaster Avenue in East Whiteland. It shows a giant photograph of lavender or maybe a salvia. Which is perfect for all of these people in these hideous developments, who can’t plant a flower pot full of flowers in their Welcome to Stepford plastic development. All they have to do now is gaze upon the giant electronic TV along Lancaster Avenue.
And this is what we’re becoming: just one bad development after the other. And if it’s not bad residential development now, we have to fear mega warehouses.
So class, where are the origins of these development woes and ills? The very greatly outdated Municipalities Planning Code. I mean it hasn’t been comprehensively updated since 1969, so don’t rush Harrisburg.
If you really want another shock, drive Ship Road in West Whiteland from King Road through to Lancaster Avenue. Try not to run off the road when you see the land laid bare and stripped for apartments and townhouses and other bullshit before you hit the corner.
This is Chester County. Is this what we really want?
I’m going to show you some photos next. They will remind you of all the ugly apartments being built here in Chester County, including next to Will and Bill‘s along 202, or dwarfing the Berwyn Tavern on Lancaster Avenue, or along 29 in East Whiteland. These photos were taken as a passenger driving along 95 towards the Betsy Ross Bridge. Essentially, it’s all the same ugly crap everywhere you go. Cheap to build, charge a fortune. Municipalities and residents left holding the bag.
We need to collectively as a county full of people demand better from our elected officials. And every state election, we need to make overdevelopment everywhere an issue, and we need to demand, not ask, but demand state reps and state senators remember for whom they actually are supposed to work for. And it’s not the largest donor or unions or construction lobbyists, it’s all of us.
Politicians should no longer be allowed to say how they love our area and it’s so beautiful. Or say look at all of the open space because all of the open space is disappearing. The ratio of what we’re saving as open space and farmland compared to development is a very unequal balance.
Pick a municipality. No one is immune from this.
Yes, I hate all of this development. Yes I say it out loud, and for those who think I hate all development, that’s actually not true, but we don’t see any thoughtful development anymore.
People wherever they live, need to take a stand. We need to stop the madness.
On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, DEP will host an in person public meeting to discuss the Site and the implementation of the response action. Location: General Wayne Elementary School – Auditorium 20 Devon Road, Malvern, PA 19355 Time: 6:30 pm -8:30 pm
Planning for additional pre-design investigation activities.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you should have heard of Bishop Tube, that delightful toxic playground on Malin Road in East Whiteland. It is remarkably still up for residential development. Same guy as Rock Hill Farm proposed development in Willistown for you all new to this.
OK they’re always Trendy Wendy so they are enticing people to live on top of an old landfill with pickleball. That makes me laugh because in Tredyffrin Township they were Pickleball courts that had open on Valley Forge Military Academy, and College land that I’ve just been shut down for noise and other zoning things according to Savvy Main Line:
So pickleball is not a slam dunk. I also think that I remember the plans done by Jason Dempsey/DP Partners, the last developer on that site, that the plans they had approved were slab on grade no basements? Or am I incorrect?
Just so we are clear information wise, this is the former Knickerbocker landfill owned for quite a long time by the Rubino family.
Next a reader of mine chimed in when I initially posted online and shared the article:
I’ve assisted in the redevelopment of many former hazardous waste sites of different kinds, but never for building homes on a full-blown landfill that received hazardous wastes — and this one also has an 8-inch oil pipeline through the middle of it. It’s common to install a cap (permeable geotextile topped with 2 ft of clean soil) over historical fill and then build on it, I’ve helped with that all over Philly, Camden, and Wilmington — but that fill was emplaced when the cities were built, not in our lifetimes. And it wasn’t hazardous waste, either.
This screenshot is from the 2021 plan, and at that time they still needed an environmental investigation via soil borings throughout the area to be developed. I’m curious whether that was done and what they found.
I also wonder what the geophysics are like on an old landfill like that and how thick the trash is where they’re going to build. There’s a clay cap over the entire surface, so they’re going to have to bring in soil to put over top of that (probably over geotexile), but I wouldn’t feel good about pouring concrete slabs for houses on top of a landfill and hoping they don’t eventually sink and/or crack. Ugh.
Some Knickerbocker history Re: East Whiteland meeting.
Well…sigh…
Apparently this new Toll Brothers project represents the entire project that Jason Dempsey/ DP Partners was developing .. .The early plans did include an additional 102 building units on the driving range but the entire supervisors board voted that plan down, didn’t they?
So we shall see.
