I just had to pick myself off of the floor. I literally fell off of my desk chair over this video which is a commercial:
I am not criticizing Bob Lange, Chair of the Willistown Supervisors. In fact, I commend him for doing this.
Yes Chester County GOP this is the sound of hell freezing over.
As a friend of mine said the other day, when you have Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheyney voting for the same presidential candidate, you know it reaches far beyond policy — it’s to preserve the country and our democracy.
Republican farmers of Chester County, this is a wake-up call for the rest of you…and no MAGA conspiracy theorists these are real people, not actors. What you think I make this up?
One photo is what Lloyd Farm in Caln used to look like – Next to it is today.
Main Line Health is interested in putting medical on PART of the property. I foolishly thought that they would carve off their part and do their thing and leave the Lloyd Farmhouse and land intact but that was just wishful thinking I guess?
More dirty deeds done dirt cheap on the part of the developer who has sat on this property??? And this was part of yet ANOTHER Penn Land grant and they have allowed an 18th century farmhouse to rot and be destroyed by vandals, and then there is the part Caln Township has played in this, right? Legally the house should have been secured, right? The township should have been on top of this right? The township should have been looking for a better solution, right?
Yeah, not so much, right?
The planned MOB (Medical Office Building) will be 4 stories high and residents say changing zoning from R4 that permits medical but also commercial? Residents fear the property owner / developer will come next with apartments or offices and get all of this and the house will be taken down? There’s a story behind all this isn’t there? There is always a story and as always with Caln there is zero transparency and mostly murky, right?
But hey Commissioner Lorraine Tindaro can live in her little house of hoarders and they at Caln look the other way right? Do any of those commissioners out there have cleanhands? (HINT: buy them soap for their holiday gifts perhaps?)
Residents are further concerned that more is afoot. They say look at the proposal. They say it is very oddly drawn and interferes with the extension of GO Carlson Blvd to Rock Raymond Road that PennDot is doing for their expansion of 30 bypass? Its suspicious because they couldn’t explain it and why couldn’t it be explained? Does developer landowner have a secret pan?
GO Carlson Blvd is a road that runs parallel to Business 30 East to West. Lloyd will be cut off and the entrance moved to Rock Raymond Road and Rt 322/Manor Avenue and no one can explain that? Why???
The answer is it’s always fishy in Caln, right ?
GO TO THE SUPERVISORS MEETING! CALL YOUR FRIENDS AND REPORTERS.
And to be clear: if medical use was merely being carved out and the balance of the property was being carved out and house saved that would be different, but once again residents are waiting for the hidden shoe to drop in Caln once again. And if this is all true how cruel is it to use much needed medical in this part of the county as a Trojan horse for more development that no one needs on the rest of Lloyd Farm?
Caln Board of Commissioners Meeting is Thursday, September 26th 2024. 6 PM.
The notice on the township website starts with their projected end time of the meeting. I think that is done on purpose to confuse. The meeting starts at 6 PM. Show up a little earlier and get a good seat.
Bring your pitchfork. Actually kidding on the pitchfork, just SHOW UP. You seriously need to rally and pack the meeting.
Caln Municipal Building is 253 Municipal Drive in Thorndale.
If you care, show up. No excuses, no one knows if this will be it or not so no meeting skipping you have to show up if you care. No one likes to make the time for this stuff but if you live out there and you care or your historic preservationist and you care, show up.
I just don’t pretend to understand what’s going on. Just when you think it can’t get any more twisted and insane over at the Historic Hood Mansion in Limerick, it just does.
A little while ago I wrote about how Hood Mansion was facing destruction from warehouses, End it seems that according to Limerick’s zoning officer, Greta Martin Washington, data centers are a form of warehouse, so was this the plan all along?
So why the switcheroo of what was previously being built versus now? I mean OK if the zoning says a data center is a kind of a warehouse and then they put that in a public notice that might possibly be the letter of the law, but is it the spirit of the law and does the spirit matter at all here?
So I have to ask with everything else Hood Mansion, did it come up at Limerick supervisor meetings? And since human remains were found there, what about them? Limerick seems a little bit shrouded in mystery and cloudy days, so I’m asking the questions. It’s another Nancy Drew mystery, right? Needs sunshine?
What is also with Nancy Drew mystery with Limerick Township are their agendas and their meetings because I don’t really see them talking about this unless I’m not looking in the right place? Again did the change get discussed at a public meeting or just in the notice filed in itty bitty print that no one reads?
Always read the fine print. It’s exhausting.
Yes, warehouses were bad enough right? It’s a historic site and it may quite probably have been on the underground railroad, and they recently found human remains right? So now it’s not mega warehouses, it’s mega data center time?
Gosh Limerick Township, that’s very Louden County, Virginia of you.
