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.

Residents Gather in Force to Oppose Housing Development at West Chester Growers Market Lot

By Leah Mikulich

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

By BILL RETTEW | wrettew@dailylocal.com | Daily Local News

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 East Hampton Star: Applications Open for Affordable Apartments on Three Mile Harbor Road

By Christopher Gangemi May 23, 2024

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.

Wake up, people.

Thanks for stopping by.