We had a great time at Joey Chops this evening from start to finish. Food, ambiance, service.
I will start with the starters/appetizers. Seafood and it was great seafood. The scallops and shrimp were just off the boat fresh.
The steaks were amazing and the sides perfection. I had the Delmonico with grilled asparagus on the side and they remember the extra nice touch of shaving the bottoms of the stalks. No one remembers to do that anymore. My husband had a strip with mushrooms that were to die for. Our son had the Westholme Wagyu Teres Major with broccolini. And the quick pickled red onions served with each steak were perfect.
Joey Chops has a good wine list. They even have a blanc de blanc sparkling from a favorite vineyard of mine, Gruet in New Mexico. I also noted French (Provence) and Italian (Puglia) rosés I would like to try in the future.
Tonight I had a glass of Prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy. It was lovely and light and dry and not sweet. My husband had a glass of a Cabernet I think from Paso Robles, California- I forget the name but Sean our waiter said it was new to the menu.
The cheesecake cart was a big hit with my husband and son because they love New York style cheesecake.
A special mention is necessary about Sean who was our waiter and he was hands down the best waiter especially in a steak house since Old Homestead and Delmonico’s in NYC. And the kids who were bussing and helping run food were also wonderful and friendly and very poised. All of the employees were terrific, truthfully.
The silverware has good weight to it and the steak knives are a well weighted knife and not some hulking exaggerated size, they are more like a Laguiole style knife.
Suggestions are they need larger water glasses, however. They are cute and I know little water glasses are a trend, but I am a big water drinker and these were the size of little juice glasses. And they need bigger candles on the tables or more than one.
We sat in the banquette seating underneath the windows . Very comfortable and pretty chairs. The big velvety curtains make you forget you are in a strip mall parking lot. And that is not the fault of the restaurant. It just happens to be in Lincoln Court Shopping Center in Frazer/Malvern. It took over and reinvented the space that was once Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
We had started in a booth (and no didn’t request a booth, it just happened), but like most modern restaurants, they are a bit uncomfortable, so they were super accommodating and moved us. The banquette seating was just perfect.
The banquette seating and tables are the way to go for sure. The chairs for the round tables that run down the center of the dining room are like a modern Windsor style chair, and they looked quite comfortable. If this were my restaurant, I’d replace the booths with additional banquette seating, or smaller tables with regular chairs. Sorry not sorry, but modern booths in a lot of restaurants are like what airlines are doing to seating unless you pony up for first class: just not enough room, space, depth.
The place was very clean, but they do need to fix one of the doors in the ladies room. Three of the louvered slats in the bottom of the door are broken.
But we had a wonderful night. It has been quite a while since I had a higher end dining experience that flowed as well as this and had good ambiance.
I am a little obsessed with the simply gorgeous sofa with its brilliant pop of color across from the hostess stand in the little alcove area.
We will definitely be back.
Thanks Joey Chops for a great meal and experience!
⭐️Please note that this is my honest review. I was not compensated in any way for this. I’m not a compensated blogger or some weird influencer.It’s where we went to dinner for a big birthday.⭐️
It’s an 18th century farmhouse. There is at least one barn to go with it, but in order to see the barns, you have to be on the property, and that would be trespassing.
This farmhouse is on the Clews & Strawbridge/Clews Boats property. Here is the current property ownership information on the three parcels that comprise this property:
So this property came up as a topic of conversation locally within the past couple of years because the developer wanted to put a giant apartment building right there. The developer at that time said they would restore the farmhouse, and even back then I questioned it because it was like the building envelope was compromised or pierced.
In the end East Whiteland said no they didn’t want apartments right there, so there was no zoning change and it’s still the boat dealership. I looked on Google and the boat place has rather mixed reviews, so I don’t really have a feel for the business there.
Truthfully, I don’t care about the business there, but I really wish they cared about the farmhouse on their property. It’s a historic asset.
It’s total demolition by neglect and it’s horrible. And it’s NOT East Whiteland Township’s fault. They can’t control this. But they could check on the house to make sure it’s secure, given all of the broken windowpanes, etc.
