[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/woodlawndev.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Tom Byrne and contributor Larry Nagengast discuss development on Woodlawn Trustees properties.]
To call it another Battle of the Brandywine might be a bit of a stretch, but one skirmish is under way and another could be brewing as preservationists bid to block the latest development efforts on land owned by the Woodlawn Trustees between Concord Pike (West Chester Pike for Pennsylvania residents) and the Brandywine.
In Concord Township, Pa., just north of the Delaware state line, area residents and at least two groups are fighting plans for a project called Vineyard Commons that calls for building 160 four- and five-bedroom homes on a 277-acre site that borders the Pennsylvania portion of the First State National Historical Park. The township’s planning commission could decide as early as Feb. 23 whether to approve land use code variances required for the project to move forward. If the planning commission approves the requested variances, the township supervisors could give final approval in March.
Meanwhile, Wilmington University has filed preliminary subdivision plans with New Castle County to build a satellite campus on 41 acres at the southwest corner of Concord Pike and Beaver Valley Road, practically across the street from Concord Mall.
The university hopes to begin construction in early 2016, with occupancy of the first of three planned classroom buildings in time for the fall 2017 semester, says Jack P. Varsalona, the school’s president.
Save the Valley, a two-year-old grassroots group started by Jason Hoover, a 28-year-old website developer who frequently runs on trails on Woodlawn-owned property in the Brandywine Valley, is the only organization actively opposing both projects.’
“We don’t want to come across as anti-Wilmington University, but we are anti-development,” Hoover says of his group, which has about 50 core members and more than 5,500 followers on Facebook.
Save the Valley got its start in 2013 to battle an earlier plan for Vineyard Commons, a larger project that would have included more than 430 homes as well a retail complex on West Chester Pike. “They wanted more than the [zoning] laws would allow. We rallied 1,000 people to come out to a hearing and the developers withdrew their proposals,” Hoover says.
Other than Save the Valley, no significant opposition to the Wilmington University proposal has surfaced, but it’s still early in the process, note New Castle County Councilman Robert S. Weiner, whose district includes the site, and Chuck Landry, immediate past president of the influential Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred.
“This plan is a lot better than previous proposals,” says Landry, noting that the property had been mentioned as the site for a shopping center, medical and other offices, or a hotel.
The county’s two most recent long-range plans have identified the parcel as designated for intensive use, and a college campus is consistent with current zoning, but “the devil is in the details,” Weiner says. “Traffic is an issue, as are hours of operation, architecture, lighting and setbacks.”
“Wilmington University came to us, and we liked their ideas,” says Vernon Green, chief operating officer at Woodlawn, founded in 1901 by industrialist William Poole Bancroft with the dual mission of preserving open space in the Brandywine Valley and providing affordable housing in the city of Wilmington. Over time, Woodlawn has sold off thousands of acres of real estate west of Concord Pike for residential and commercial development , using the proceeds to pay for land preservation and urban housing projects .
The school, whose main campus is in New Castle, now leases classroom space in Concord Plaza on Silverside Road but wanted a larger, permanent site because about 45 percent of its students reside in the north Wilmington area.
“We looked at everything, from the AstraZeneca property [at Concord Pike and Route 141, subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase], which we couldn’t afford, to furniture stores, vacant land, the old Pilot School site, but we couldn’t find anything,” Varsalona said.
Although building design is still in the preliminary stage, Varsalona envisions a campus that does not look like “a typical [Route] 202 building.” He speaks of 100-foot buffers surrounding the site, buildings set back from the highway and landscaping that screens the parking lots from the eyes of passing motorists. “We want to place our buildings around the existing wetlands and woodlands, so our students can look at that while they’re in class,” he says.
As for traffic, the main entrance would be off Beaver Valley Road, with a secondary entrance off Thompson’s Bridge Road on the west side of the site. There would be no access to the campus from Concord Pike. The school typically schedules its classes in blocks of three hours or so, making it possible to start classes in mid-morning, early afternoon and early evening to minimize additional traffic during rush hours, Varsalona says. And, he notes, classes aren’t held over Thanksgiving weekend and the week before Christmas, when holiday shoppers clog the pike throughout the day.
