Oh my so who wants to be a supervisor in East Goshen? They are taking applications…
Tag Archives: east goshen
why don’t we have more control over our communities? we live here.
Meet Pulte’s “promotional video” on Linden Hall.
Described as an enclave of “luxury” town homes, with views of an exclusive golf course anyone has yet to see how storm water runoff will affect and whose memberships are not exactly included with the purchase price of the townhouses. (Yes holy run on sentence Batman but I don’t know how else to say it.)
You see photos of rolling Chester County fields with nature, only there is no nature at Linden Hall. Only a crumbling historic carriage stop and inn that sits and rots unrestored, even though the original developer (Benson or whomever) who sold Pulte the townhouse land and approvals promised to restore but thus far has not. All that has happened is a version of construction fencing has been erected to surround it. (Maybe with black plastic fabric fencing around it we won’t notice the building rotting, right?)
This video says that this development is 3.5 miles from a Septa Station. I assume they mean Eston which already has parking issues? And you get to that station from congested route 100 right? Or you have to invent a space at Malvern station?
The video proclaims 4 miles from Main Street at Exton and 10 miles from the King of Prussia Mall because God forbid people support local, small businesses, right?
And my favorite, they tout the Great Valley “School System”. Of course no one ever talks about the effect a rampant increase in development has on a school district which eventually affects our taxes and our kids, do they? And before all the PTA cheerleaders gather up their pom poms against me, that is NOT a slam at the school district, that is a very grim reality which is inevitable.
But overall what bothers me the most is here is yet another developer touting our beautiful Chester County they are carving up into plastic houses one acre at a time. The site these townhouses are on once supported quite an ecosystem. Foxes and birds and rabbits and so on. I know the neighbors behind Linden Hall are very unhappy and worried how this development will affect their property values down the line.
The price points are not affordable for those who would need affordable housing. The quality is not so spectacular that the exteriors won’t wear quickly after a few Chester County winters. And the way they describe them, well you don’t realize if you are looking at a development essentially sitting on a highway. No matter what you do to them they are sitting on a major thoroughfare. And it’s not pretty.
Ok this brings me to the impetus behind this post:
The New York Times: How Anti-Growth Sentiment, Reflected in Zoning Laws, Thwarts Equality
By CONOR DOUGHERTY
JULY 3, 2016
….“The quality of the experience of being in Boulder, part of it has to do with being able to go to this meadow and it isn’t just littered with human beings,” said Steve Pomerance, a former city councilman who moved here from Connecticut in the 1960s….These days, you can find a Steve Pomerance in cities across the country — people who moved somewhere before it exploded and now worry that growth is killing the place they love.….But a growing body of economic literature suggests that anti-growth sentiment, when multiplied across countless unheralded local development battles, is a major factor in creating a stagnant and less equal American economy….
Zoning restrictions have been around for decades but really took off during the 1960s, when the combination of inner-city race riots and “white flight” from cities led to heavily zoned suburbs…To most people, zoning and land-use regulations might conjure up little more than images of late-night City Council meetings full of gadflies and minutiae. But these laws go a long way toward determining some fundamental aspects of life: what American neighborhoods look like, who gets to live where and what schools their children attend.
And when zoning laws get out of hand, economists say, the damage to the American economy and society can be profound. Studies have shown that laws aimed at things like “maintaining neighborhood character” or limiting how many unrelated people can live together in the same house contribute to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They also exacerbate inequality by restricting the housing supply in places where demand is greatest.
This article is written by someone who doesn’t get the realities of rampant development. Nor does the author mention the fact that a lot of these developments are built just to build, not because there is an actual need.
The author of this article of this article also does not get how these developers are actually contributing to what he seemingly despises. As in these developers are actually contributing to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They are in fact limiting the housing supply by their very price points. How many families of multiple people and kids are going to look at condos for example that are studios and one bedrooms and if not rentals start at mid 500,000s? How many agricultural, factory, or service related workers are going to be able to afford Linden Hall or Atwater or so on or be encouraged to buy there?