Buckle up, West Whiteland, and neighboring East Whiteland. You know this won’t be good.
What will this be? Who knows in the end, but whatever it will be, will probably be scrubbed of any vegetation or trees, and probably will be unsuitable for the area.
Our communities are worth more than crappy residential and industrial development. And this location is land that Johnson Matthey sold. Johnson Matthey was at one point in time also the successor owner to toxic Bishop Tube. So here’s hoping that this land is not also toxic, right?
This is a developer who doesn’t care about communities. He cares about his profit margins. And this is the developer that bought that hideous development at Ship Road and Route 30 in West Whiteland, which also means that we have him to thank for the Ship Road Couplet.
So now it seems that a lot of developers are hitting the pause button on residential development but they’re not necessarily hitting it on industrial development and it’s like warehouses are the new condo.
I guess there are no more apartments to build in West Chester Borough so he’s branching out?
I have never seen this website before (screenshot above), and this accident in East Whiteland DID happen on MARCH 7th, 2024 which was THURSDAY.
A man was crossing the street near Planet Fitness and got hit by a car in westbound lane. He is in the ICU now. Don’t know which hospital. Apparently he tried running across the road in the dark NOT at a light and the poor driver did NOT see him. This happens ALL of the time and ALL of the sidewalks in the world are NOT going to stop people from jaywalking if they want to, sadly.
Maybe he was going to Westgate Apartments? No one knows. No one has information on who family and friends are, or where they are to the best of my knowledge.
The accident victim is a 48 year old Hispanic male with a NY drivers license. If you know anything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call East Whiteland Police Department. (610) 647-2100 or go to station which is located at 209 Conestoga Rd, Frazer, PA 19355.
Again…this occurred on MARCH 7th and if you know anything, don’t sit on social media and talk about it, PLEASE CALL EAST WHITELAND POLICE. This guy has friends and family somewhere.
Damn people it’s developer who’s on first isn’t it?
Late last night, I broke the news on this blog about the Johnson Matthey land getting sold in West Whiteland and as per the Philadelphia business journal plans for Eli, Kahn to build warehouses.
But wait, there’s more. Apparently misery loves company and there’s another warehouse bit of scuttlebutt floating around Chester County, not too far away from this.
Sources living out around Uwchlan who have had to live through Lionville Statuon Farm have been keeping an eye on a particular location off of Route 100 and behind where the Harley Davidson place was and kind of where the ice hockey rink is.
They say that on edge of Uwchlan, another warehouse plan is being hatched? Is it true it is also developer Eli Kahn? The fear is that someone if not him will be putting up a warehouse at the end of Haywood Drive (where the skating rink is) and does anyone else have details? The land is fully covered in trees that provides a nice buffer from the turnpike for people on roads like Susan Drive and Saddle Drive.
So if I have it straight, it’s the Uwchlan side of East Township Line Road? Rumors residents are hearing has it that Uwchlan Township expects a warehouse proposal there in February?
And speaking of warehouse proposals what about that land near this cleared by Hankin last year or something for warehouses?
So I think, in my humble opinion that warehouses are the new apartments/condos/town houses/carriage homes/commercial real estate office buildings.
People say this real estate market is still so “hot.” I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. No one wants to admit when a real estate market is softening because it’s the death knell for developers isn’t it? I think certain aspects of real estate are still “hot,” but I think people are not renting the apartments as quickly as we are told; I don’t think new builds on condo, townhouse, developments, and “carriage” homes are moving as quickly as possible. Also just driving around you can see that regular residential McMansion builds are not selling out as quickly anymore.
And we know the commercial real estate market is also struggling given the fact how developers want to reimagine commercial office buildings if they can’t sell them. Look no further than Tredyffrin . They want to make one a school which actually isn’t a bad idea.
But then you look at East Whiteland and a developer wants to turn an old commercial office building into apartments because we need more of those of course, right?
By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal Jan 30, 2024
AmeriHealth Caritas is looking for a tenant to sublease its space in a new office building under construction at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square.