Yeah, I’ve written about data centers before. Here are the posts:
Was this discussed in a meeting in Limerick as well? I know I’m becoming repetitive, but I’m just so curious as to how this all came about, or if this was the plan all along?
And people would ask why data centers? Will data centers get along very nicely apparently with nuclear power plants, correct? And isn’t Limerick literally like down the road across the road across the street or something?
And what made me think of that? A little Googling – I found this thing from May in Data Center Dynamics:
It’s a pretty big article and it’s fairly interesting. I would suggest people read it because it’s a road map isn’t it? Aso basically, it’s like these people want to do this in Limerick right? They knock down the Hood Mansion they don’t care about the human remains or the history and they build a data center and they’re across the street from Limerick or whatever, right?
And don’t forget data centers also go hand-in-hand with those lovely hydrogen plants don’t they? We learned that in West Whiteland didn’t we? MACH 2 Hydrogen Hub anyone?
If you’re interested in that, check out this Delaware Riverkeeper video :
I will close by suggesting everyone read what’s below from this August- It’s a big long article I’ve taken a big old excerpt, but go to the source and read the whole thing. I think this is the game plan. Of course, I have no proof and I also have no inside information. It just seems to make sense because there’s a nuclear power plant at Limerick and then there’s the Hood Mansion and they want to put a data center form there now, so has this just been hiding in plain sight all along?
Time will tell and all of the people who live in that area of Montgomery County need to wake up, not just a historic preservation types who want to save old structures like Hood.
There’s a big picture here. Lots o’ money in data centers and things data centers love and interact with right?
Don’t forget Louden County Virginia – down there those residents in those developments next to data centers can tell you how noisy they are. There are tons of articles.
I am completely 1000% unapologetic about lamenting the loss of Happy Days Farm every time I go by.
It used to be part of a Penn Land Grant. Actively farmed until the end, but they were tenant farmers. I honestly don’t know what will become of the historic structures on the land, but it looks like welcome to the apocalypse there now.
When did Chester County stop being about land preservation, farm preservation, historic preservation, and the very history of the county?
Just another nail in the coffin of what made Chester County Chester County.
Tredyffrin Township officials and quasi useless supervisors are your ears burning? First y’all are a hot topic for the better part of an hour on WCHE’s show “All Politics Are Local with Barry Dee”. I’m sure they will want to blame me, but I actually wasn’t a guest this week but it was interesting because one of the things that was layered in the topic of right to know requests and how to file them with the recent swath of development again in Tredyffrin.
People are tired of it and one of the things people are tired of includes were losing not only open space, but our heritage trees. That’s a hot topic in East Whiteland as well because there are two very old sycamores near the old “Importer Barn” or Hibbard Barn. On that property, these trees are crazy old and crazy huge. Giant diameter trunks. One at least dates to close to American Revolutionary era. Will they stay or will they go now? I think in the end they will go because it’s like developers today HATE trees. Trees mean work. I love trees. We spend enough to preserve and care for our old growth heritage trees personally. We don’t have to, we do it because it’s the right thing to do. As humans, we should be better caretakers of nature.
So anyway, sorry small tangent on trees…I love them…and not enough municipalities give a damn. So when I saw a post pop up on social media the other day it was an “a ha” moment because it corresponds to a giant right to know I was sent at some point recently and filed away until I had time to look at it. Truthfully, I had forgotten about it but then it all made sense. I still have not waded through it enough. Here was the moment of clarity:
OMFG. This is what neighbors are becoming increasingly upset about on Vincent Road. And it’s not easy to find anything other than shifting sands on Tredyffrin’s website.
In 2008 residents were upset about stormwater on Vincent and frankly, the then Township Manager was rude enough IMHO that it was reflected in the meeting minutes, which I found:
As a matter of fact there are a LOT of historical documents about stormwater for that area….but nothing about the development plan. And if I am investigating properly, the issue of this parcel has been bandied about like a badminton shuttlecock for a few years already, right? So how is it not really discussed publicly? Did I blink and miss some minutia? I went to the county to see what was filed. A stormwater plan document from 2024 (where’s the flood hazard of it all?), new deed, and a development plan that looks like it came out of a time machine:
But I still wasn’t finding much else. Now don’t forget, Tredyffrin’s current manager is Bill Martin. He was from Radnor Township via Bridgeport…he was in Radnor during the Bashore era. I wrote about it in 2012:
Anyway, Tredyffrin has always had an issue with cloudy days. 105 Vincent being a HUGE surprise to a lot of fairly local residents is but the most recent example. And oy the butchering of the trees. And the loss of open space for what? A super dated subdivision plan which you know will sprout McMansions never intended for the original ideas? So here is what residents who have just realized what was going on are saying, and I am providing a mash-up:
…So sad to see this development taking place at 252 and Central Ave. This area was home to different species of trees, wild raspberries and blackberries, hawks, deer, chipmunks, various species of songbirds not to mention that run off from the top of the hill goes down the road and floods this area. I took pictures before and after the area started being cleared. Yes I get that the township voted on it. Funny I knew nothing about it and live just a few blocks away. If you are running for office and are an advocate for keeping what little greenspace we have left preserved pls let me know so I can vote for you……The township has a new woodland conservation ordinance. Here is a summary of that ordinance: https://static1.squarespace.com/…/Tredyffrin+Woodland… This looks like more than 5 large trees are being removed, in which case the developer would’ve needed to get a permit and to do this and would be required to plant compensatory trees. Please submit a complaint to to code enforcement (with photos) here: https://www.tredyffrin.org/…/df0fde129f454c0d8cc36a…/163 Code enforcement will let you know if it’s legit, or investigate if it’s unlawful……Oh no… More traffic at that horrible bottleneck leading to rt 30….Townships seem to have few boundaries when it comes to approving new building on open land. I have seen this over and over. When our township notifies area homeowners of a proposal and asks for feedback, the decision has often already been made. They don’t represent us in my opinion. Their prime interest is the tax base….I was so upset to see this the other day!
