Mozino developer willing to sell in ‘ballpark’ of $8 million
Rockwell Development Group owner Greg Lingo told the Upper Darby Township Council and a group of about 140 residents Wednesday night that he would be willing to sell the 15-acre woodland to the township and conservationists for “in the ballpark of $8 million.”
That was in answer to the very last question that Council members asked at a special meeting on the tract before Council voted unanimously to table a motion to advertise a proposed community mixed use zoning change for the property that would benefit Rockwell.
Residents packed the council chamber and about 30 of them spoke. All of the speakers urged Council to find a way to prevent development of the parcel located at the intersection of Township Line and State Roads.
Speakers included members of the Upper Darby Environmental Advisory Council and the Shade Tree Commission, residents from the Drexel Hill neighborhood bordering the tract and Tree Tenders of Upper Darby.
A newly formed group, Save the Mozino Forest, says the property is the last significant woodland in the highly developed and densely populated township. The group handed Council a printout of 1,100 signatures on an online petition to save the forest.
THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT
Rockwell purchased the undeveloped plot from the Mozino family, once major developers of Upper Darby residential property themselves. The land is already zoned for single-family homes and Rockwell could build 57 houses on it “by right,” but the developer has been working with township planners to change the zoning to allow it to build 143 townhouses, apartments and retail space.
Lingo told Council that he believes the mixed use plan is the best option but that if Council did not move forward by advertising it, he would exercise his “by right” option of building the single family homes.
Either development would require removing most of the trees, leveling the uneven ground and installing water and sewer lines.
Lingo said he grew up in the township and is a graduate of Upper Darby High School, not an outsider coming in to make a buck and then leave. He has developed several other plots in the township.
Reacting to comments from the audience, Lingo said he did not own Pilgrim Gardens or 69th Street so he could not redevelop those rundown areas and he could not do anything about the heavy traffic that goes through the area daily.
ONCE IT’S GONE
The speakers emphasized the value of the woodland and the Collen Brook stream that runs along one border of the property as a large tree canopy, “sponge” for storm runoff, wildlife habitat, absorber of CO2 and quiet oasis. One man showed a photo of “his neighbors,” three deer resting on the edge of the trees.
Lingo said it was nothing more than farmland that had been neglected for 60 or 70 years with trees riddled by storm damage. disease and a deteriorating canopy.
“This is what happens when someone doesn’t cut the grass for 70 years,” he said.
Upper Darby Environmental Advisory Committee Vice Chair Christen Cooper begged to differ.
“This is not simply a parcel of land with a bunch of trees on it,” she said. “It is an interconnected natural system containing an established forest canopy, significant topography, important soil, a stream corridor and a FEMA-mapped flood plain,”
The EAC recommended that Council take the time to explore all the options and gather all the information it needs because once you destroy a woodland, you can’t get it back.
“The community doesn’t need million-dollar homes. A private developer’s timetable should not dictate the public timetable,” Cooper said.
Jack McCausland, the operations and funding manager for the EAC, said the conservationists may need six months to a year to put the funding in place to purchase the property from Rockwell.
He said they will go after state and federal funding as well as approaching conservancy organizations such as Natural Lands, the William Penn Foundation, Keystone Conservation Trust and others. Rockwell has to, in good faith, give them the time to do that, Tree Tenders Chair Bonnie Hallam said.
Jodine Mayberry for the Clearinghouse
PHOTO/Courtesy of Save the Mozino Forest