Equus Capital Partners is developing the five-story mass timber building at 203 Squire Drive, which is scheduled to deliver this summer. AmeriHealth Caritas signed a lease last year on the entirety of the planned 106,000-square-foot space.
Construction on the building started about a year ago. While the project was planned as a build-to-suit for AmeriHealth Caritas, the space has not yet been fitted out. …AmeriHealth Caritas, the region’s largest Medicaid managed care company, declined to comment on its decision to market the space.
The company had planned to move its headquarters less than a half-mile to the new Squire Drive building from its existing Ellis Preserve location at 3875 West Chester Pike, near the intersection of routes 3 and 252.
By Joanne Drilling – National Data Reporter, The Business Journals Jan 28, 2024
Housing affordability has been a persistent challenge in recent years — for homebuyers and apartment renters alike — but there are signs that Philadelphia’s rapidly increasing rents may finally be topping out.
The median asking rent for an apartment in the Philadelphia metro area was $2,316 last month, according to Rent.com data. While that was 2.6% higher than the previous December and about $350 above the national median, it represented a 1.1% decline from November.
There’s also an interesting article put out by WHYY:
JANUARY 25, 20245:10 AM ET HEARD ON MORNING EDITION
Over the past two years, Genuine Campbell was shocked at how rent for her two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia just kept going up — from $1,300 a month to $1,600. She’s a single mom of four, and right as her rent was rising, her hours as a hotel valet were getting cut.
Add in utility costs plus inflation, and every month brought a wrenching decision.
“Do you want to pay the bills and then give half the rent, or do you want to try to do the whole rent and then be back on bills?” she says.
Campbell says the area isn’t even safe enough for her kids to play outside, but the rents are still way out of line with what she can make. “You have to work in, like, maybe a hospital or [as a] police officer … just to keep up with the rent,” she says.
In fact, more such households and many others also now struggle to pay rent, according to a newly released report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. It finds that in 2022, as rents spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, a record half of U.S. renters paid more than 30% of their income for rent and utilities. Nearly half of thosepeople were severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50% of their income.
“We actually saw increases across every single income category that we look at, which sort of surprised us,” says Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a senior research associate with the center and the report’s lead author.
By Ashley Fahey – Editor, The National Observer: Real Estate Edition, The Business Journals Jan 24, 2024
The number of residential units being converted from office buildings across the country has hit a record, as cities and developers look for new ways to reimagine an abundance of office space sitting vacant in U.S. downtowns.
Between 2021 and 2024, the number of apartments scheduled for conversion from office space has grown from 12,100 to 55,339, according to RentCafe, part of Yardi Systems Inc. That means office conversions represent 38% of the estimated 147,000 apartments in adaptive-reuse projects.
But among the 55,000-plus units included in the findings, only 23%, or 12,842, of the residential units being added in former offices are expected to be under construction this year. The rest remain in either the “planned” stage — where permitting and development work has been submitted — or the “prospective” stage, where no formal documentation or design has begun yet.
Office conversions to other property types, especially residential, are being looked at in cities across the U.S. as a way to help bring people and revenue back to city centers. But office conversions are notorious for being difficult and expensive to pull off….The national apartment market is expected to have a record number of unit deliveries this year after a significant amount of rental-housing supply finished construction in 2023. That volume is softening apartment markets where supply currently is outpacing demand. Some of those metro areas are starting to see rental rates flatten or decline.
Now I am told from friends in Tredyffrin the new builds in historic Mount Pleasant are not quite selling like hotcakes, and the upper Merion side of Mount Pleasant has he had another proposal coming for like three more McMansion houses – this was the message I received:
Upper Merion Zoning Board Hearing next Wednesday February 7th. 7pm. Developer wants to build 3 townhomes at 1034 Mt Pleasant.
Called the ZHB officer to ask if neighbors on the Tredyffrin end of the street are allowed to speak. Waiting for a return call.
So recent infill development in Mount Pleasant. I think is one single McMansion and eight McMansion twins and residents over there are not seeing any have sold.