So. The lightbulb. All of a sudden I realized that giant right to know I had not really looked at and filed away was about THIS. The county is super slow updating things so current ownership not showing yet but here’s the now dated ownership info:
According to the new deed I found the land sold for $900,000.
Anyway, Tredyffrin Supervisors need to do better. Waterloo has arrived again, ladies and gentleman. No other way to dance about it.
Here’s the giant right to know. I have not had time to disseminate it, but Tredyffrin residents may find it of value and use:
I’m rambling west for something that interests me. And it has nothing to do with Pennsylvania or Chester County Pennsylvania.
Today, I am taking my readers to a place I have never been but want to see some day. It’s a place where it is literally one of the last great open spaces of this country in the American west. It’s in a state where a few Pennsylvanians I know have settled. Including in some of the historic parts like Fort Collins and Villa Grove and elsewhere. Some came for the larger suburbs near Denver, other near resorts like Aspen. There are actually quite a few Pennsylvania ex-pats who call places in Colorado home that I can think of.
Someone I know in that part of the world sent me this story. Remarkably, a news station in Denver covered it. I say remarkably because this is Villa Grove, Colorado. In Saguache County. Population? According to my research literally like 260 – 300 people, but maybe only 30 full time residents. It’s a tiny frontier town 4.5 hours from Denver I believe so a news crew covering this is huge.
Residents in this tiny town don’t want an almost 200 foot cell phone tower taller than any tree a few hundred feet front where they live and less. Can you blame them? No one wants to live in the shadows of those wires here . Think of it as a giant abstract metal penis on a plain.
VILLA GROVE, Colo. — Nearly a third of the full-time residents who live in the small town of Villa Grove in Saguache County are now suing county commissioners after the approval of a 195-foot-tall cell phone tower in town. The county wants to build a massive telecommunications tower right on the edge of town, just a few hundred feet from the few homes there are in the picturesque town outside of Salida.
“Even our trees, which are the tallest things in town, are only about 60 feet,” said Paula Maez, one of the plaintiffs suing the county commissioners. “I’ve never sued anyone in my life, but I felt strongly enough about this that I stood up and will continue to stand up.”
Maez said there are only around 30 full-time residents in Villa Grove. There are no stoplights and only a handful of stores. Most people who live here have been here for decades…. “We recently had our Saguache County commissioners approve conditional land use for a cell phone tower that’s going in just to the northeast of here, basically right on top of our little town,” Maez said. “195 feet of metal monstrosity.”
Commissioners and the cell phone company both say that the tower would help with cell phone service in the rural area. However, the lawsuit hoping to stop the tower states it would only impact cell service within a five-mile area.
9NEWS wanted to talk to the Saguache County Commissioners about why they approved the cell phone tower even after more the half the town showed up to commission meetings to speak out against it. Their attorney said they won’t be talking about it.
So Saguache County, you don’t want to talk about it to the affected residents, media, or anyone else about a MAJOR decision to affect a small tight knit community that I bet you ignore as often as possible? Gosh, that’s so wonderful of you! (Yes, dripping sarcasm here.)
And this tower will have limited practical impact or value since it will only improve MAYBE a five mile radius?
Seriously ? Makes you ponder another question doesn’t it? Exactly WHO is getting paid WHAT to shove this cell tower in, Saguache County, CO?
Given this website (link right after this paragraph) I have to wonder since Villa Grove is an unincorporated town if this county is getting ready to tart the town up for their profit? It sounds very Yellowstone the TV series as a motive, but heck most things like this are about money, aren’t they?
Villa Grove has hot springs nearby they say, and beautiful vistas, why not fill the county coffers and make it super tourista, right? County profits? And I’m not saying that to be anti-progress, I’m saying that because progress that works needs resident input and participation. Duh.