I found stuff on East Whiteland’s website about Knickerbocker:
There are things within a community that happen where people can no longer sit idly by and say oh that’s too bad or I really should say something and say/do nothing. Saving Lionville Station Farm is one of these formative moments. This is a pivotal issue within the community, where they can no longer sit idly by.
I believe in the people trying to stop this mega warehouse monstrosity from coming to pass. For whatever it is worth, I support them. I know some of the people. I also had friends that used to live back there at one time who would be affected if they were still there.
I mean, can you literally imagine sitting in your beautiful backyard that you have worked so hard to earn, and your entire view shed is taken up by walls of giant warehouses as far as the eye can see, so large you can’t even take an adequate photo?
And along with this project, the whole right of homeowners to have an expectation of private enjoyment will go right out the window. 24 hours a day seven days a week truck after truck car after car in and out of this complex if it gets built? There will be no peace.
These are the projects that destroy communities. These are like the data centers. These are like the hydrogen hubs. These are the overly dense projects that developers bring into communities just like all the goddamn apartment buildings built on what was farmland that we really don’t need, but we’re getting anyway.
These are the projects that make you wonder what the hell the Chester County Planning Commission is doing, along with the County Commissioners? It also makes you wonder what the State Representatives and State Senators are doing for us in Harrisburg? Which is really kind of nothing on these issues.
A project like this shows you how woefullly outdated once again the Municipalities Planning Code is. The world has changed a lot since circa 1969 and the State Reps and State Senators are lazy because they have to enact an act of the state constitution to update this and they WON’T. You see it’s not that they CAN’T, they won’t.
This is why all of these bad overly dense development plans including but not limited to this Audubon plan in Uwchlan for mega warehouses on Lionville Station Farm need to be election issues every single election cycle until meaningful changes occur. This is truthfully an election issue on every level and it starts with the Downingtown Area School District School Board.
This is a standalone issue. And many supporters of the school board are trying to conflate this issue with others and that’s wrong. Truthfully this is essentially how everything gets stalled in Congress and the US Senate. Sometimes things can be their own issue and should be.
DASD has the ability during August to unwind the contract. That means they have the ability to stop mega warehouses.
This developer has developed other kinds of projects like Shannondell, which is a wonderful, senior living and life care facility. A project like that, for example, wouldn’t put more kids in the school district. And with an aging population, something like this is actually needed.
And while I am not, and never will support extremism and corresponding candidates for school board, but sadly if the DASD doesn’t stop the madness, they are going to lose the support of lots of people going forward. And that includes me.
With all the ugliness in this school district over the past few years, I have done my level best to support the path of right. For that, I have been verbally abused, harassed, harangued, doxxed, etc. This was for supporting the issues against the craziness of things like the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers, anti-everything, Drag Queens reading to little kids and attending fundraisers, and more. I didn’t help to make myself money or anything like that, I helped because it was the right thing to do. But now I am asking for something in return. I am asking for them to withdraw from the contract with Audubon in August like they arelegally able to!
I have gladly supported the issues of these people fighting to save their school district. It’s time for them to support the people in their community on this issue. Giant warehouses, hydrogen hubs, and data centers don’t help any resident anywhere. these are projects which suck up land and ruin communities.
A friend of mine described mega warehouses as being so huge it was like somebody put a tarp over the City of Philadelphia. We were having a conversation about their drive recently down to Washington DC and passing mega warehouses. They had wanted to take photos of the warehouses, but they were so big you couldn’t take like just one photo to even grasp the concept of size and scale. Or how terrifying the tractor trailers coming in and out of these places made the roadways.
I suspect some Downingtown school board directors/members didn’t understand why they were being sent the questionnaire and the pledge from SLSF. The conclusion probably is that they feel it has nothing to do with their job. Actually, it has everything to do with their jobs because they’re elected officials who are also part of a community and as a school board director/member you have an elected responsibility to do what’s best. And if you think giant warehouses are the best thing for your community then you don’t deserve to be in office. It is pretty much that simple to me. And it pains me to say that because some of these folks are just wonderful.
And I’m not accepting the general school board cop-out that their solicitor “doesn’t think it’s a good idea.” I mean for real, do you really think he cares about all of you and your issues? That guy is just all politics of a certain kind isn’t he?
So to the Downingtown school board people that I have supported all along, sadly this is where I have to draw a line in the sand. I want you all to succeed and truly keep your school board seats, but this issue of mega warehouses? You need to stop being pussies and step up and do the right thing. I’m tired of mincing words.
If you do not stop the mega warehouses while you have the opportunity and support the community that pays taxes to you, please don’t expect me to be giving your causes and issues a supportive platform going forward. I’m not saying I won’t be supportive, but what I am saying is I will no longer go out of my way to help. If you can’t help with this issue and stand up and be adults and do the right thing, why do you expect everybody else to support you all of the time?