Ok ⬆️ above is preposterously called The Enclave at Saint Davids. That is very amusing Main Line marketing to me because this is Wayne but it’s close to St. David’s which I guess sounds more pretentious? You know kind of like when they call Downingtown Chester Springs? And the price tag on Henry/Fairview ? $1,349,000. $1,149,000.
Now part of the reason they’re maybe not selling are the student housing slumlords in this neck of the woods right? I mean would you want your million dollar house down the street from where drunken off campus college students are vomiting on residents cars after partying all night?
Sorry, I know I’ve been rambling on here a bit. But we have to keep talking about these crazy ass developments. They keep popping up so they’re still building residential but it’s really not selling the way you would think. People are still buying houses but they’re looking for established neighborhoods and even fixer-uppers because the price points are so crazy.
And then there are all the parcels of land or structures are sitting rotting because no one has paid the price to buy the land. That could be for commercial or residential.
In some cases, there are historical assets sitting there rotting. Lloyd Farm in Caln comes to mind or the Joseph Price House in Exton/West Whiteland. Even the historic farmhouse on Route 30 in Frazer, next to the boat dealership counts.
Whatever the reason is for development, there is too much of it. And if all of a sudden more warehouse, plans are popping up and worse it’s a potential indication of the fact that municipalities need to actually pay close attention here? But are they?
Only time will tell.
Maybe it’s just my opinion, but maybe just maybe it all needs to stop for a while? And we can’t do it just with the officials in various municipalities, the state needs to step in, but then they would have to get past lobbyists wouldn’t they?
I leave you with beware the Aesop‘s fable of “build it and they will come,” because sometimes it’s just like the Emperor’s New Clothes and maybe not really there, but hey, I am but a mere mortal and a female. What do I know right?
So we all know that this land has been for sale on the edge of East Whiteland, but in West Whiteland. It is one of two parcels you can see on W. King Rd. This particular parcel is part of Johnson Matthey, or it was until today apparently. Eli Kahn, has purchased the land according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Some of us were talking about this parcel earlier today, because a friend of mine, saw a bobcat in the overgrown, weedy plot of land, clearing it, or doing something like clearing it.
I actually said to someone I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I said maybe they’re finally just cleaning it up because it’s been for sale for so long. Well I should’ve known better, it’s been sold.
E. Kahn Development has purchased 15.7 acres of vacant land in Chester County with plans to build around 150,000 square feet of industrial space.
The Malvern-based developer paid $3.1 million for the site at 1401 Phoenixville Pike in West Whiteland Township. The seller was Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company that owns the adjacent parcel with an industrial building on it.
Though E. Kahn Development hasn’t chosen a design of the industrial building or buildings, President Eli Kahn estimates the development of the cost of the project to between $25 million and $30 million.
Kahn said he was attracted to the property’s location off Route 202 and near Route 30.
“There’s just not a lot of industrial land left,” Kahn said. “Just laws of supply and demand for me, really. There remains to be good industrial activity, especially tenants in the 10,000- to 50,000-square-foot range.”
Kahn said he’d likely target tenants seeking that amount of space, though he’d welcome a larger tenant as well. He said the project could accommodate a 10,000-square-foot tenant or a 100,000-square-foot tenant. Either way, he plans to incorporate flexibility. Kahn has yet to decide whether the project will be one or two buildings.
The property is zoned for industrial use. Kahn plans to have a design to present to West Whiteland Township by the middle of the year to receive necessary approvals.
“Our history is invest in approvals and renderings and plans and not necessarily go and build it speculatively,” Kahn said.
I will admit, as soon as I saw this article what I said out loud sitting here reading it was motherf—-er. Yes I said that. Loudly. I mean Christ almighty HOW MUCH MORE DEVELOPMENT? HOW MUCH MORE?
Because this is already the rumored developer sniffing around on that 15 acres behind old Phoenixville Pike across W. King Rd., isn’t it?
And let us not forget that the Weston tract is in play for fairly dense residential development still, even if West Whiteland said no to the last round of developer ideas. And Weston is for sure getting developed as something. And gosh a few pipelines run around there too, don’t they?
