Marple Township Residents Fired Up Over Proposed Redevelopment Of Don Guanella School
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MARPLE TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) -- Some Delaware County residents are fired up over the proposed redevelopment of an old school. On Monday night, they'll have a chance to voice their frustrations to the developer.
Rick Jones is part of a vocal organization that is opposing current redevelopment plans for the shuttered Don Guanella School on Sproul Road in Marple Township. What worries him the most is traffic.
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"They start putting more traffic through here and it's gonna be unlivable," he said.
The archdiocese owns the land and plans to close the deal early next year with Sproul Road Partners. It's a hot parcel of property.
"Yeah, we're very interested in this location," Peter Scott Miller, of Sproul Road Partners, told CBS3 in an interview.
We're told it'll be a destination community with a Wegman's anchor store.
"It'll be a place where people can come and work, live, shop and play," said Brian George McElwee, of Sproul Road Partners.
The Delaware County land dispute hinges on preserving a dense forest. Partners McElwee and Miller say their plan is a compromise with the development of 47 acres.
"If you want to preserve 166 acres of open space, it takes capital, it takes a plan," said McElwee. "We are offering a concrete plan."
However, members of Save Marple Greenspace argue the blueprint has continually evolved, wiping out more green than anticipated.
"And we said they changed it," Ken Hemphill recalled. "And Peter Miller said just hope we don't change it again."
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Hemphill added that Miller and McElwee can't be trusted.
Last year, opposition to another development on the same site shot down what was to be Cardinal Crossing. The township gave developers a firm no.
McElwee and Miller point to an alternative plan, one they believe would be far less desirable in preserving green space.
"If we don't get the support of the community for that plan, we'll pursue whatever is available to us under current zoning," said Miller.