And look at all the zoning together. That is developments in progress in one area, regardless of municipality, along with other development in various states of approval. A sleeper to watch for in East Whiteland would be that thing a developer named Farley got approved a while back, remember? A multi acre parcel that is accessed off a property on 352 that looks like a hoarding situation that goes up into woods and would be shoehorned in between Immaculata and the William Henry apartments for lack of a better description? So you have the increasing traffic nightmare on Route 30 by Linden Hall which will only get worse with completion of neighboring projects like off of Frame Ave and Planebrook Rd. Can you imagine adding this 352/Sproul to that? And the effect it will have potentially on King Road? Let alone what one more project so close together would have on the ecosystem of the area AND the school district!
See that is the problem with all these developments, developers, and the factual analysis this New York Times writer Conor Dougherty thinks he has done. The reality is we do NOT live in a bubble. We are connected. Developers envision and present these projects as stand alone things with no real time or effort put into the relationships between projects. It starts when you see the plans presented at a local municipal meeting.
These projects are depicted all by themselves with nothing around them, or nothing around them realistic to human or other scale. They do traffic studies when no one is around, they don’t really look at what a large uptick in population will do to anything from roads, to hospitals, to school,districts, to the environment. They do not care about us, they just want to build, get their money, and get out. So pardon the hell out of us Conor Dougherty if we want to preserve the character of where we live and do not want our school districts, property values, and our shrinking open space detrimentally affected. And his affordable housing argument doesn’t wash at least around here because they are not building affordable housing. These developers truthfully don’t give a rat’s fanny about actual affordable housing. None of this is about actually helping others, it’s about lining their pockets at the expense of many communities.
Chester County is at risk. I am not sure why Chester County even has a county planning department because everything getting built is about the dollars developers get from density. Our open space and communities and agricultural heritage are seriously at risk. That doesn’t anyone make sny person saying that some kind of NIMBY ….it is the truth. Why is it that the rights of those who already live in an area seem so less important than what politicians and developers want? Look at Embreyville and Bryn Coed – what happens to those areas if development gets approved for maximum capacity? Embreyville is already in play, and Bryn Coed is only a matter of time, right?
Community preservation and open space preservation aren’t dirty words. They should be our right as residents of this beautiful county we call home.
Happy July 4th. Our forefathers fought for our freedoms and apparently we are still fighting for our rights.
Thanks for stopping by.
clocktower, east goshen
Image
east goshen farmhouse
farmhouse on west chester pike in east goshen
I thought this house was being saved, so I guess it will look worse before it looks better? But never fear, the apartment sign is completely landscaped…..
so sunoco isn’t sleazy and sunoco isn’t sunoco?
We just celebrated the 4th of July which celebrates our freedoms in this country and apparently Sunoco officials don’t care for free speech and freedom of opinion? And maybe they don’t like that eminent domain word but what did they expect when they went to the Public Utility Commission to try to get around local zoning? Seriously?
There is this new article in the Inquirer about SuNOco, and apparently SuNOco isn’t SuNOco and isn’t sleazy? So is this pipeline is a mirage then? Are we imagining all the road disruptions and closures and all the public meetings are really the meeting of the quilting society or something?
I am very confused.
A rose by any other name and all that?
Apparently SuNOco’s public image is taking a beating? Does that mean their retail business is feeling a pipeline pinch?
It is up to personal choice if Chester County and other Pennsylvania residents choose to patronize other gas stations, right? We don’t live in a communist or otherwise single state run country where we have no choice as to where we buy gas, do we? Did they ever consider in addition to image issues that a good percentage of the time their gas is also just more expensive than other gas retailers?
So now will SuNOco that isn’t really SuNOco be buzzing around changing the corporate branding on their pipeline property sites like the sign seen every day at a crossroads in Upper Uwchlan? And what of the Sunoco Logistics website with the teeny tiny Sunoco logo we all know so well?