And let us not forget the hot mess up at Ship Road and Lancaster Avenue in West Whiteland. And the Ship Road Couplet.
The above photos are from September, 2023.
HOW MUCH DEVELOPMENT CAN WE SWALLOW?
Oh the Philadelphia Business Journal referred to Johnson Matthey as:
“Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company that owns the adjacent parcel with an industrial building on it.”
Well that made me giggle. Johnson Matthey is like a born again virgin I suppose? Are we all supposed to forget they were among the successor companies to Bishop Tube that still toxic paradise on S. Malin Road in East Whiteland? Is it just coloring outside the lines to mention the little fact of life called a local area evacuation in 2011 because of a hydrogen trailer explosion at Johnson Matthey?
The Johnson Matthey plant and nearby homes in West Whiteland, Chester County, have been evacuated after a hydrogen trailer exploded this morning.
Action News reports one injured person was taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center in an unknown condition and King Road is shut down between Ravine and Phoenixville Pike.
The Red Cross is already on the scene and will be at the East Whiteland Fire Department to assist with a reception center.
Here is the official announcement from PEMA:
“An immediate evacuation is issued for West Whiteland Township in Chester County due to fire at Johnson Matthey Company. Residents in the area are to evacuate to East Whiteland Fire Company, 170 Planebrook Road, off Rt. 30 Frazer – evacuated roads include King Road, Ravine Road, Glen Loch Way and Lewis Lane. Residents needing assistance should call 610-344-5005. Motorists and pedestrians should avoid unnecessary travel within the perimeter of the area. Stay tuned to your local televison and radio network for updated information.”
So Johnson Matthey is still a site to watch so we assume Mr. Developer Man will have this just purchased the land at Phoenixville Pike and West King Road tested for toxic chemicals? Because there is that worry somewhat, right? Even if that goes industrial there?
So we really do need to think about this here. Traffic is already hard. There is RESIDENTIAL up and down King Road on BOTH sides of Phoenixville/Old Phoenixville Pikes.
There is residential already suffering on Ship Road.
And warehouses? Now they want to Amazon us over here? So other types of commercial real estate (offices)! aren’t moving so they are trying everywhere to dump it or convert it to residential and in Tredyffrin, to a school, but is residential really, really moving that fast? And then what’s left? Why warehouses and hydrogen hubs and data farms/data centers, right?
And where does that leave us suckers I mean residents? Those of us who lived here before developers, saw something juicy up the road or two roads over or three roads over or another township over?
What are our rights as residents of Chester County and these various municipalities? it’s like we have no rights and I don’t know about you, but I’m goddamn tired of it. We work hard to have our homes and to raise our families in a specific area and one by one every area is getting targeted by developers and none of these developers, or anything, other than predatory in my humble opinion, and I can have that humble opinion.
This is why, yet again, the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of freaking Pennsylvania needs to be updated COMPREHENSIVELY. I mean come on you. Lovely politicians in Harrisburg. You haven’t done a comprehensive update since 1969 and I know you’re saying why rush but your constituents are saying it’s time.
God damnit it’s every day some other developer or some other plan. It’s exhausting and depressing. So I wonder, did this particular developer run out of places to build in West Chester Borough so he’s coming over to this part of the county?
These developers don’t care about any of the communities they come into. They just care about their profit margins. Where we live are just lines on a balance sheet.
So I’m sure I don’t have to remind this developer that my opinions are courtesy of my First Amendment Rights and residents do have some rights all around this proposed location?
Chester County is dying people. Dying.
Overdevelopment of any kind in this county needs to be an election issue for 2024. On every level of elected office from Harrisburg, PA to Washington DC.
The problem here as I see it is well there was overdevelopment in office space. Then overdevelopment in residential shoehorn development. But now the overdevelopment in office space has commercial property owners sweating some, maybe? So now they want to change the zoning so they can further exploit an area with more of a type of residential development existing resident do NOT want more of, they want LESS in the way of cram plans, fewer apartment buildings.
