Thoughtful development is the key

There are some folks who are against developing parts of Kardon Park. And there are a few who have NIMBY syndrome so bad that they are trying to run the rest of our lives by cleverly disguising the real facts about a bad piece of land for their own selfish, self-interest.

There are also many who favor doing something positive to improve that area and want to eliminate the dump/waste landfills aspect of Kardon Park; along with cleaning up those terribly stagnant ponds. There may be disease brewing in those ponds so something needs to be done before we all have a large health problem on our hands.

No reasonable person wants to destroy or eliminate a real park but the fact is the only part under consideration for development is where waste dumps exist. These are definitely old industrial waste dumps so don’t let anyone snow you. They are just huge piles of covered-over trash that were never cleared out. They consist of over a quarter of a million cubic feet of industrial waste and who-knows-what else.

That dump material must either be developed over according to strict DEP guidelines or taken out completely to be useful to the people of Downingtown. Cleaning out that much waste is cost prohibitive and legally impossible to do in this economic climate.

Everyone I know who uses Struble Trail is happy with this pleasant urban trail. The trail would not be adversely affected by development. As a matter of fact, since I only live a couple blocks away, I use this trail all the time and, from the written facts I’ve reviewed, Struble would actually be improved by development. That improvement includes providing clean, running water that will flow through those stagnant ponds to make them much more sanitary and enjoyable.

Another problem with stopping this important progress is that completion assists the borough financially with a large boost of needed cash flow. Development will bring close to a million dollars of recurring revenue along with an $8 million fund to offset our current $7.5 million debt load. People who keep insisting on leaving this area “as is” are just not interested in making the borough solvent. They would rather we just keep going further into debt.

So the real question becomes what do these people suggest we do to improve our borough’s financial position for the benefit of everyone? What is their backup strategy if we don’t gain financial resources from this kind of development?

Thoughtful development of this brownfield area is good for Downingtown. Development is a fiscally responsible way to help prevent another tax increase and it benefits many of the new businesses in the borough, which you may have noticed in the past few years. Local businesses need more customers to thrive, to pay taxes and only by developing quality homes in the borough will that ever become possible.

I would never recommend or even vaguely suggest carving out any natural land for any sort of housing development because it just doesn’t make sense. But taking a very bad piece of land and turning it into something positive will absolutely benefit everyone who lives in Downingtown.

Either we do something now or just pass the problem on to our grandchildren instead of being the responsible caretakers we should be.

Check out this Web site should you want to be part of a solution rather than part of the problem: www.kardonparkfacts.com.

Richard Bryant

Downingtown