And DASD, you aren’t the only elected official who is ignoring this. There are two sitting county commissioners running for reelection, and one empty suit, baby kisser running for the Republican minority seat, who also are ignoring this situation and this pledge/questionnaire
So all of you out there know I like the truth. I also learned interesting factual unvarnished truth today while digging in to write.
My research indicates and is validated that the guy named Duanne and the co-opt candidate “Professor” Bressi talk a really good game about SAVING LIONVILLE STATION FARM BUT HAVE NOT RETURNED A COMPLETED CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE OR ACTUALLY SIGNED THE PLEDGE TO SAVE LIONVILLE STATION FARM!
To me that puts them in the category of liar, liar pants on fire. They are only trying to steal a campaign issue of residents of Chester County for their own political gain, which is why quite frankly I would throw their arses out of every social media group they belong to. If they meant what they said, they would sign the pledge and complete the questionnaire. Period. End of story.
If they are really interested in Saving Lionville Station Farm it would’ve been easy peeszy to complete the questionnaire and send it back in with a signed pledge.
BUT they HAVE NOT. So that is a very easy distinction for people to see why they shouldn’t vote for them for school board. These politicians are not doing things for people, only to further their own political gain. However, this is why it also looks really bad when the people who are in office haven’t signed the pledge. And that’s including two county commissioners up for reelection and not just the school board people.
I thought I would just point this out to all of you.
Here are all the politicians/candidates who have not signed the pledge, or completed the questionnaire:
Whether people like it or not stopping, mega warehouses has become a campaign issue for the fall of 2023. And it goes into the same bad category of pipelines, data centers, hydrogen, hubs, and too much goddamned development in general.
Politicians, this isn’t difficult. Working to stop mega warehouses will result in a plurality that will remember this on Election Day this fall. Ignoring the plurality on mega warehouses will most probably result in the demise of some candidates. It’s a simple fact of life sadly.
To the members of the Downingtown Are School District School Board, who are running for reelection and wish to keep their seats, ponder this carefully. This is literally your Waterloo. So y’all get to decide if you want to be Napoleon or The Duke of Wellington.
Uwchlan said no to the crazy overnight construction hours requested by Portman who will be destroying Happy Days Farm, which originally was a Penn Land Grant. Portman which acquired this magnificent property wanted overnight construction from 7 PM to 3 AM.
And in unexpected news, Audubon Land Development WITHDREW their preliminary sketch plan for Lionville Station Farm.
This is far from over. This isn’t winning the war against mega warehouses, it’s just a battle won. Neighbors and concerned citizens MUST remain vigilant.
Now we are all being asked to write to Downingtown Area School District:
Email the DASD school board and superintendent.
Uwchlan Township has confirmed that Audubon has “diligently” withdrew their mega-warehouse sketch plan. Remember when DASD attorney Mr. Roger Huggins went on the record and said “so far Audubon’s been doing a pretty good job and they have been diligently pursuing their obligations.” Well, any fact finder can tell you that by withdrawing your sketch plan, you are not diligently pursuing anything.
My email is below. Feel free to use as you wish in drafting your message.
rodonnell@dasd.org
lwisdom@dasd.org
cghrayeb@dasd.org
jbertone@dasd.org
ablust@dasd.org
mgurthy@dasd.org
jhoughton@dasd.org
mmiller@dasd.org
lstrobridge@dasd.org
mross@dasd.org
Dear DASD school board and Superintendent,
The prospective purchaser of the Siemens Property (Audubon Land Development) has withdrawn their proposed sketch plan from Uwchlan Township.
Consequently, since the sales agreement took effect on July 13, 2022, over a year ago, there has been a complete lack of official progress in meeting their commitments to pursue the land’s development rights.
Any studies that may have been communicated with you have not been received by the Township, nor have they been formally submitted. This renders them essentially meaningless.
Maintaining this property under contract with a potential buyer who has shown no measurable progress in pursuing development endeavors represents a violation of your fiduciary obligations. You are now dealing with a buyer who is actively failing to adhere to the contractual terms. The buyer is already in default.
With no existing sketch plan and no possibility of obtaining conditional use approval by August 29th, it is now your responsibility to promptly terminate this agreement with Audubon.
Enough is enough!
It should now be very clear to you that the $96M has always been a fantasy. Yes, you got played. It’s time to do the right thing before you do any more harm to the reputation of our school district and our community.