This is the shittiest development idea in a while in East Whiteland, and there always seems to be a parade of bad plans here as well as in neighboring municipalities, don’t there? This is a super problematic location already. It’s next to a rather accident prone area having to do with 202 doesn’t it?
It’s another big chunk of apartment buildings. East Whiteland is NOT King of Prussia but it sure looks like it, doesn’t it? What is wrong with stand alone single family housing not in McMansion price ranges? Not that housing of ANY kind is good here. As a matter of fact it’s a greedy dumb ass idea. There I said it out loud. According to Loop Net, it says the property is for sale as is commercial. DON’T CONVERT IT TO RESIDENTIAL!
Among other things allow me to point out that East Whiteland Township has no as in zero rental ordinances. Properties might get inspected if they change hands in a sale, but unless there is a known life safety issue, buildings aren’t routinely inspected. Or if it’s so decrepit on the outside it can’t be ignored, it might be inspected. There are SO many apartments now and renters as much as anyone else deserve safe places to live and a rental inspection ordinance would help with that.
The agenda item says “Presentation and Discussion for 52 Swedesford Road (Tri-Point Properties).”
That name. Tri Point Properties. I knew I had heard it before, so I researched. They are in Downingtown and around 2015 they wanted to develop a Borough of Downingtown parking lot into an Eastside Flats kind of monstrosity, didn’t they? It created quite a stink back then. Josh Maxwell would have been mayor then.
Developers come in and out of these townships. They take their profits, give a short term one time high of ratables and then they are onto their next project, leaving municipalities holding the bag. More apartments means more stresses on aching infrastructure which includes human beings as in first responders, not just roads, etc.
And what about the schools? How long before it’s Great Valley East and Great Valley West? Just look to neighboring districts, it is something that might need to happen if development is not moderated.
However what do I think? I think East Whiteland’s Planning Commission will say yes to this, because I just do not think they get that when they can say no, they should once in a while and not entertain nonsense.
Here are the names of the Planning Commission members. Feel free to reach out to them if you are against this if you do know any of them:
My final bone of contention is the planning commission has made Zoom disappear. That is a mistake and not very sunshine friendly. If they don’t wish to do Zoom, at a minimum the meetings should be recorded and put on East Whiteland’s website and You Tube. It’s more sunshine friendly.
I would suggest as many turn out in person as possible for this meeting. But it’s East Whiteland so you just don’t know if anyone will attend.
Carpe Diem, East Whiteland residents. If you don’t want to live in King of Prussia it’s time to start attending meetings and speaking up in general. Don’t be complacent. Say no to further becoming a King of Prussia cloneship.
Bermuda Triangle of booze if Giant gets a Liquor License
Someone asked me today what did I think of Giant at Lincoln Court in Frazer getting a kind of liquor license to sell I guess beer and wine in that store. That’s on Route 30 in East Whiteland Township.
I actually didn’t know until today it was a possibility. So I looked it up.
My thoughts include: Why?? and No.
It would be like the Bermuda Triangle of Booze – PA State Store next door (Fine Wine & Good Spirits #1512), a great store called The Beer Store across the way (also a small business and they sell beer & wine) and oh yes, an Alcoholics Anonymous clubhouse at the end of the shopping center with a door around the side right there.
Malvern Center where AA Meetings are held.
It’s quite a redundancy isn’t it ?
Soon everyone can park in the fire lane!
They resisted boozifying this store until now and there is already the Giant Exton location on Swedesford that has it. It’s a much bigger store and much more parking.
Parking in Lincoln Court is a constant issue, why add to it? Can you imagine all of the illegal fire lane illegal parking if Giant gets a liquor license?
East Whiteland should have said no, but they did not as far as I have heard they approved it at some point late this past fall of 2023.
I would be curious to know where the license is coming from other than Caln (looks like it is coming from a place that was/is called Teazers or Appeteazers?) and if Giant has all of this money for liquor licenses do they think they could also clean up and modernize that store? It’s pretty depressing inside.
