Tag Archives: willistown

malvern’s hulking development

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malvern-2Focus on Malvern Borough continues.  The past couple of weeks I have been through Malvern Borough a lot.  Just the luck of the draw. But driving up King  past the “magnificence” being created by Eli Kahn and David DellaPorta is enough to give me nightmares.

This development which they are pretentiously calling Eastside Flats is unimaginative and looks like hulky, looming Lego buildings that are creating a complete canyon effect in tiny Malvern.

Of course on their  artist renderings it is a veritable Vahalla with sweeping land and streetscapes.  The reality is the street is narrow and at night it is the same canyon effect and feel that you get on dark streets in downtown Manhattan…only this is Chester County.

rendering

There is nothing about what is being built that truly ties into the quaint Borough of Malvern.  The horse is out of the barn, so no bells can be un-rung, but lordy is what is being constructed ugly with a capital U. And I can’t wait to say I told you so on the parking. I predict it will be a problem upon completion.  It looks like a problem now but I am just a mere mortal and a female. I feel sorry for any house or pre-existing small business that has to exist with this development.

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And oh yes, the Whip has bailed so there is no cute anchor restaurant at present:

The Whip Owner Cites Design Flaws in East King Decision

‘We were really excited about Malvern,’ said tavern owner Casey Kulp, who last year had considered moving into the borough.

By Pete Kennedy Email the author March 11, 2013

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The owner of The Whip Tavern in Unionville said design shortcomings were behind his decision to cancel plans to open a second location on Malvern’s East King Street.

In a phone interview, Casey Kulp cited an insufficient kitchen ventilation system as one of the reasons he decided against opening in Malvern, after expressing interest in the idea in 2012….

In a recent interview, Kahn declined to comment on the circumstances of the change in The Whip’s plans.

Kulp said he thinks they’ll have a difficult time getting restaurants into the space

And speaking of restaurants, what is the deal with parking at The Great American Pub at 516 King Street in Paoli?  As in how do they have sufficient parking? We almost went there last week for a quick bite to eat but opted against it because the only place to park was in that small neighborhood adjoining the restaurant and we did not want to take up residents’ parking at dinner time.

What municipality is that in?  Willistown? Wow they sure approach things in a very interesting manner don’t they?  They deny Woodlawn a business expansion in an existing structure on their property with ample parking yet they allow The Great American Pub to act like a bar leech and take all parking of a small neighborhood? The parking is a hot mess and I wonder exactly where the valets are dumping cars, don’t you?

Circling back to the original topic, one more article on Malvern’s development atrocity. Somewhat of a fluffy article from the Inquirer that buys David DellaPorta’s New Urbanism Fairy Tale hook line and sinker. (He has been spouting it for years every time he proposes anything.)  Malvern isn’t the town time forgot, it is a little borough that has a borough council that was dumb enough to think supersizing will fix all woes. Urbanization of exurbia.  Oh yeah, so fabulous because we all want to live in the inner city, right?  They are just doing suburban sprawl of a different kind.

Malvern apartment complex nears completion after 10 years in the works

By Aubrey Whelan, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: February 05, 2013

The developer calls Malvern “the town that time forgot” – its main street lined with Victorian-style houses, small boutiques, and local watering holes like the Flying Pig Saloon.

But Eli Kahn and his partners are betting that a $45 million apartment and retail complex on East King Street will help satisfy urban appetites in one of the region’s most venerable suburbs – and entice empty nesters and young professionals looking for a citified environment outside the city.

This development in Malvern has never in my humble opinion really been about the town of Malvern.  If this was really about the town, the design would have been more complimentary.  This project is all about developer pork and profit.  Let’s not delude ourselves to the contrary. What will eventually happen here is people will start to avoid going through Malvern like they are starting to avoid going through Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, and even Wayne because of a lack of parking and congestion.

no apples growing there, that’s for sure

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OMG so sick of Toll! They are creating Barbie’s Plastic Dream Villages all over Chester County! And you can’t get traffic lights or directional arrows on existing lights where you need them, but Bryn Mawr Rehab gets a traffic light???

Yes indeed, much to the dismay of many, Toll Brothers got conditional approval from those ratable loving supervisors in Willistown to build more Applebrook Meadows (where are the apple trees incidentally?)

Yes, yes indeed…because you know Chester County won’t survive if Toll doesn’t add 53 more plastic homes. And as noted before, this is nothing compared to all the other Barbie’s Dream Villages they are planning for other parts of Chester County….

