After many eloquent and impassioned residents of Chalfont stood up to voice their concern about the council passing Ordinance 427, the council voted 4-3 to pass it.
Tracey Bowen, Mike Kelly, and Michael Horvat voted no.
Ordinance 427 changes the infrastructure from a balanced ratio of business and residential, to a 90% residential area, with a proposed drive through fast food restaurant and a 54 unit three story town home development. Thus, the vision of a walk-able, shop-able, village with character, is to become residential with highway like turn-offs with quick stop and go instead of walk and stay.
One resident, who lives on Westview where yet, another new development is going, spoke up about her concerns that the council seems to care more about making the developers happy and takes little, to no consideration about what the residents want.
She also raised some red flags that the company that did the demolishing on Westview, were unsafe and had dumped material in the middle of the street.
Another resident who lives in the Butler/Bristol area, stated that almost a year after the demolishing of the farmhouse on the corner of Butler/Bristol, there is still garbage and dangerous debris. That workers come and go, including late night hours which is disruptive to the community.
Councilman Michael Horvat stated that the Developers, who have grand plans for Chalfont, have everything to gain from these developments. The Developers are highly experienced in law and rhetoric; whereas the members of the council are a bit at a disadvantage. Horvat felt rushed and implied there should be more time and/or more thorough due diligence. He mentioned that the ordinances seems to exist not as a guideline to keeping Chalfont cohesive and safe, but they can be changed to suit a developers wants rather than maintain the vision that the community had agreed upon.
Councilman John Abbot disagreed with Horvat, and stated he made an effort to talk to the residents regarding the Butler/Bristol development. He knocked on 10 doors. He only spoke with 2 residents, and they liked the idea of the development. He admitted it was the middle of the day when he did his canvassing, which might explain why he spoke with few people.
One resident brought up the idea that instead of townhomes at the Butler/Bristol corner, something good for the community could be a creative use. A library. Or an organization such as a YMCA.
In the Revitalization Plan
(link here: http://www.ecode360.com/documents/CH0570/public/185441708.pdf )
it was recommended that the council/manager be creative in reaching out and finding small business to add to the Chalfont community. Offer incentives. To work at creating an image of a cheerful small historic community where you could walk to shopping and parks. There has been no outreach nor branding of Chalfont. Indeed, the same eyesores continue to exist; the overgrown vacated bank, the overgrown lawns on foreclosed homes, or sold homes, the Chalfont school sat for years with broken windows. Sidewalks on mainstreet remain broken. And the burnt-out carwash, is allegedly going to become a "soft-touch" car-wash.
The residents on Westview complain constantly about the unsafe drivers on that road and one council member stated that the addition of more residents on Westview will cut-down on speeding because there will be so much more traffic congestion!
There are so many blighted areas in the community that have existed for years and continue to exist.
This is an example of a council/manager that is not able to get things done. 2 of our historic buildings will be demolished.
These new developments going in contain items that, if not maintained, (water features, a drainage ditch, a park, snow on sidewalks) will fall back to the borough to handle. They have proven they can't handle taking care of the blight that has existed for years; adding more possibilities of blight that they can't or won't fight, is concerning.
Judging from the passionate residents at the meeting on November 8th, and the passage of Ordinance 427 despite the pleas to slow down and reach out to the community and exercise more due diligence; there are only a few people on the town council who seem to be actually listening and understanding the residents.
The lawyer for the Envision group, Mr. Ed Murphy, made it clear that, even if the ordinance is changed, there is nothing to guarantee that the development plans will come to fruition. If the council tries to limit the proposed townhomes any further or places any other restrictions, the proposed development would cease being financially rewarding to the developers, at which time, they would vacate the plans.
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