I am also amused by the lawyers letter which is a file saying LTR City of Bethlehem.
License Number: R12656. GIANT #6477. LID Number: 120955. It says it expires March 31, 2024 and I don’t know what that means, probably means it expires or becomes permanent? I went through meeting minutes and couldn’t find a reference so maybe nothing has happened yet? There are upcoming meeting dates for the PA LCB but no agendas posted yet:
Public meetings of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board begin at 11:00 AM in Room 117 of PLCB Headquarters in the Northwest Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. Meetings are open for in-person attendance, and meetings are broadcast via Microsoft Teams over the internetOpens In A New Window and telephone (267-332-8737, code 240 679 670).
All public meetings feature at least two opportunities for public comment. The first happens early during the meeting. The second happens at the conclusion of agenda business. If a license that is listed on the agenda is recommended for non-renewal during the meeting, the Chairman will ask for comments about that specific license before a final vote is taken.
If you are interested, I think those are the meetings to watch for agendas on. We can, as members of the public, join the meetings via online or go in person.
If you wish to email the PA LCB about this, I think the email addresses look like:
ra-lblicensing@pa.gov ra-lbconsumer@pa.gov
To me this is about redundancy. There is a PA state store there already and a beer store. The beer store is a small business. How much booze in one corner of a strip shopping center is necessary especially in one instance they would be removing business from their own state store?
These are tough times to be a small neighborhood. I am writing today about a neighborhood just up West King Road past Weston in West Whiteland Township. The street is Old Phoenixville Pike. It’s a little neighborhood on a tiny road that is a dead end street. And to me, in my opinion, it’s potentially under siege.
This is a sweet neighborhood I think. Little houses, maybe not so Chester County farmhouse historic, but important to their owners, nonetheless. It’s a narrow dead end street. So when unusual things happen, like trucks you don’t normally see, people notice.
So in the fall I guess it was, I started hearing about this neighborhood when the Weston Tract on West King Road was being discussed. Why? The neighbors back there have been on alert because of a developer sniffing around.
There were many West Whiteland residents who spoke up that recent December night, when Weston was discussed. Among them were the residents over on Old Phoenixville Pike who are also trying to figure out exactly what a developer is doing back behind their neighborhood since somebody keeps doing perc tests or something. Some poor older gentleman spoke about getting his property torn up every time they send an excavator through, and I think that’s horrible. No plans have been filed and that’s what the John Weller from West Whiteland Township said that December night, but obviously something is going on if a developer is doing testing.
John Weller also made a comment that evening about Phoenixville Pike being narrow where those former helicopter warehouses are. BUT…the other side of West King, where those people in that small neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike also have a very narrow street, perhaps not even as wide as Phoenixville Pike across King. Another thing to note is neighbors are also concerned there about development happening because the land that’s being tested apparently also has 5 acres that are actually in East Goshen.
A little bit before this all occurred, a West Whiteland resident had reached out about this:
There have been surveyors galore on Old Phoenixville Pike telling residents they plan to build homes or something on the old farming area behind their homes. Supposedly, there is only one way into that property due to an easement the farmer produced back in the 1970s and no other entry or exit around the perimeter. It’s kind of crazy they would put so much traffic on a no outlet road…seems like it could be a safety concern. A developer has been reaching out to residents about drilling back there, but the township claims they haven’t heard anything. Guess it’s time to keep an eye on those agendas!
~ Old Phoenixville PIKE resident November 2023
What I learned then was some neighbors were getting outreach from this developer. There were surveyors all over and maybe some notices or something? (I haven’t personally seen any notices or anything but this is what I was told.) And then came what must have been boring or digging for those perc tests or whatever since you have to perc properly before development occurs, yes? That meant excavators. Big equipment in a tiny neighborhood. If this development goes through, the street is so tiny, existing residents are not only concerned about car lights in their windows constantly, but losing land because (again) the street is tiny narrow. It’s like 14 feet wide maybe?
How would development work? Or would it only work if the developer acquired more land and how would they do that if no residents want to sell? Would West Whiteland stick up for existing residents?
