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.
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.
…. it will be ginormous. Over 300-some loading docks running 24 seven. Going to look like the New Jersey Turnpike in Uwchlan Township. Not to mention the truck-stop atmosphere that will accompany it.
Lionville Station Road is just fields and 2 empty farmhouses butting up against Milky Way Farm. I’m sure they aren’t happy about this with all the water and air pollution this will cause them and their animals. Can’t imagine my back road to home having 300+ tractor trailers coming and going on it.
~ LOCAL RESIDENT
I think I should state that I have NOT heard about this before today. AND Milky Way Farm is staying put and not going anywhere from what I am told, but they might turn into a farm island as a result of this right? Also Gardner’s Landscape is NOT going anywhere, so can’t imagine what they think of this, other than abject horror like residents, right?
Another BIG HUGE QUESTION is ARE THEY SURE AMAZON IS COMING? Read today’s article about Amazon slowing it’s roll in the Washington Post. Article is gifted so follow
The residents are up in arms. I would be. And when I zoomed in on the plan thing above? I saw my friend’s house! I mean can you even imagine waking up for years to loveliness and now be threatened with the ass end of a warehouse as your view???
The next Uwchlan Supervisors meeting is Monday March 6th and as of the time of this post NOT much of an agenda. That of course is sunshine UNfriendly…. .AND IT IS SHOWING AT 12 NOON…OR YOU KNOW WHEN PEOPLE WORK!!!
I don’t have anything more. But people need to be aware and get themselves to Uwchlan meetings and bug their supervisors.
Happy Friday, what isn’t being developed in Chester County?
All day I wasn’t sure where to begin this post. But here we are, and here it is: the world is full of joyless people, or at least our immediate world area. The closer we get to election day (Tuesday November 2nd), the crazier people get. Mostly it’s the off their rockers school board candidates and their followers.
I think the insanity started again (for me) because I posted this in the morning of October 29th:
And for those who are by nature conservative who are on the fence but know in their heart of hearts that the newly minted “Republican” School Board candidates are bad (just follow the along with the new formula posts/ social media pages/websites/ “blogs” popping up all over for book banning, anti-masker, anti-vaxxer), the earth will not burn under your feet if you vote for a Democrat for school board.
Not all Republicans on school boards are bad, and as a matter of fact someone I know personally and call a friend was pushed out of a local school board race by crazies with crazy rhetoric.
This isn’t your grandmother’s Republican party any longer, it’s not the party of Lincoln. But as a party they have been coopted by extremism – you know like the people that stormed the capital on January 6, 2021. And one of those candidates for school board and Chester county was there – #AnonymousAda Ada Nestor- but I digress. And if you are a true Republican you know Republicans like this aren’t real Republicans.
So truthfully on election day if you want to save the Republicans party for future generations, please don’t allow these people in at lowest local levels of politics which is the school board….. It sounds counterintuitive, yes. But also if you care about actual PUBLIC education these people need to be ignored as candidates – they are literally the Republican candidates of last resort and of course there is that old but true thing that you have to ask does the Chester County Republican committee actually care about anything that goes on outside it’s own doors in the Borough of West Chester? Because if you ask Republicans around the county they will tell you no.
Here was first up banned on this blog:
And then because their comment was not instantaneously approved, they changed their phony handle but hey the same writing style…and I.P. address:
Oh my goodness, gracious and bless their cold, dark heart! They are of the grammatically stunted and spelling challenged even in a world where spell check is everywhere.
What is even more amusing? I am not and never have been particularly liberal. I am what you call a moderate, something that doesn’t exist in their (her?) world, which should require hospitalization and a straight jacket at this point as we all have our suspicions as to whom my pen pal was this morning. They think they are invisible, but no, not really. Their political Tourette’s gives them away every time, practically every minute of the day.
“Mentioning people’s names, videos” oh you mean like the websites and Facebook pages popping up that are funded by conservative donors, PACs like Keeping Kids in School and more targeting private citizens in Chester County?
So you are still pissy darling pen pal about Caroline O’Halloran? That’s amusing because well, you all craved the spotlight and wanted sound bytes to get your opinions OUT THERE. But then they weren’t well received although Caroline reported them accurately and neutrally as the seasoned journalist she is? Wahhh. You all sought the spotlight in part by making public spectacles out of yourselves. Cheer up I am sure Ladies Hat Day at Devon will be back next year.
Ahh yes you keyboard warriors. You all so so damn dumb and such gullible sheeple that you don’t even realize that national groups are USING all of you and these ridiculous school board candidates to infiltrate our local school board races. Why? It’s one of the lowest hanging fruits of our political system. Is that what all of you want? Our area run by master puppeteer political extremists? Because if you don’t watch the school board elections, that is exactly what you will get…and don’t forget all the verbiage on essentially book banning. Yes book banning.
As a friend said today:
Ironically the complaining is coming from bored housewives who voraciously gobbled up 50 Shades and Bridgerton.