The town of Garibaldi was established by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1870.[2] The town served as the southern terminus of the Rio Grande’s narrow-gaugePoncha Pass line from 1870 to 1890.[2] The town was named for ItalianrevolutionaryGiuseppe Garibaldi.[2] The Garibaldi Post Office opened on June 13, 1870.[5] The town’s name was changed to the less political Villa Grove on January 19, 1872.[5] The spelling of the town’s name was changed to Villagrove on October 12, 1894, and back to Villa Grove on July 1, 1950.[5]
Saguache County Colorado has issues if you dig around for articles, so maybe the thought that it is all about the money in the San Luis Valley is not so far fetched? And Villa Grove is considered the northern gateway to the San Luis Valley?
A couple of years ago there was a Live Nation music festival around Villa Grove called Seven Peaks Music Festival. Supposedly drew thousands of people to this tiny town? But then Dierks Bentley got fickle and moved it? Or does he always just move it around? Or was trendy Red Rocks his goal all along?
Well, that article makes you wonder doesn’t it but again I ask and it’s a pretty simple question: if an idyllic tiny frontier town in Colorado doesn’t want a cell phone tower in that town where else can I go? And is it really necessary RIGHT THERE?
And as is the case in any article in any paper across the country, politicians will talk a good game, but are they actually talking to and with their constituencies? It seems like in this case, the Saguache County commissioners here are merely ignoring these residents. If these are residents living there and paying taxes, why do they have to play mother May I with everything ?
And let’s talk about the natural beauty of the area as well as it being one of the last frontiers. I point out to you an article from 2009.
A Pennsylvania photographer is among the souls who’ve been branded by the high valley’s exquisite light.
Kathy Hettinga – who grew up in Alamosa and now is a professor of art at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa. – has returned to the San Luis Valley year after year, responding to its mystical lure and desolate beauty. She’s taken more than 10,000 photos in the valley’s historic cemeteries, recording the graves of generations of residents, some of them prosperous, most of them poor. She’s captured the plastic flowers, the plaster and enamel saints, the wood and metal and concrete crosses that mark the graves, and the churches that bear silent witness to the mortal comings and goings of the faithful.
A fraction of Hettinga’s 15 years worth of photos has been compiled into the book, “Grave Images: San Luis Valley.” She wrote the text and also helped design the book…. “I have a studio in Colorado (near Villa Grove). I still do consider the valley home,” Hettinga says during a phone interview. “I go there every summer and last year I was on sabbatical and spent a lot of time in the valley. I got to see the aspen and the beautiful light.
“The light in the San Luis Valley is really special: There’s the big sky, the 8,000-foot-elevation valley floor, the clear air – there’s a lot less atmosphere. Growing up, I loved it.
I think there’s a lot going on here. And I think, keeping a community the way the community wishes to be kept is not high on the priority list of Saguache County. To that end, they offer zoom meetings and I encourage nationwide media to attend it September 3 and anyone else who is interested in helping a small town preserve their way of life without a close to a 200 foot metal penis plunked in their town. Take a peek at their agendas and see how you can register. They can try to deny you but legally they cannot. It’s a public meeting.
I searched the county website for Saguache and came up virtually empty as to information on this cell tower. I guess I’m just used to the websites around here that when you have a land use issue like that, the municipality or the county will have documents up that people can look at as to who wants to do what basically and where and how you provide input. I found mentions on one agenda, but I don’t find meeting recordings after the fact unless I’m not looking in the right place. Except, I don’t think this is the most sunshine, friendly county government is it?
I’m not quite getting the executive session on an issue that’s kind of public? Does the county on the land in this little town where the cell tower is going up?
As for the two LLCs mentioned – I didn’t find too much either, which is not unusual. There are LLCs all over the place.
So that’s all I’ve got and this is literally a Nancy Drew mystery and it’s kind of concerning because this is the kind of thing that happens in more places than anyone wants to acknowledge. But I think a little frontier town in Colorado deserves a little sunshine here because this will affect their town and their properties and their way of life. And if people are saying yeah, we have cell phone service why do we have to have this giant tower? It makes a person wonder why the crickets as in political crickets as in no one is telling these people that are about to be directly affected much of anything? It’s only going to affect 5 mi.² or something than what is actually being planned for this area by that county?
People wonder where series like Yellowstone and 1923 and more get their inspiration. Isn’t the inspiration from life, history, current events?
So Taylor Sheridan? I think we have a new story for you. 👇 Yeah Villa Grove, Colorado why not contact him?
We went today to the Sales by Helen sale in Kennett Square on 640 N. Walnut Rd. We got there late – there were things I wanted that were garden related but it was just too hot to move earlier.
I think it was like a horde of locusts descended upon the sale because the place was pretty stripped when we got there, which was fine because I don’t need anything REALLY, but I did want to see the property which was AMAZING!