And while they are answering questions, what is it precisely they do with endangered wildlife when they find it (or more appropriately it is pointed out to them) ? Someone told me they were told the wildlife (like bog turtles and such) is moved someplace and then brought back to the habitat in which they were discovered? Is this true and how do they know which wildlife goes where down to the individual creature?
This Philadelphia Inquirer article today gives many the vision of a corporate shell game doesn’t it? And is the talking head of the split personality oil company the same guy who used to be an amazing reporter for the paper now making him the news?
So who is SuNOco? And if they want a better corporate image maybe they shouldn’t be trying to force feed Pennsylvania residents a pipeline? Could it be a lot of this petroleum posturing is that this just isn’t residents saying no? Could it be SuNOco is a little nervous that politicians from all over on both sides of the political aisle are starting to speak out too? Could they be nervous that the residents objecting are growing daily in numbers and esteemed environmentalists are taking their side?
Sorry SuNOco, sorry SuNOco PR team, people are unified about not wanting you in Chester County no matter what you call yourselves aren’t they? Welcome to a public relations hell of your own creation and seriously what did you think was going to happen? That everyone was just going to be o.k. with your taking people’s land and adding flare stacks in densely populated areas? Did you think a county that has a large percentage of residents on wells wouldn’t be concerned about pipelines and so on? Maybe you have a friend in Governor Corbett but not everyone else is feeling so chummy?
Great article Philadelphia Inquirer!
Philadelphia Inquirer: Sunoco fights connection to pipeline firm
By Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: July 06, 2014
Select photos in this collage are courtesy of public photos of Just The Facts Please on Facebook of which this blog is not a spokesperson or representative, just a fan.
“goshen meadows” and the cool old house
A reader sent me these photos. It is the cool old house located at 1325 West Chester Pike in East Goshen (see east goshen document ) at the site being built as the “Goshen Meadows Land Development”.
My reader says:
I was able to take some photos of a historic home at 1325 West Chester Pike where they are doing a lot of construction. From what I understand they are planning to build 5 apartment buildings on site, and use the historic home for the facility’s office, fitness center, and 2 apartments.
Does anyone know anything else about this? I think it is pretty cool that they are preserving this house, although I don’t for the life of me know why they think West Chester Pike needs more apartment buildings.
enough is enough
So? Where to begin? I have written a few posts in support of the folks fighting Sunoco in East and West Goshen.
Some folks have left comments. They understand it is a blog and as blog owner I reserve the right to delete or publish comments. I am not some giant Internet conglomerate and I don’t have TOS (“terms of service”) other than hey now, this is my blog and I make the rules.
Anyway, up rolls this person from East Goshen and they leave a comment. (As in they initiated contact, I did not seek them out.) I thanked them for the comment but asked them to have a care with leaving comments about their home township I was not comfortable with. Something which is very reasonable and pretty basic, right?
A couple of days have passed and all of a sudden this person is back leaving comments. Which I also published. Then because I published comments that I was supposed to (apparently) NOT publish, and (apparently) I am supposed to be the psychic blog network because how else was I supposed to divine that this person (apparently) was having a private conversation?
HUH????
Yep, you got it. Pretzel logic.
So here is the 411: I have removed the comments and retained full screen shots. I have retained the original comment notification in native format (which shows their I.P. address, e-mail address, and sender’s full name.) I will no longer accept comments from this person. Further contact will constitute harassment on their part. The comments they have left today can be interpreted as harassment.
And there is one other thing. Because this person has made me so uncomfortable, and although we are all supposed to be on the same team wanting pipelines out of our communities and Sunoco to be brought to heel, I can’t feel comfortable continuing to write about this topic on this blog. So I wish those people fighting, including friends, well. I want nothing but the best for all of you dealing with this weighty topic.