~ Message this morning to from Save Lionville Station Farm
A round of applause goes to SAVE Lionville Station Farm which is doing a great job in spite of certain factions incorrectly asserting that they are supporting extremist school board candidates like Chris Bressi. They are not. Chris Bressi and his tribe keep trying to co-opt their issue and group. This group has one purpose and that is to stop the warehouses.
This group has asked politicians current and prospective to sign a pledge essentially asking for them to agree to SAVE Lionville Station Farm and the surrounding area from the insanity of mega warehouse development and that means if elected or on school board voting no.
This pledge is very similar to the ones we as the then Save Ardmore Coalition many many years ago asked politicians current and prospective to sign to stop eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore. Save Lionville Station Farm is NON PARTISAN just like we were.
The Save Lionville Station Farm Group has been challenged constantly since inception by factions and people trying to co-opt, infiltrate, take over, take advantage of what their goal is: TO STOP MEGA WAREHOUSES AND SAVE LIONVILLE STATION FARM.
The fact that these people in this group have put down politics for community and the greater good is amazing in this ridiculous political climate is nothing short of amazing.
So kindly see more cheap political tricks from people like “Professor” Chris Bressi as exactly what they are: cheap political tricks. This politician in particular will use any community group or cause around for personal gain. Even a Uwchlan Supervisor has commented on it in a community group.
I believe in honor and integrity, and I do not believe this politician has either. He will tell you he does and he likes to talk about those words, but I don’t think he actually knows what they mean in real life.
If someone farts and Bressi can use it, repost, and ask for a campaign donation, he does it. He’s only supporting himself and attempting to co-opt everyone and everything else. He’s like an empty suit. And although he shows up at events gladhanding the music thing about this political candidate is he never wants his photo taken.
Bressi’s kindred spirit running for County Commissioner, David Sommers, is more subtle but he’s hanging around to try to get votes not to actually help residents here. He doesn’t actually say he’s for saving anything other then his political aspirations, and he has a website that is glossy and full of unicorns farting rainbows but the devil is in the details and he hangs around with Margie Miller from DASD who is most definitely a snake. He will have his photo taken with anything or anyone that stands still long enough. As always, he’s running a campaign that is all fluff and little substance. And he hasn’t seemed to pledge to stop mega warehouses, or fill out a candidate questionnaire. So that answers your question right there about what he’s about.
Political candidates like these two aren’t going to know your name, if they get elected. They are going to remember that they signed any pledges to do anything other than further their own ambition.
But what I am seeing out here is people trying to conflate school board issues. For the people trying to save Lionville Station Farm that is their issue. It is not to be added to or conflated with other issues. People on both sides are trying to conflate their issue with other issues, as well as co-opt them for political gain.
And then you have the people on the DASD school board that people actually like and want to have them stay in the office, only they’re cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Their community is not saying don’t sell the land if you can’t afford to keep it, they’re asking to save the area from mega warehouses. They are asking that Chester county not be made to look like the Allentown, I-80 corridor.
I am a realist. And I also get frustrated by people who just say to save everything as open space yet then never even suggest how that is supposed to be afforded.
Unless a land angel appears from the sky, I don’t think this parcel will be completely protected in perpetuity. But I do think that there has to be another better plan out there and another buyer for the parcel that could at least preserve some of it and not load it up with apartments or mega warehouses.
I will close by saying that I think everyone needs to stop being used by the current crop of political candidates. And people fighting to keep the DASD school board from going crazy like it should be in Bucks County instead of Chester County need to remember that Saving Lionville station farm is a standalone issue. Do not conflate it with other issues. And it’s OK for it to be it’s own issue.
To the school board directors of the Downingtown Area School District I simply state the following: you have the unique opportunity here to unwind a disastrous plan. Take that opportunity and run with it. Don’t do an imitation of Lower Merion School District’s school board. Do the right thing for your community. Give people the best reason possible to still believe in you: believe in them and stop the warehouses which will detrimentally affect everyone even the district. And get a new solicitor for your school district.
Stop the bad plan, seek a new plan and compromise with your community.
I will also note that I have had people who want the warehouses stopped attack me for suggesting they not get used by politicians. Their largest retort is my trying to pass along the benefit of prior experience as being a distraction to their mission is kind of funny.
Ok whatever. I can walk away from lots of issues I’ve been helpful on. And I can stop responding to people that contacted me looking for help as well. And I might just do that. Which would be a bummer because the one thing you can always count on if I try to help and it’s not that I want something, it’s not that I want your vote for elected office, I just do things because I think it’s the right thing to do.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it as my one grandmother used to say
