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Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 153, No. 28
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
New Garden to enlist citizen input for future design of St. Anthony in the Hills By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer At its Feb. 20, 2018 meeting, the New Garden Township Board of Supervisors approved the township’s acquisition of the 137.5-acre St. Anthony in the Hills property, and since then, plans for its redevelopment have been the subject of several private and public meetings. Now, as it begins to conceive the long-term schematics for this sizable and historic hunk of property, the township wants to toss around ideas with a group they know well: The residents of New Garden Township.
Township manager Tony Scheivert said that the beginning stages of what will become a master plan for the property will begin this September, which will include two or three public meetings that will allow residents to provide their input on how they wish to use the park. To complement the public’s ideas, the township will also create a committee made up of the township’s Planning Commission, supervisors and community members, and hire a contractor and landscape architect. “I think this is a smart first move, because it gives the township an understanding Continued on Page 2A
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Swimming and the summertime…
Photo by Kyle Burk
Few things go better together than swimming and the summertime. Freestyle swimmers are pictured gliding through the water at the Kennett YMCA. In a story on Page 1B, the Chester County Press takes a look at how local facilities attract hundreds to participate in swim teams each summer. The teams are popular with kids of all ability levels.
Logo and placement of URA sign discussed by East Marlborough supervisors By Chris Barber Correspondent An agenda item about a proposed sign installation Local scout installs trail at the Unionville Recreation markers in Goddard Park Association baseball field ...4A generated some discussion among board members at the July 1 East Marlborough Board of Supervisors meeting. East Marlborough is the landlord for the property where many of the games are played, and the field sits across Route 82 from Hood’s Barbecue in Unionville. On a diagram of the sign shown to the supervisors was the association’s
Bridge reopens in Kennett Township...3A
logo, which contains a large “U” and a stereotypical Native American’s face. Supervisor Bobby McKinstry suggested that some people might find it offensive. It was suggested by other supervisors that the design was following the mascot of Unionville High School, which is an Indian. Township Manager Laurie Prysock said that in recent years, the school logo has been changed to a single feather. It was not clear, during the discussions that followed who – the supervisors or the zoning officer, if anyone – had the authority to
pass judgment on the logo design. Contacted later, URA Baseball chairman Bob Dobie said, “We’ve had [this logo] forever, and there’s no reason to change it.” The other issue did fall into the realm of zoning matters. The 53-inch-tall sign, according to the sketch, appeared to present a potential line-of-sight problem for pedestrians who might want to cross the Continued on Page 2A
The logo on the proposed URA sign prompted discussion among East Marlborough Township supervisors on July 1.
Kennett Square Borough approves zoning changes with an eye toward West State Street redevelopment By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
company, made a presentation to Kennett Square Borough Council about its On April 6, 2015, StanAb, vision for the Lofts of State LP, a West Chester-based Street, a mixed-use project real estate development that would bring nearly
200 luxury apartments, as well as some commercial space, to the 600 block of State Street in Kennett Square Borough. The seeds for the Lofts
London Grove board votes to delay repair to township bridge A night of music and food at ChesLen Preserve...6B
INDEX Opinion.......................6A Obituaries...................2B Calendar of Events.....3B Classifieds.................4B Photo by Richard L. Gaw
© 2007 The Chester County Press
The London Grove Board of Supervisors voted at their July 2 meeting to table any action on the reconstruction of the Woodview Road Bridge, which was severely damaged in the spring and subsequently closed.
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
voted at their July 2 meetThe vote comes on ing to table any action on the heels of the board’s the reconstruction of the May 1 meeting, when The London Grove Woodview Road Bridge it was announced that Board of Supervisors this year. Continued on Page 5A
of State Street project were actually planted even earlier than that. Kennett Square mayor Matt Fetick invited StanAb officials to a breakfast meeting in the spring of 2013 to encourage them to explore real estate development opportunities in the borough. Now, more than six years later, the project may be gaining some real momentum. Kennett Square Borough Council recently approved zoning changes, by a 5-to-2 vote, that will allow for taller and longer buildings in the C-2 Secondary Commercial Zoning District along West State Street from South Washington Street to Mill Road, the borough’s western border. As a result of the zoning changes, the allowable height of buildings will increase to 55 feet and the allowable length of the buildings will be up to 400 feet. The zoning changes could pave the way for the Lofts of State Street project to move forward. Kennett Square Borough Council president Doug
Doerfler emphasized that this project, which could transform the western part of State Street that was once the home to two car dealers, would still need to go through the regular landdevelopment process before it would be approved. The interest that StanAb LP has in undertaking a large project in Kennett Square illustrates the success of the borough’s ongoing revitalization efforts. StanAb LP was formed by Tony Stancato and Vic Abdala in 1995 after they had spent more than a decade building and developing single-family residential neighborhoods in central Chester County. StanAb LP has undertaken numerous high-end commercial and multi-family projects in the region, perhaps most notably the redevelopment of the former Woolworth’s Department Store site in downtown West Chester. That redevelopment project featured a retail office strip center that was anchored by Iron Continued on Page 3A