Traffic and road improvements were the main topics of discussion during a hearing concerning an appeal by Toll Brothers in the bid to build 319 homes at Crebilly Farm in Westtown.
Common Pleas Judge Mark L. Tunnell made no immediate decision on whether to overturn the unanimous December 2017 township Board of Supervisor’s decision to deny a conditional use application.
Toll Brothers plans to preserve 193 acres at the 322-acre Robinson Family site, the largest slice of open space along Route 202 and between King of Prussia and Wilmington. The farm is located at the corner of routes 926 and 202.
Greg Adelman, of law firm Kaplin Stewart Meloff Reiter and Stein, in Blue Bell, represented Toll and said it was not the Horsham-based builder’s job to construct a collector road that might relieve congestion on Route 202.
Pat McKenna, of Gawthrop Greenwood Law Firm, said building the connector road was required by the township.
“It would take traffic off access roads and through residential property,” McKenna said. “It seems like a simple matter of profit for Toll.
“This was a profit decision.”
Mark Thompson is a lawyer with Lamb McErlane and represented grassroots organization, Neighbors for Crebilly. He was applauded by much of the audience after addressing the mostly packed Courtroom One.
He spoke against the subdivision’s possible environmental degradation, stormwater management plans and hopes to preserve what many say was a 1777 Battle of Brandywine site.
"The 19th century had its robber barons like Carnegie and Rockefeller who built their fortunes on the backs of people and society,” Hemphill said. “The 21st century has traded oil and steel millionaires for heartless corporations like Toll Brothers which don't care one iota what impact their developments have on people, the environment, or our history, as long as the profits continue to roll in.
“It's long past time for courts and elected officials to take care of people, our land, and our history instead of the Toll Brothers of the world."
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Coincidentally, Greg Adelman, representing Toll Brothers, presented a Twining Bridge Road development "sketch plan" to the Newtown Twp Board of Supervisors at a September 17, 2018, work session. That plan has similarities to the Crebilly development plan discussed in this article, including the preservation of open space. The Crebilly plan would preserve about 59% of the land for open space and the Twining Bridge plan would preserve nearly the same percentage - 51%. Residents in both townships were concerned about traffic, environmental degradation, and stormwater management. Some Westtown residents created the Neighbors for Crebilly, a community advocacy group effort "aspiring to redirect the outcome of the pending development of Crebilly Farm is Westtown Township, Pennsylvania." Find them on Facebook here.