Once open space and farmland is gone, it’s gone.  And I still do not understand how it is the economy supports ALL this development?  After all it is not like there is not an ample housing supply is there?

Applebrook Meadows Phase II Gets Conditional Approval

The second stage of the Toll Brothers project will add 53 new homes in Willistown Township.

By Pete Kennedy Malvern Patch

The Willistown Township Board of Supervisors gave conditional land use approval to Toll Brothers to build 53 new homes in the second phase of the Applebrook Meadows development….Applebrook Meadows, located near Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital off Line Road, will eventually include 138 units in three phases. In 2011, the township approved the first phase of the development, which included 54 homes….Shoemaker, responding to a question from a resident, explained that there will be a new traffic light on Paoli Pike at the driveway to Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, which will be installed by PennDOT. Shoemaker also serves on the township Planning Commission

 

(Please note my photo is of plastic houses farther out in Chester County, not Applebrook.  I was merely trying to make a visual point of the McPlasticness of it all)

 

a community garden grows

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This post isn’t about Chester County.  It’s actually about something going on in Radnor Township. 

It’s about a community garden.

And that’s a good thing.

A few years ago, a group called Greener Partners showed up and asked Radnor if they could farm some public land at the Willows at Skunk Hollow.  At the time, I thought this was a mistake, because they were farming the land for their pricey subscription CSA – their shares were around $700 – $800 per family if memory serves.

I had tried them on for size with friends one of the first years they existed and the share was $500 for the season. And we spent most of the season NOT getting the produce that was on our produce list.   I mean I like Bok Choy and all, but when I got a list saying I was getting specific veggies and I would get 3 giant heads of Bok Choy instead, it got old fast.

Skunk Hollow at the Willows Summer 2010 (Greener Partners on site)

Greener Partners, was able to use 2 acres of land at the Willows and to use the Willows Cottage in essence for free or darn close to it. It went under the guise of Saving The Willows Cottage, but for free use of township, therefore public taxpayer owned land for in essence a private enterprise kind of smelled.  I thought it should be at least in part a community garden where people could have shares.  Instead it was an odd kind of arrangement, complete with housing their farmer close by.  Yes, their farmer.  And all the farmer did was complain.  Was the farmer really a slacker?  Not sure, but under his farmitude, the Skunk Hollow Farm was a weed pit (see photo I took in 2010 at right – those weren’t veggies, those were weeds.)

Around this time (or maybe slightly earlier) Greener Partners was also out in Willistown – again on in essence non-profit land.  Don’t know whatever happened there. In 2011 CSA shares at Greener Partners were $750.  Pricing is similar for 2012.  They seem to be out of Chester County and seen to have crept over to the other side of Montgomery County around Collegeville and they are still around Media.    Save your money with these people.  I believe in organic farming and CSAs and farm markets, but not these people.  Greener Partners was founded by a guy named Jason Ingle, whom I believe is also a former venture capitalist. He was part of that Radnor Hunt area dust-up a few years ago with M. Night Shyamalan and his fencing.  I at least agreed with that.

So why am I telling you about these days gone by?  To set the stage.  Last summer, Skunk Hollow at the Willows was a shambles.  Weeds and thistle and all sorts of stuff had invaded the 2 acres left at this point utterly untended save a few pathetic tomato plants.  It was amazing the disarray.  I mean even if Greener Partners was leaving, they should have in my opinion left the land at least tidy.  If you are even a temporary steward of public land, treat it with respect, right?

So one of my friends, Sara Pilling, a wonderful lady and talented gardener had an idea.  So she planned and measured and drew up plans….for a community garden in Radnor on the site of Skunk Hollow Farm at the Willows.  I used to hear about the plans for the garden when she took turns with my other friends driving me to radiation treatments for breast cancer.

So to speed the story up, Sara got approved for the garden (see YouTube below from Radnor Patch )

Shares of the garden new for 2012 went fast.  So now Sara and many other volunteers and future community gardeners are hard at work.  They have cleared the weeds and been working diligently.  What a bunch of volunteers have already accomplished versus what Greener Partner’s farmer and Greener Partners was supposed to have done at the Willows is amazing. And there is a new sense of community being fostered along with this garden.

(Sara also founded Common Ground community garden in Garrett Hill at Radnor United Methodist Church.)