Varsalona says it may take 10 years to complete the project, one building at a time, as enrollment grows. When complete, the campus would serve about 1,000 full-time-equivalent students.
“A university adds value to the community. It benefits your children, your grandchildren, generations to come. I’d like people to think of us like that, not just as us developing a piece of property. I think it’s a pretty noble use,” he says.
While Varsalona talks of “noble use,” Hoover sees it differently. He’s skeptical of Varsalona’s description of the site. He anticipates traffic problems and says that “instead of a beautiful piece of open space, people will see a bunch of parking lots.”
Hoover anticipates Beaver Valley Road becoming the primary entry road to the 1,100-acre Woodlawn portion of the First State National Historical Park (which also includes sites in Wilmington, New Castle, Lewes and in and near Dover) and would like to see the proposed campus site made into the park’s gateway, perhaps with a visitors center.
Varsalona said the university would be interested in seeking collaborations with the National Park Service, but has not done so yet. A one-room schoolhouse on the property, built about 1895, would be preserved, he said.
In Concord Township, the planning commission is scheduled to consider the Vineyard Commons subdivision plan at its monthly meeting on Monday, Feb. 23. Green is hopeful that the commission will approve the multiple variances being sought so the plan can be then be brought to the town supervisors for final approval. If the project is approved, Eastern States Development Co. and McKee Concord Homes would purchase the property from Woodlawn and begin construction. The purchase price has not been disclosed.
Considerable opposition to the project surfaced last year, both in public hearings and in documents filed with the commission.
In addition to Save the Valley, the opponents include the Beaver Valley Conservancy, a local conservation group, and numerous owners of property near the site. Also expressing concerns is the Brandywine Conservancy, which has been instrumental in preserving more than 59,000 acres of open space in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the last 50 years.
The Beaver Valley Conservancy has commissioned studies by a number of experts on several issues associated with the project.
In a report on the value of open space to the community, consultant Peter Angelides of Econsult Solutions in Philadelphia wrote that the proximity of open space adds up to $9,000 to the value of homes in Delaware County. John Snook, senior advisor for municipal assistance programs at the Brandywine Conservancy, said that the Vineyard Commons plan calls for cutting down 120 acres of mature forest.
In an analysis on impact on the Garnet Valley School District, Angelides concluded that the cost of educating the students likely to live in the new subdivision would exceed the increase in property tax revenues generated by the project by about $500,000 a year.
A letter written by Michele Daviduk. Eileen Mutschler and Donna Ellis, all of whom live near the site, said the project would result in the loss of eight miles of trails through nature and agricultural lands, “the last of its kind in Concord Township.” They also said the project would result in the demolition of two stables and limit access to two others, depriving equestrians of the enjoyment of trails that they have used for years.
Other criticisms concern potential traffic jams, including anticipated rush-hour backlogs on eastbound Beaver Valley Road at the intersection with West Chester Pike.
While the developers have made numerous changes to their plans at the request of town officials, they have done “only the minimum,” Snook says. “They’re paying lip service to the environment.”
Among other things, Snook notes that the plan leaves no room for an additional open space buffer on the western edge of the development site, bordering the First State National Historical Park.
In response, Green says that Woodlawn had already settled on the boundaries of the Vineyard Commons project before negotiations began to transfer its 1,100-acre property to the National Park Service. The 220-acre portion in Pennsylvania was added, he said, to provide a buffer between the development and the land in Delaware being transferred to the National Park Service.
Even with Green’s optimism, the future of the project remains unclear. Snook, who is a supervisor in another Pennsylvania township, anticipates Concord Township planners asking the developers for yet another round of revisions before passing it on to the town supervisors for a final decision.
And, when the plan comes before the supervisors, he expects “additional legal arguments from the nearby property owners, including additional arguments that we haven’t heard yet.”