I created this blog as my exploration and experience of Chester County. I choose the topics, I write the posts. This is not a compensated blog, I am not paid to write. I write and share my photos because writing and photography bring me joy.
I will continue to share with you my faithful readers, and I thank you for stopping by.
will it be eminent domain and pipelines, sunoco?
Simple Shots Photos photoA group in West Goshen is fighting mad and battling Sunoco Logistics and its plan for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project.
WEST GOSHEN — Township residents are organizing against the construction of a proposed natural gas pump station, voicing outrage over possible health and safety issues from the facility.
“This doesn’t just affect West Goshen, but every community from here to Marcus Hook,” resident Tom Casey said.
Sunoco is requesting a variance from West Goshen at an April 3, 2014 zoning meeting to build a pipeline pump station with 34 foot ‘flare stack’ in a neighborhood at Boot Road and Route 202. Sunoco has similar requests in 31 municipalities across Pa as it transitions a cross-state petroleum pipeline to ethane, butane, propane liquid gas use.
Apparently one of the big fat sticking points per my sources is the flare stack proposal. I learned about the Just The Facts Please group from my friend Tim at Panewz:
Panewz.com: Gas pipeline wants fast track on expansion, pump station, flare stack approval in Pa
….Many pipelines across Pa were established with easements to carry petroleum when much of the Pa landscape was farmland. Today these pipelines pass through suburbanized communities.
Additionally, many residents are concerned about the conversion of the former petroleum pipelines to highly pressurized liquid gas and its combustibility. In some cases, residents aren’t aware that a pipeline, installed many years ago, runs through their neighborhood….One concern for residents is the pump or compressor stations that must be built along the gas pipelines to push the gas through. Some of these stations can be quite large, depending upon terrain and distance from the next station… Sunoco Pipeline is also applying for status as a Public Utility in Pennsylvania. See the application and a list of all Pa Townships involved in the Mariner East 2 pipeline expansion by clicking here.
If approved, the pump and valve control station buildings, above, that Sunoco says it would install on the sites, would be ‘exempt from any local zoning, subdivision and land development regulations’.
The company is also requesting that the applications be expedited because ‘full potential of Pennsylvania shale gas remains hampered by limited pipeline infrastructure’. The company has requested approval of this legal designation prior to the Public Utility Commission’s meeting of June 19, 2014.
The company’s application says the buildings and expedited service are needed for the ‘convenience and welfare of the public’. It also does not want one township’s denial of construction to hold up the entire pipeline.
A judge has already ruled in York County on Sunoco’s Motion for Survey Rights and efforts to condemn property in Eminent Domain. Read about it by clicking here.
Pa eminent domain blogger and Harrisburg attorney Michael Faherty has written ten reasons why, he believes, Sunoco will not succeed with the PUC in gaining Public Utility status and the power of eminent domain.
Alrighty then. The other meat of it? Sunoco apparently has a request before the PUC to be classified as a ‘Public Utility’ so the company can bypass all local zoning regulations and use eminent domain to take additional lands along the existing pipeline route? Apparently they are not a public utility when it comes to gas or something? So does that mean then they want carte blanche eminent domain powers? Sounds like it right?
The Facebook Page, Just The Facts Please, is trying to get more people to the meeting.
I think that eminent domain for private gain shrouded in a cloak of eminent domain for public purpose is what will occur if eminent domain for properties is attempted. I was told but have no proof that some are already are having to deal with whispers of eminent domain and to them I say FIGHT. I am somewhat astounded to hear how reluctant property owners are being bullied and isn’t that awful?
Look, our homes are our castles and our personal American dreams and personally I wouldn’t want big oil or the government to have a piece of my dream. (And I hope homeowners facing eminent domain know about groups like the Institute for Justice
in Washington, DC. They are a tremendous resource and much more.)