Sara is a very modest person, a true Quaker and hates when she gets public props.  But I am going to do it anyway.  I have learned a lot from my friend and I am proud of her and the volunteers who have now brought two community gardens to Radnor Township.  (Read all about it in Main Line Media News today too.)  

I think this is something other municipalities should pay attention to and create within their own borders.  Especially out here in Chester County.  I have seen some small community looking gardens here and there, but I think this is something municipalities should encourage and should also sponsor these gardens.  Not pay for them, but to allow the space if there is an interest.  It is a good thing economically, and surplus can go to local food banks.

Of course one other thing that community gardens accomplish is that they literally build community.  That in and of itself, considering the world in which we live, is priceless.

Besides, digging in the dirt is just good for the soul.   I did some of that today myself.

AQUA Coming To Willistown Starting March 5th

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I *hate* utility company surprises and I know from experience they often neglect to inform people, so I thought I would pass this on from Malvern Patch:

Dear Customer,

As part of our continuing infrastructure improvement program, Aqua  Pennsylvania will install a new water main on the following streets in  Willistown Township, Chester County:

  • Greentree Lane between Third Avenue and Sandy Lane
  • Sandy Lane between Paoli Pike and Greentree Lane
  • Third Avenue between Sandy Lane and Greentree Lane

The $317,000 project is scheduled to begin the week of March 5, 2012  and will involve the isntallation of 2,381 feet of 8-inch ductile iron  main, replacing the existing 6-inch cast iron main. We expect the main  installation and individual service connections to be complete in June  of 2012. The final paving restoration will be completed in July of 2012.

 

The work hours for the project will be 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.  The roadway will be closed in the area of construction. Access will be  provided for essential services including emergency vehicles, school  buses, and mail and trash service. Residents will have access to their  properties.

We ask that you avoid traveling through the construction zone when possible. Temporary “No Parking” signs will be posted in the area of construction during working hours.

We will notify you 24-hours in advance of a scheduled shutdown. If an emergency shutdown should occur, we will restore service as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns during the project, please  contact our Superintendent of Construction, Michael Fili at  610.430.0747. Should you have an emergency, please contact our Customer  Service Department at 1.877.WTR.AQUA.

 

Thank you in advance for your cooperation throughout the project.

Sincerely,

Mark Heavener Manager Great Valley Division

If they use Utility Line Services as the subs on the job, watch them.   The other subcontractor companies like Danella aren’t so bad, but I got  stories on stories about Utility Line Services.  If you have problems, feel free to leave a comment and location and your friendly neighborhood Chester County Blogger will pass your concerns on…..this is a long project and the thing that drives me the most bananas are the gopher-like tunnels of cold patch.  They are hell on car suspensions, and if they sink, hell on tires.

The typo in the AQUA announcement is not mine.  I left it in for amusment factor purposes….

a SWAT team in willistown this week?

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It’s been a busy week so I am playing news catch up.  I am floored to hear there was some kook with a gun (not a skeet shooter, or someone at a gun club range, but a kook on a porch) who caused not only an elementary school to be locked down in Willistown, but also caused a SWAT team to descend upon a residential neighborhood?

Wow.  And the only place I have seen it reported is Malvern Patch. Kinda surprised by that.

Update: Lockdown Lifted at Gen. Wayne Elementary

An alleged shooter has been taken into custody and the school’s lockdown is lifted.

ByPete Kennedy Email the author  February 6, 2012

General Wayne Elementary School was placed on lockdown Monday afternoon after police reported gunshots on a nearby street. There are no reports that any students or staff members have been injured or are in immediate danger.

S.W.A.T. Team Apprehended Sycamore Circle Shooter

The Regional Emergency Response Team took into custody the man who allegedly fired a gun Monday afternoon, sending a nearby elementary school into a state of lockdown.

ByPete Kennedy  Email the author  February 7, 2012

Police have not released the name of a Willistown man who allegedly fired a gun on Sycamore Circle, causing nearby General Wayne Elementary School to lock down just before dismissal time, around 3:30 p.m., Monday afternoon.

According to a press release from the Willistown Police Department, officers responded to a report of a subject firing a gun from his rear porch, which they found to be enclosed. When attempts at phone contact were unsuccessful, the Regional Emergency Response Team—a S.W.A.T. team comprised of police officers from multiple municipalities—moved in.

transition

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So here I am, making the transition to one of the places I always wanted to live: Chester County.  Now it’s all about git r’ done.