The house is not a 19th or 18th or even early 20th century Chester County farmhouse. It was built in 1973 and the barn was built in 1998. (Here is listing while it exists.)
I marvel at this crazy beautiful property because it was built in exacting detail to look old and to be utterly Chester County. Not a McMansion of plastic or bad stucco, but a stunningly beautiful place. It looks old, yet it’s perfectly modern and turn key. You could move right in.
I got a basket full of red napkins for Christmas, mostly Ralph Lauren. And a couple of bars of expensive craft soap in their wrappers, a porriger, a wee Santa and an old tiny china doll for the Christmas tree….for $10!
But again, the best part was seeing this spectacular property on conserved land. Just shows what can be built. Imagine if developers trampling Chester County had actual talent and imagination? We might get more of this and fewer McUglies.
Soooo….remember recently when a developer named Pennrose came a calling to West Chester Borough about being given the Church Street Parking Lot for their housing development and the heck with the West Chester Growers Market? And how they had been to West Goshen like a day or so before? Now doesn’t West Chester Borough share the same solicitor with West Goshen Township? Not saying anything wrong with that, just can be cozy can’t it?
Now I wrote about this before the meeting but never followed up since local media did some pieces on the public outrage at doing this.
Published: 5:30 am EDT April 19, 2024Updated: 8:12 am EDT April 19, 2024
Residents gathered in force at the West Chester Borough Council meeting to oppose the development of affordable housing on the West Chester Growers Market lot, writes Bill Rettew for The Daily Local News.
Over 120 citizens filled the meeting room at borough hall, with over two dozen standing in the hallway outside while builder Pennrose Properties presented its plans to build over 100 affordable housing units on a 28,500-square-foot lot with 56 parking spaces at Church and Chestnut streets.
The developer specializes in building and managing affordable housing. It had pushed for the borough to decide if it would green-light the sale of the lot by the end of May, to ensure the deadline is met for applying for grant funding from Chester County. The majority of the people present at the session were against moving the successful and decades-old Grower’s Market from the site.
Councilman Bernie Flynn was among those who opposed the plans.
“The thought of building more housing on that lot does not sit well with me,” said Flynn. “Once the borough sells Lot 10 — it’s irreplaceable.”
Read more about residents opposing affordable housing development at the West Chester Growers Market in The Daily Local News.
Residents raise concerns at West Chester meeting regarding Grower’s Market lot conversion to housing
Opposition raised over possibility of affordable housing units on Lot 10
PUBLISHED: April 17, 2024 at 2:51 p.m. | UPDATED: April 17, 2024 at 4:42 p.m.
WEST CHESTER — Democracy prevailed and residents were heard, at Tuesday’s borough council work session.
More than 120 citizens packed the meeting room at borough hall. It was standing room only as every seat was filled and more than two dozen residents stood in the hallway outside the room to hear a builder’s plans to create affordable housing.
Builder Pennrose Properties had proposed building more than 100 affordable housing units on Lot 10, at Church and Chestnut streets, on a 28,500-square-foot lot with 56 parking spaces. Pennrose specializes in building and managing affordable housing and early on into the process had proposed that the borough give the lot to the for-profit builder at no cost.
Most of the very vocal audience was opposed to moving the wildly successful and decades-old Grower’s Market from the lot.
About half a dozen times the audience angrily yelped “No, No, No!,” when disagreeing with a speaker and more than ten times the crowd applauded statements that most in attendance agreed with.
Pennrose had pushed for the borough to make a decision by the end of May to meet a deadline to apply for grant funding from Chester County.
Guess what? It wasn’t West Goshen or West Chester last night, it was Narberth Borough and it was the Pennrose Dog and Pony Show starring the ever charming Ryan Bailey who probably did the he went to Henderson schtick at West Chester Borough, because last night in Narberth, he was all about he lived in Ardmore. Except he’s from the north side isn’t he and not many average Narbs can identify with those grand houses, eh?
Now I am sure the presentations don’t vary so much from town to town and the irony with Narberth is their Borough Manager a few managers ago is the current West Chester Borough Manager. Of course West Chester Borough’s old manager is riding the gravy train in Lower Merion Township, but I digress. It’s just a segue to municipal trivia. Kind of like who is the solicitor where, right? Politics is fascinating…
So the Narberth presentation I would guess is similar to all the others. We are doing this to help you little municipalities. Give us land and it’s all good, but is it? Is it really? Now it’s oh this is so good and you really don’t need as much parking as a regular development and we line the buildings with unicorns farting rainbows, yes?
And it’s always a hard push to do this right now, right this instant, peril otherwise and that phrase we all haste about money left on the table, right?