Then around the beginning of December a resident heard pec test number 1 was a fail, but number 2 was OK? I don’t know from perc tests but it struck me as potentially curious.
A percolation test (known as a perc test) is a test to determine the water absorption rate of soil (that is, its capacity for percolation) in preparation for the building of a septic drain field (leach field) or infiltration basin. The results of such a test area a must to properly design a septic system or decide if something goes public sewer. A perc test consists of digging one or more holes in the soil of the proposed leach field to a specified depth, presoaking the holes by maintaining a high water level in the holes, then running the test by filling the holes to a specific level and timing the drop of the water level as the water percolates into the surrounding soil. There are various formulas I am told for determining the required size of a leach field based on the size of a development, the percolation test results, and other parameters.
For leach line testing, test holes are drilled or dug. I read these should be drilled to different depths from three to six feet below the surface. Testing of these holes will result in a value with units of minutes per inch. This value is then correlated to a predetermined county health code to establish the exact size of the leach field.
Testing for horizontal pits typically requires five to eight test holes drilled in a straight line, or along a common contour, from three to ten feet below the surface. Testing is identical to leach line testing, though the result is a different type of septic system, established through a different calculation.
Recently I was told West Whiteland Supervisor Brian Dunn did meet with residents back there and walked their neighborhood. I was not privy to that, but I can tell you the residents were so grateful to him because literally an old timer said in 50 years no one ever came back there to listen to them or visit. I think that’s a disgrace, but with what West Whiteland has been dealing with the couple of years or so cleaning up after old managers and administrations, can you say it’s no wonder?
So West Chester University was given this land by the former landowner it seems?
I received a message on New Year’s Day….as in a holiday, a holiday around the world. The message I was sent was that supposedlysome lawyer or someone for they think West Chester University called some neighbor on New Year’s Day about a shed on an easement I think it was? If true who does that on a holiday? Bully much? It could not have waited until a business day?
Old Phoenixville Pike residents are also constantly bringing up that part of that acreage potentially at play is in East Goshen. That means whenever this whatever pops will it be presented in East Goshen or West Whiteland or both?
Of course this all makes you wonder what is going to happen with the rest of the Schiffer Farm, doesn’t it? Isn’t this a tail end of it? Because if I read the names on the deed right, same names as farm on Morstein with all those wonderful horses, yes? And that’s in two townships too, right? And East Whiteland is right next door over a fence literally.
So the neighbors of Old Phoenixville Pike are extremely concerned with the flooding of their neighborhood. They don’t want to become the storm water run off dump off to new development, either so they are legitimately fearful, aren’t they? With development planned for Weston, and whatever is going on on those West Chester University acres behind them on Old Phoenixville Pike, in 2024 West Whiteland needs to start helping them out sooner rather than later, right?
Post storm photos shared with me come next – from a few different storms. Essentially just like Meadowbrook Manor in West Whiteland. When it rains it can be a problem.
Also back in that area I have to ask, is that a legit landscape or wood business we drive by on 1377 Phoenixville Pike? I thought that was zoned residential but when I asked another person I know from around that way they said always full of trucks and a lot of noise. Also West Whiteland.
But I digress.
Back to Old Phoenixville Pike.
West Chester University could do something other than flip gifted land to a developer. They offer environmental degree programs correct? Why not use this gift for good? So it’s what? 15 acres of nature as in environment? Couldn’t they actually do something related to nature and the environment with the land and NOT sell to a developer? Build an arboretum? Or sell to a nature conservancy perhaps? I mean hello Chester County has a few right?
My entire life I have loved small neighborhoods and open space. You can actually combine small neighborhoods and open space.
Well that’s all I have got. No one seems to really know what’s going on, only that something obviously will happen given the activity onto these acres behind the small neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike. Those West Whiteland residents matter. All of the residents in multiple townships in that area matter. Between this and Weston and who knows what else, it’s an area to watch closely. After all, life happens while you’re making other plans.
Happy New Year. Let’s do more in 2024 to preserve where we call home.