I started in Society Hill, transitioned to the Main Line, but let’s face it, the Main Line she ain’t what she used to be.  I am discovering more and more the kinds of people I used to prefer on the Main Line have actually moved to Chester County.

In Chester County, you have room to breathe, and you can actually see things like open space, farms, horses…and oh yes lots and lots and lots of deer.

I am not so jazzed about all the deer, truthfully. But the rate of development is taking away their habitat and their natural predators.  And every time a deer hunt is proposed to cull the herd the caterwauling and protests I read about are just silly.

One thing I worry about in Chester County is that the many municipalities out here becoming afflicted with the non-listening-we-know-best government disease.  This disease is ruining parts of the Main Line, Lower Merion in particular.

You see when local government starts to believe its own hype, it all goes into the crapper.  The government becomes so full of itself, it completely starts to forget what attracted people to an area in the first place.  A lot of this is caused by unnecessary development.

Unnecessary development starts out like a gleam in a municipalty’s eye.  Ahhh the savoring of future ratables.  But what municipalities seem to forget is you can’t just build it and assume they will come.

I see a lot of what can only be described as wanton careless development in Chester County.  I am fuzzy on where all the boundaries from community to community lie, but truthfully it’s a little startling to see quite so many plastic houses being planted all hodge podge.  And a lot of them are planted on top of busy, noisy highways.  I don’t get the whole leave the hectic pace of a more urban lifestyle to hear urban noises in quasi-rural areas. And Chester County definitely needs no more malls.  They are replete with strip shopping centers and malls.

Now recently there was a failed eminent domain for private gain attempt in Chester County.  At Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show Grounds, which is West Vincent Township.  When I first heard about it, I was appalled.  Here we go again – the last time I heard about something that turned my stomach quite so much is when Coatesville tried to seize Dick and Nancy Saha’s farm.  I got to know the Sahas a few years back, and they are the loveliest people.  Kind and neighborly.  They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect their land.

At the crux of the West Vincent debacle seems to be a lot of political shenanigans and of course, a Disneyland-esque Redevelopment Plan.  The funny thing is, as is the case with many of these plans is I can’t figure out who asked for it. Or why they think they need it.

One development which concerns me greatly was the Toll Brothers one approved by Willistown Supervisors approved on Paoli Pike in 2011.  Applebarf, err Applebrook Meadows. This development is right up against Willistown’s border with East Goshen.  Close to one of the most awesome park spaces I have seen (East Goshen’s park and walking trails are lovely.)

Lots of plastic houses in the new make me barf affected style of “carriage homes”.  Yeah really?  Do they even know the genesis of the carriage house and yet they re replacing horses with….you got it, plastic houses.  I never saw much coverage on Willistown’s mistake except in the Malvern Patch.  Malvern Patch also has reported on the planned super-sizing of Malvern.

In cute Malvern, a developer named Eli Kahn has plans and apparently governmental blessings to super-size Malvern.   Look at the renderings for this plan – does that even look like it belongs in Chester County?  To me, it will just make Chester County experience some of the over-developed ugliness of North Jersey.  This developer also has his sights set on West Chester according to Malvern Patch .

Chester County if it is not careful will become like the congested, over developed Main Line.  It’s beauty is in what it is, not some plastic vision of people who just are going to make their investments pay for them and move on.

How do people in Chester County in whatever municipality want their county to look like?  Do they envision lots of plastic houses and plastic (turf) fields to go with it?   I think people overall want to preserve the integrity of the county, so maybe a lot of these residents from various small and large municipalities need to get together and work with one and other.  One of the largest problems I see in Chester County is the hodge podge of zoning.  Commercial and residential all higgeldly piggeldly.  Why layer on more development when the obvious solution is to deal with what they have?  Look at all the little crossroads towns that need a little love.  They don’t need a strip mall or plastic houses down the road a piece, they need restoration.

Chester County is a gem and I am so loving exploring it.  I would just hate if Chester County  ended up looking as bad and over-developed as parts of Bucks and Montgomery Counties in particular.

I am but an auslander at this point hoping that Chester County learns again to preserve the land and a way of life before it’s overly “improved”.  Appreciate and preserve the charm of crossroads communities and nature that draws people here in the first place.  After all, there is nothing natural about plastic.