What was it in West Chester Borough? Something like they had to decide in 5 days? You don’t even meet advertising requirements in that time frame do you? In Narberth also decide speedy von quick, right? So what Narberth land is being contemplated? I can’t quite decide from the video but if I had to hazard a guess I would say Sabine Park? The park given and deeded like a century ago that Narberth wants to develop, right?
The funny thing about affordable housing is I don’t object to it. But I object to municipalities trying to give away parks and parking lots that actually belong to the communities. I also object to developers gitting to get and I am entitled to said opinion. I kind of feel the traveling dog and pony show is shady, and I am also allowed THAT opinion. Real affordable housing requires grace and planning not shove it through before anyone notices. These developers seem to have a municipal road show, don’t they?
Oh and at the Narberth meeting the developer’s man indicated they were still negotiating out here in Chester County? With whom precisely? West Chester Borough? West Goshen Township? Some other Mae West welcome suckers? And some of the units they described on the Narberth video seems like well, a closet that you are supposed top live in literally like a sardine or lemming? Nice. And people get to pay for that privilege? It’s like tenements are being reborn isn’t it?
Anyway, I found articles today from the Hamptons in New York. About a rather interesting affordable housing project in East Hampton. It involved lots of planning. The Green at Gardiner’s Point and it is not unattractive either.
The Green at Gardiner’s Point, the name given to 50 rental apartments at 286 and 290 Three Mile Harbor Road, jointly developed by Georgica Green Ventures and the East Hampton Housing Authority, has begun accepting applications for residency. Tenants will be selected in August. Katy Casey, the executive director of the housing authority, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday that she hopes households are moved in by the beginning of the school year.
“I’m happy to announce that as of today, the applications are available,” she said at a town board meeting on Tuesday. A drawing will be held to determine the order in which the applicants will be considered for tenancy. “It’s often referred to as a ‘lottery,’ but I don’t love the word, because it seems people have won something. It’s really just to order the applications and to ensure fairness.”
Thirty of the units in the complex are two-bedroom apartments, while 10 have one bedroom and 10 have three. Two income levels will be represented within the complex, with 41 apartments for people earning up to 60 percent of the area median income and eight reserved for Section 8 subsidies. Another apartment is for the resident manager.
Ms. Casey gave examples of eligible income levels. A single person earning less than $65,640, a two-person household earning less than $75,000, or a three-person household earning less than $84,360 would all be eligible. A full eligibility chart is available on the East Hampton Housing Authority website.
A one-bedroom apartment at Gardiner’s Point will rent for $1,500, a two-bedroom for $1,784, and a three-bedroom for $2,045. Market-rate rents for apartments of the same general size in East Hampton have been assessed as $2,690, $3,150, and $4,080.
The Town of East Hampton pitched in $25,000 of seed money to get the project started and Suffolk County and New York State contributed about $1.7 million each.
Imagine the possibilities if affordable housing were done right? Attainable housing seems to be the new correct speak term being used. People are afraid of the term affordable and all of the pejorative terms come flying out. Affordable housing is not merely affordable as in Section 8, it means real people can afford to stay in communities, seniors don’t have to leave if they can’t manage their homes, and young people out of college starting their lives can afford to return to where they were raised.
As it stands now, developers are pricing us out of our communities. It’s not just inflation. It’s developers driving up housing costs, land costs, and the endless of the Emperor’s New Clothes wherever you live. They sell municipalities on the salivating glory of cram plan apartments and whatever crappy townhouses etc that create a transient community of rentals. Prices go up, developers do the money in the stripper’s costume on the pole known as ratables and a lot of the time they just move onto the next development opportunity, leaving municipalities left holding the bag of infrastructure costs and issues and more.
I am somewhat astounded that the municipalities have not caught onto these games. Pennrose is in my humble opinion sort of a combination of slick and sloppy. I am entitled to this opinion as I watch these various meetings unfold like a strange game of chess.
Our communities deserve better. We deserve actual affordable housing, we also deserve the right to say no to any form of predatory development, and yes the First Amendment in all it’s glory allows this opinion as well.
BUT.
Yes there is always a BUT.
The BUT here are lazy AF state representatives and state senators who know goddamn well the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs an overhaul. I mean don’t rush it’s only been since 1969 and gosh some might break a nail or muss their hair having to enact an act of the state constitution to do it. Even Governor Josh Shapiro knows this needs to happen given his various positions along the way to becoming governor.
This needs to be an election issue in 2024. I do not care what political persuasion state candidates are. They need to get on board with this or step aside.
Ok rant over. I so dislike bad plans and duplicity.
When chirpy little posts get put up about housing developments in Coatesville, you have to look. Because with the City of Coatesville, nothing is ever as it seems because there is a history of corruption in the City of Coatesville, is there not?
When Coatesville says no comment you ALWAYS look again, so I am. I learned that many years ago when it ended up, they were trying to take a certain farm via eminent domain for private gain for a freaking golf course.