I used to be somewhat ambivalent towards this whole pipeline issue. But now, because of what I have heard happening in West Goshen and my former community of East Goshen I’m not so sure. And if big oil came knocking on my door I don’t think I could say yes. I am not going to judge anyone who has said yes, and I know some who have in the past, but I don’t think this is for me either.
Do we as Chester County residents get benefits of allowing drilling as we live in a state whose governor doesn’t have a tax (or much of a tax?) on the big oil companies having to do with what they drill? Ironically most of us don’t even have access to natural gas for heating because there aren’t a heck of a lot of those kinds of gas lines, yet they have been running an insane amount of pipelines. We are also on wells out here, so what happens to our drinking supply if they screw up?
I know you can’t take on everything but this is something at the very minimum worth going to a meeting to learn. After all a good portion of municipal meetings in Chester County are not televised.
I guess where I am on this is I hate government bullying. I hate eminent domain. I hate businesses attempting what Sunoco is attempting. I think I might even buy gasoline for my car elsewhere now. Wawa has better prices anyway. And most of all I hate that residents can’t just say “no thank you” if they don’t want a pipeline in their yard.
So if you have concerns, please don’t wait, go to this meeting this week. April 3, 7 pm, West Goshen Township Building. 1025 Paoli Pike, West Chester.
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….and then like magic, the robo calls stopped
Election 2013, which was pretty much a local affair for us save some of the judicial retention that I never heard much about but was the flip side of yesterday’s ballot, is over.
The people have spoken. And even the chairs of the respective political parties in Chester County should listen.
Let us start with Tredyffrin. I am pleased to report the upset my friend Pattye Benson over at Community Matters is reporting this morning:
In a surprising upset, two Democratic at-large candidates Murph Wysocki and Mark Freed, beat incumbent Michelle Kichline (R) who currently serves as the chair of the Board of Supervisors and Trip Lukens (R), chair of the township’s Planning Commission. In the middle District supervisor race, EJ Richter (R) beat Laurie Elliot (D). Prior to this election, only 2 Democrats (Paul Drucker and Mark DiFeliciantonio) have ever served on Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors. As of Election Day 2013, that number has now doubled.
I am leaving her tea party commentary out of this because that isn’t what the local election results are about. The local results are about dissatisfaction and enough people from BOTH parties wanting people OUT of office. I do not vote in Tredyffrin but if I had to guess as far as Kichline goes, her playing possum when Pattye was targeted by another supervisor had something to do with this vote and as far as Mr. Lukens it is a basic matter of development and what people want for their communities. My hypothesis is simple: he did not listen well enough.
I volunteered at the polls for the first time yesterday in Chester County. I enjoyed it and was fascinated by how different it was. What I noticed yesterday as a newbie were the snap judgments I saw given out to people like me by some of the older volunteers because I am open with my opinion. But if they had been targeted the way I was targeted as a new resident by a county party chair how would they feel about the way politics are done out here? And also what I discovered yesterday is to an extent political volunteers are to be seen and not heard and where are we in the political process without our individual opinions? Are we all Stepford on this bus?
Part of yesterday I volunteered with some really nice union guys out of IBEW Local 654. Apparently they were at many polls in Chester County volunteering for the Democratic Party of Chester County. Honestly, these guys were nicer than a great deal of opposing party volunteers I have hung out with over the years. They were so nice and made volunteer hours at a sleepy poll pass more quickly. These guys are Delaware County based for their union.
Here they are:
Malvern Borough had an upset yesterday and I am still waiting to hear what happened “officially”, but Malvern Patch shared some exciting news:
The county’s numbers have Democratic candidate for Mayor, Dave Burton, beating incumbent Gerard McGlone (R). Burton received 65 percent of the vote, 509 votes in all, nearly doubling the 266 votes received in favor of McGlone.
The three open seats on the Malvern Borough Council, however, are a little less cut-and-dry.