I am borrowing the following screenshots from CCMF Schools because it just cuts through the crap:
These people and their hatred are just amazing…and not amazing in a good way. Amazing as in an incredibly unhealthy way. And then there is the simple rule of “follow the money” like this helpful diagram:
And this is JUST West Chester Area School District. Downingtown Area School District is dealing with this too. And Downingtown is bad enough, it made network news (Follow this link to NBC News story.) Great Valley School District is dealing with it too, and their candidates include a college student who never responds to anything and seemingly hasn’t campaigned, a guy who was a general tool on his Facebook page until some local Republican party had him clean it up, and the pediatric critical care nurse who is anti-mask and anti-vax and obsessed with CRT although I am not honestly sure she understands what it is and forget about telling her it’s not actually taught in schools. In Tredyffrin Easttown School District, the school board candidates keep it simple and just pose for photos with long hair QAnon Super Trumpers that the local GOP sponsored for a visit or something…wheeee!
Oh here is a helpful diagram regarding the Downingtown Area School District from CCMFSchools:
I have received oodles of hate mail, threats, random comments by arseholes. But this is too important. Like January 6th important. If you don’t want more of THAT hate and rhetoric, then please, please take your time and vote to preserve our public school system, not destroy it.
Extremism in politics is ruining our political system and our country. Please don’t let it destroy our education system as well. Don’t let these bastards steal your joy.
Right at the beginning of June, I invited some friends who had been around at a very difficult time in my life to go on a special tour of David Culp’s gardens at Brandywine Cottage in Downingtown. It was a thank you and a celebration of an important personal milestone: being 10 years breast cancer free. June 1, 2011 to June 1, 2021.
If you know women who have had breast cancer, each year we get extra is a blessing. Milestones like this are extremely important to mark, and I wanted to say thank you to some of these ladies, most of whom I have known since high school.
It was also another celebration and milestone. This also marked all of us finally being able to get together because of COVID-19 and we all finally had our shots. The ladies who came with me like to garden.
Pete Bannan photo 2011
One of the friends was Caroline O’Halloran who is the creator and chief writer at Savvy Main Line. She was with me and some other friends on Tuesday, July 13th, 2011 when I rang the bell at Lankenau Hospital where I had that morning finished up a few weeks of fairly grueling radiation treatment with Dr. Marisa Weiss.
When it was all over and I rang the special bell signifying the end of treatment, my friends cheered. A hospital administrator chided us for being too loud. (It was pretty funny.)
At the end of the day, I am very much alive with a terrific prognosis for a long and happy life. I am one of the lucky ones. I have lost friends to cancer including breast over the past decade, so I learned to stop and breathe and celebrate the milestones.
For a decade now I have been part of the sisterhood – women of different races, ethnicities, ages, sizes and shapes –forever bound together by this disease. It’s like the club no one asks to join. And you damn well celebrate the little victories.
I chose a garden tour.
I also invited someone whom I am pleased to call a friend for the past few years, who wasn’t with me that day. She just happens to be a woman I like and appreciate. You all know her as a Chester County Commissioner – Michelle Kichline. We have a lot of friends in common and have for years and years, and we share common interests like the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust and a love for gardening.
Caroline wrote about the visit to David’s amazing gardens on her website a few weeks after the visit. It just happened because he and his gardens inspired her and struck a chord. Of course that doesn’t surprise me because David’s book The Layered Garden has been a huge influence on me personally. When I read his book it was like I had this epiphany that someone who really is a plantsman and horticulturalist gets how I like to garden. I don’t even know what printing the book is on, but it is really special.
Michelle posted the article on her page a couple of weeks ago. She also included how she loved the gardens and what a fun and just nice day it was. It’s true, it was just nice. I thought that was super sweet of her, and I was happy to have her with us.
But as is the case with social media, up rolls a jerk:
I have been called many things in my life, but “rich white people” has never been one of them. But apparently, we are all a bunch of “rich white people” who have an “eye” for horticulture according to this….well….a random white guy.
Are we to surmise that random white guy must have a political axe to grind with Michelle for whatever reason, and is also a garden critic? Ok he doesn’t have to like the garden, but his vitriol was unnecessary and unwarranted.
We all like to garden. David opened his private home garden to us on a very special anniversary for me. This day was a big deal to me. Michelle is allowed to NOT be a politician once in a while and just enjoy girl time.
I think we need to hit the pause button. We have come through 2020 into 2021 and a lot of us still have friends on both sides of the political aisle and that is ok. And that is what that snotful comment on Michelle’s page was about: politics. I don’t know what, and I don’t know why, and don’t care. WHY? Because all she was doing was sharing something nice.
I am a gardener. I love to garden. And random white guy? I do my own gardening and I earn my own money to pay for my gardening. I am hardly some heiress with a fainting couch. I even cook and clean and take out the trash.
Truthfully this is why I don’t share cool experiences on this blog sometimes like seeing David Culp’s garden. So instead a friend shares what another friend wrote about just a lovely day and we are suddenly bad people? That’s just wrong. And I say that as someone who can and does take politicians to task. But there is a time and a place for everything, and being a dick about someone talking about a nice visit to a special garden is not one of them.
But hey what do I know right? I am just a mere mortal and a female, and these are obviously just the rantings of a suburban housewife.