So here’s the post that caught my eye and the post creator is correct because if you have an interest you DO have to go to the meetings to be heard. I will preface the post that this is 88.3 acres and I pulled the property record and they have been sitting on this since 2019, which undoubtedly means that logically the City of Coatesville has had some awareness since then and why so quiet?
I will note that her verbiage comes from a publicly published whyy.org article:
📌Harrisburg-based developer Brandywine View Tri-Corner, LLC hopes to bring 266 market-rate apartments to the city of Coatesville. The development will be called the Brandywine View Apartments.
The Planning Commission of the City of Coatesville is expected to vote on the new project in June.
If the five-person commission greenlights the project, the Brandywine View Apartments will be the first rental development to break ground in Coatesville in more than a decade…..
Brandywine View Tri-Corner, which appears to operate under Statewide Partners, did not return multiple calls for comment. Jon Juffe, one of the three partners leading the real estate outfit, did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
City manager Jonathan Logan and assistant city manager Roberta Consentino declined to comment on the project until after it receives a vote.
I think that’s my favorite part of the article. That the city manager and the assistant city manager of the city of Coatesville declined to comment until after it receives a vote.
Simple question really but why won’t they comment about some thing that they appear to be supporting? I guess it’s always the same old Coatesville government at the end of the day isn’t it?
If a municipality is supportive of a project, all they do is talk about it because they’re salivating over the money they can make. Except in Coatesville if they’re not commenting, it means the other shoe has yet to drop probably doesn’t it?
I called up Coatesville because I don’t see anything on the calendar. The person I spoke to said that the agendas go up a few days before the meetings and that the planning commission meeting should be June 12 and it is a public meeting. I don’t hold out much hope for a comprehensive agenda because I pulled up the one for May and honestly it’s like a 4th grader wrote it. I mean, it is so bare-bones it’s laughable. No plans no documents no instructions as to whether the meeting is recorded you can watch it live or anything.
I asked when I called to find out the date of the meeting to make sure it really should be June 12 if plans would be filed on the website and they don’t file plans on the website. Now they have a fancy new website with an AI bot, yet Coatesville can’t load plans and documents?
Soooo what about all of the houses in Coatesville that need help? Also are there going to be affordable housing units in this development or just market rate which are insanely overpriced most places?
Rental apartments are also creating a more transient society because people don’t stay in apartments necessarily especially given the way most landlords jump the rents with market rates. Just look around Chester County. Look at all the social media forums where people who rent are looking for places to live because their landlords are hiking rents.
The developer mentioned in the article,Brandywine View Tricorner LLC, has owned the property since 2019. They filed business name with PA in 2018.
Statewide Partners and its partners oversee business entities and activities in five main categories, which include: Real Estate Development, Residential Construction, Multifamily Construction, Property Management, and Commercial/Investment Brokerage. The three current partners, Josh, Jon, and Zach Juffe are brothers of a second-generation investment management team. Their combined skill set coupled with their zeal to develop responsible communities and businesses make them a perfect fit for the ever-changing real estate markets they serve.
Statewide filed this entity with the state in 2021:
So when you Google the address, this comes up:
And when you look at the reviews for the companies listed at this address, they’re mostly really bad aren’t they?
So I don’t know what the affiliation is or if these are all pieces of the same puzzle but on the Pennsylvania Corporation database:
So honestly, I think it’s up to the residents to decide. And if they have an interest or questions, they need to go to a meeting June 12 because there’s not much out there on this plan and nobody’s talking about it which can be construed as suspect in my opinion because doesn’t any kind of municipal government always has the ability to say that they don’t have much information but here’s what they know? No comment all the way around it’s just kind of suspicious isn’t it?
This land parcel has been bounced around and bounced around overtime, and I think other plans that were considered for the site were single-family homes in the past maybe?
The property records only record sales dates from 1955 forward, although if you look on the property record, it shows people owning it prior to that. I don’t know what this land ever was used for or if it was just raw land that had no use.
Whatever it is it’s 88 acres, right? Is this the best plan for that site? Was this site ever farmed? Was it a factory? It’s just a puzzle isn’t it?
I will note in another lifetime, I spent too much time going up to Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, etc. and that area has a lot of really unattractive development.
So if you live in Coatesville or abut Coatesville and this parcel you’re going to want to go to the planning commission June 12. And then you are going to want to go to the city Council meeting that follows and maybe even the one that precedes it to ask questions.
And one of the questions you should start with for the city of Coatesville is if you look at when the Chester county planning commission reviewed this it was 2021. So have they known about this since 2021?
And I don’t think this is a love match with the Chester County Planning Commission because it’s a pretty long reply. It is in this packet of information. Starting on page 27. I am going to give you screenshots of each of the pages but you should go read it in the PDF because there are other hyperlinks. You may wish to click on. And I’m also going to give you some of the Takeaway is that I am taking out of what Chester county said, as a little excerpts.
