Dear Friends,
Thank you so much to the small yet mighty group that braved the cold rain and attended Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting. There is a change in one of the upcoming dates, please mark your calendars with the correct dates, times and locations below:
1) Tuesday, November 19th, 7PM Rustin High School: First BOS Conditional Use Hearing and Party Status
2) WEDNESDAY, November 20th, 7:30PM, Westtown Township Building: Planning Commission Meeting #4
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Richard Pomerantz, Chair of the Planning Commission, on his election to the Westtown Township Board of Supervisors. “The Planning Commission gains perspective from the public’s questions and comments” is something Mr. Pomerantz stated at the PC meeting Thursday night. I am optimistic that Mr. Pomerantz’s natural ability to relate to others, his direct approach and insight will be a constructive and healthy addition to Westtown Township and the surrounding community.
A sincere ‘Thank You’ to Mr. Mike DiDomenico, for his years of service as Westtown Township Board of Supervisor. Mr. DiDomenico, in addition to the rest of the Board of Supervisors, voted against the Toll development for the first application in December 2017. I appreciate his dedication and hard work on such an epic issue and truly wish him well in his future endeavors.
Below are the review letters from the expert witnesses that spoke on behalf of Westtown Township at Thursday’s PC meeting:
1) Storm Water Management, Robert Flinchbaugh, Cedarville Engineering Group
2) Engineering, Sandy Martin, McCormick-Taylor Engineering
3) Planning and Zoning, John Snook, Innovative Planning and Conservation
In case you would like to view the entire, captivating evening, here is the video for the rest of you gumdrops that decided not to venture out in the rain and sat home on a cozy couch watching Thursday Night Football: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmy1g6lI7jQE9GAC7XejADy2cmFF1na3j
Like some, I had a pretty rocky relationship with my old man. But I loved the knucklehead. Some of my fondest memories with my father were when he would take me to run errands around West Chester to the lumber yard or Yearsleys or to have an occasional lunch out at Jameson’s or Hank’s Place. We used to tease my father and say the homeless dressed better than he did- as most often, he wore (authentically) ripped jeans and a dirty golf shirt (he didn’t play golf) covered in sawdust. Time spent together outside with the animals and in nature were times I felt closest to my father, especially when we would walk through the back fields to the farm off Tigue Road and visit the cows. Nothing like a father teaching his seven-year-old daughter how to properly climb over a rusty, barbed wire fence without getting snagged (don’t tell your mother)! A skill, I admit, I am grateful to have. Cows are shy animals but very curious. He and I would sit in the middle of the pasture and after about ten minutes, the cows would slowly start investigating us. I can still recall the sound of their sniffing and the sight of their huge, runny noses when they were right upon us. Those special times thrilled me. So I try to hang on to those memories and let the rest go.
For months, I have been procrastinating driving through Tigue Road and the new Toll development currently under construction, only a mile and a half from Crebilly Farm. I have been asked by some concerned citizens, rightly so, if I have seen the destruction and that I should send out photos in my Crebilly emails. To be honest, Tigue Road hits so close to home for me, literally, that I just couldn’t bring myself to go there, so I have been avoiding it. Yesterday, I made myself drive through my old backyard, so to speak. And I lost my breath at the sight of it all. Deep, man-made craters the size of canyons and giant, fake hills- the land was unrecognizable to me and I was stunned. I pulled my truck to the side of the road and started to cry.
The farm on Tigue Road is what will happen to Crebilly Farm if we do not continue to pay attention and stay engaged- until… We do this by attending the Planning Commission meetings and Board of Supervisor Conditional Use hearings. We do this by speaking up and asking questions whenever we can. We do this by making statements and writing to our legislators. We keep talking about it and reading about it and sharing it. And we keep doing this over and over- until. This is how we support Westtown Township and hold this developer to the highest standards, not the minimum requirements. If we, the community, do not do this and continue to do this, we will pay the ultimate price forever. Please keep going. Do not give up. Do not lose hope that a better outcome can happen. Because it can happen.
“We are a long way to the end.” Russ Hatton, Westtown Township Planning Commission, 11/7/19
Sincerely,
Mindy Rhodes
Crebilly Farm Friends 