The three republican candidates, William Macaleer, Robert Coughlin and Zeyn Uzman all received about 210 votes, or 11 roughly 11 percent of the vote. The remaining 68 percent of the vote went to write-in candidates, 1,351 votes in all. This is no doubt due to the write-in campaigning done by candidates Todd Lexer, David Barmwell and Matt Radano
Now as far as I know this blog was the only one who actually reported on these three write in candidates before Election Day (please correct me if I am wrong but I kept looking and looking for coverage of what these ordinary residents were doing), and I hope they ALL prevail in the end when Chester County is finished certifying everything.
Why the Malvern write-in upset is so important is these are regular people who did this without the backing of the two main political parties. Their actions are based on their desire to step up and be counted. Their actions occurred because they want to save Malvern Borough from an ugly, overdeveloped future. These three guys Todd Lexer ,Matt Radano and David Bramwell decided that the residents of Malvern needed an equal voice in their own existence and future and they stood up to be counted.
I completely believe that the actions of the write-in candidates also swept the new mayor-elect into office.
What has happened in Malvern is really cool. Instead of just complaining, these folks did something. And truthfully, they proved local politics are truly local and neither political party can take credit. They did this themselves.
Over in East Whiteland I expect there will be a recount. I am told that Vanguard employee Bill Holmes has retained his seat by NINE or TEN votes over my friend Maureen Martinez.
Maureen should be commended for running a clean and independent campaign. Maureen didn’t run around with a sidewalk petition for a sidewalk to nowhere that probably will never happen and was just an election gimmick, nor did she have the multi-minute robo-calls bashing her opponent that you could not disconnect. She did her own door knocking and listened to what people had to say and answered questions. I think she is a rising political star to watch.
With reluctant congratulations, I hope Bill Holmes gets the message that voters have sent him in East Whiteland. The message is simple and clear and it is that they want things done differently. I listened to what people from both parties had to say yesterday at the polls and this is what I learned people want:
- They want televised meetings and a website that is not 30 years behind the times.
- They want current and comprehensive meeting notes that are readily and easily available because I am told the majority of residents in East Whiteland don’t have a clue about a lot that happens.
- They want abandoned houses and properties dealt with and some better historic preservation
- They want the route 30 business corridor to not look so embarrassing.
- They want all the sites with problematic environmental issues cleaned up and dealt with.
- They want a say in development. East Whiteland might be more commercial than residential, but residents matter.
- They want fewer conflicts.
Nine or ten votes is not a landslide victory even in a sleepy off-year election. It’s a message.
In West Chester the upset on the school board is nothing save historic. Congratulations to Joyce Chester and the rest of her slate. Here is the Daily Local on that race:
WEST CHESTER — The self-styled “better direction” slate of challengers for West Chester Area School Board defeated three incumbents and one other candidate in voting Tuesday.
Using the Democratic Party label, the four challengers defeated Republican Party candidates, including three incumbents.
Joyce Chester, Robin Kaliner, Chris McCune and Ricky Swalm are the four Democratic candidates who unseated incumbent board members Sean Carpenter, Ed Coyle and Maria Pimley and defeated newcomer Pam LaTorre.
In the Court of Common Pleas, the Daily Local is calling the race in favor Republicans Patrick Carmody and Jeffrey Sommer.
Troubled Coatesville has two new school board members, too bad they couldn’t have tossed the entire old board out.
West Vincent I reported on last night and congratulations to John Jacobs and the others! These candidates had a tough road to get here and they worked hard. Will next up be to retire Ken Miller?
Congratulations also to my favorite purveyor of local honey. Carmen Battavio was re-elected in East Goshen. Congrats also go out to a favorite local farmer. Farmer Bob a/k/a Robert Lange was re-elected in Willistown. These two should teach other supervisors how it’s done.
Yesterday I was reminded again of how local politics should stay local.
I am happy that robo-call season is over and it is nice that life less political can resume! Truthfully I do not have the stomach or tolerance for politics that I used to.