I hope residents and others interested in this project pay CLOSE attention to what the county is saying with regards to this project. They are not sold on this project the way I am reading this. I also wonder why Coatesville hasn’t seemed to talk about this before if Chester County Planning Commission issued this report late 2021 (December 27, 2021) and we are all learning about this now, almost halfway into 2024?
Here are some things that popped out to me in the Chester County Planning Commission report:
The parcel according to Chester County records is 88.3 acres. This plan calls for 7.8 acres according to Chester County Planning Commission so what happens to the OTHER acres?
is this to be a phased development?
What open space gets saved and preserved?
“The plan and aerial photography indicate that a portion of the site is wooded. Mature trees and shrubs reduce the volume and impacts of stormwater runoff by intercepting precipitation, increasing evapotranspiration, and stabilizing soil through root growth. If development or earth disturbance is going to encroach upon existing woodlands, the removal of trees should be limited to the minimum area needed for the buildings and support facilities. The limits of tree removal should be clearly shown on the plan and “limits of disturbance” should be delineated to protect all trees that are intended to remain”
“The area to the north consists of much lower-density residential developments, including single-family dwellings. We suggest that the applicant conduct a shadow analysis to predict how the proposed multi-story buildings will affect the neighborhood to the north”
“We suggest the applicant consider eliminating at least one of the proposed buildings or reconfigure the buildings to limit environmental impacts and provide more usable and centralized open space and recreational areas. Reconfiguring the buildings to allow parking underneath would decrease the footprint for the required parking, provide room for usable open space, and limit the environmental effects on the site, such as on the steep slopes and woodlands.”
“The applicant has requested a waiver from landscaping requirements at some parking areas. We suggest that the City carefully evaluate these waiver requests.’
“The applicant has requested a waiver from landscaping requirements at some parking areas. We suggest that the City carefully evaluate these waiver requests…..Subsurface infiltration stormwater management practices are not appropriate for areas that will receive runoff with high sediment loads. Particular care should be taken during construction to prevent compaction of the soil below the system and to minimize the delivery of sediment to this system from construction runoff.”
Public transit access?
ADA compliance including with sidewalks?
Traffic impact study? I am person ally adding one that is realistic and not done in dead of summer or a holiday which is a favorite dev eloper trick isn’t it?
“We suggest that the applicant and City consider providing a percentage of affordably-priced housing units within the proposed apartment building…”
City Fire Marshall needs to weigh in on “fire protection facilities” and I want to ask will all roads be WIDE enough to accommodate all fire trucks and apparatus AND will there be ROOM behind buildings and in between for all fire trucks and apparatus? We can all name developments of recent vintage throughout Chester County where we can’t say that about, correct?
So…lots of questions about this prospective project dating to late 2021 and the City of Coatesville seems like they have had laryngitis for a couple of years?
And I have to ask is this a site on the border of Valley Township? What have they been told? And do any other municipalities border this? What have they been told? Development does not happen in a vacuum does it?
It also shows up in a website called Construction Journal which has a notation of zoning variances being sought? So why is this going to planning June 12? Has it already been to zoning? If it has not been to zoning and they do need variances, what gives?
I mentioned earlier in this post that Coatesville’s website has an AI bot. I find that rather amusing considering what money could be better spent on, but I digress. But even the Coatesville Website Bot knows nothing about this project.
I swear it’s the most economically deprived or challenged areas that have the snazzy websites that say absolutely not much. They have a city council meeting tonight and an agenda that says practically nothing and again, no attachments or uploads? And meeting recordings do not appear to be readily available and a handful of City of Coatesville videos and meetings are on YouTube…but only from 2020 so explain how they are sunshine friendly?
I have an inherent distrust of this municipality dating back to around 1999 when the City of Coatesville declared eminent domain on a family named the Sahas who are dear to me. Coatesville wanted to exercise eminent domain for private gain so a developer could build a golf course. I met the Sahas when we were fighting eminent domain for private gain in Lower Merion in the historic Ardmore business district. The Sahas fought until 2006. They won. Coatesville lost because they were in the wrong.
I have nothing more to add. This project seems off or it could just be me because it’s Coatesville. People will undoubtedly say I should be supporting things in Coatesville, and yeah if it’s for good, I am all ears to listen. This is just development and I am sorry not sorry of the opinion if residents don’t pay attention and residents in neighboring municipalities don’t pay attention they won’t be happy in the end.
There are too many questions already on this plan don’t you think? If people love Coatesville, then they had better look sharp. That opinion and the rest are brought to you courtesy of the First Amendment. You can’t trust Coatesville government can you?
I will close with a couple of things from the Saha struggle so people are clear as to why I will always and forever be mistrustful of the City of Coatesville.
