Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
APARTMENT PLAN FAILS
Developer needs zoning change to build 290 luxury units off Route 202
WEST GOSHEN » A developer’s plans to construct 290 luxury apartments at the site of the 144-room Quality Inn at Stanton Road and Route 202 appear doomed.
A builder’s plans called for a 108,000-square-foot, fourstory building that would have been known as “West Chester Gateway” to replace the hotel opened in the 1970s.
During Tuesday’s board of supervisor’s workshop meeting, the board reached a consensus to not change the zoning from C-3, or Limited Commercial. Without the zoning change, a builder’s plans for construction of apartments is not allowed at the nine acre site.
Attorney Lou Colagreco represented builder Branchport Capital and said that the current hotel use was “underperforming.”
Police have answered more than 600 calls at the Quality Inn within the past two years, ranging from drug sales, sexual assaults and over dose deaths.
“If we are not part of the solution, we will stand down and go away,” Colagreco said.
Members of the five-member board talked of traffic concerns, while considering ingress and egress at the hotel from busy Route 202. Southbound motorists on the limited access portion of Route 202 need to make a U-turn to access the busy hotel intersection. Traffic headed northbound on Route 202 during rush hour regularly backs up in front of the hotel.
Supervisor Hugh Purnell said that traffic in the area is “absolutely horrendous.”
Supervisor John Hellman referred to the area as “magnets of congestion.”
Supervisor Shaun Walsh said he has regularly navigated that stretch of road for 20 years. He was not in favor of the zoning change and said that to make the area safer, large-scale PennDOT project changes would be required.
Supervisor Robin Stuntebeck said she had concerns about entering and leaving the property, the size of the proposed building and the impact on nearby residents.
Colagreco had argued that traffic studies show that apartments would have little impact on future traffic and the disruption would be minimal. He also said the builder had planned to become a “catalyst” to perform new road improvements.
Colagreco told supers that the Quality Inn hosts a large, underused banquet hall. If fully utilized, it might lead to an increase of traffic and that the current owner is under “no obligation” to perform road improvements.
Supervisor Ashley Gagne said the 290 units would make the traffic situation worse and not better.
A resident noted that traffic is lessened due to the pandemic, the privacy and safety of nearby residents might be affected and the impact of the now-under-construction apartments at the former Agway site on Matlack Street might affect road volume.
The property is zoned for retail, personal service, office buildings and wholesale sales, storage or distribution, lab facilities or a medical clinic, forestry and learning center uses.
Colagreco said at an earlier meeting that the allowed alternative uses with current zoning were not attractive.
After the decision, Township Manager Casey LaLonde asked supervisors to consider a zoning change that would provide the property owner suitable uses over the next couple of months.