Letter to the Chadds Ford Post
11/16//2004
Over the last couple of years a disturbing trend has been underway that threatens the idyllic beauty of Atwater Road, a neighborhood which abuts and complements the Brandywine Battlefield Park.
Developers are approaching residents by phone, reconnoitering properties with engineers and purchasing plots on which to build huge cookie-cutter tract Mac Mansions on spec.
No one is suggesting, of course, that residents should not be free to sell and to sub-divide their properties. One of the paybacks after wonderful years of life on Atwater Road has been the subdividing of lots and selling to individuals who then build their own custom homes. This has regularly been done in a manner that reflects loving care in the construction of the new homes and a sensitivity to the beauty of the neighborhood.
But this kind of sensitivity and taste is lacking in the activities of tract developers who seek to sell houses built on speculation. Their objective is to cram the maximum selling price of square footage on a given piece of land at the lowest possible cost.
As an example on one of these tracts, the builder was allowed to clear-cut mature trees on a steep slope directly adjoining the road and to install a temporary sediment pit. Not only is this area an eyesore that looks like the county dump, it is also woefully inadequate for the designed purpose.
With even modest rain, a stream of brown soil-laden water courses across Atwater road and deposits its silt on the property across the road. Former supervisor Harvey Kliman said at a recent supervisors' meeting that subdivision ordinance revisions proposed years ago might have been invoked to prevent this disaster. Instead, the ineffective sediment pit is allowing the pollution of a local stream and the destruction of a neighbor's wetlands, lawns and pond. Also, note the word “temporary” – having destroyed a significant section of the tree line at the road to dig a hole, the plan, apparently, is to fill it in again.
One would think that the supervisors would be a buffer to moderate this kind of developmental atrocity. However, in this instance, and with regard to the mega-church that is proposed for Brandywine Drive, the only interest the supervisors seem to have (other than some of the obvious statutory obligations) is kowtowing to the builders. Often the specter of "the builders may sue us" is raised; perhaps it is time for the residents to band together and to bring some class-action suites of their own.
The behavior of the supervisors may be mere lack of diligence; one would hope it is nothing more sinister. In any event, it is time that this regime be replaced; perhaps we should start at the next election.
M. Lana Sheer |