“There is significant light and sound pollution from these warehouses that have been built in that particular area,” Racic said. “While the remaining trees along that border do some to abate that issue, especially in the wintertime and as the days get shorter there is significant sound from backing up trucks throughout the evening and also from the lights which bleed significantly into the homes of the fronts and backs of many of neighbors that are along that area.”
Racic was supporting a proposed partnership between the township and NorthPoint to plant 35 new 14-foot-tall evergreen trees. The total cost is $49,279 for tree planting and mulching, and the township’s share would have been $22,000.
Director of Community Development Aaron Wiegand told the trustees while NorthPoint is fully compliant with township landscape requirements, they agreed to partner on the mitigation effort. He said “the nexus of the plan” was to swap the existing 6-foot-tall pine trees with the taller plants which will “grow into a legitimate barrier” faster.
He said this isn’t a perfect solution — a 14-foot-tall fence was considered and rejected as too “archaic” — but will provide some relief to the neighbors in time.
“We’ve been pretty up front with the HOA ... this isn’t something that tomorrow you plant trees. and voila,” Wiegand said. “There’s nine giant 300,000-square-foot industrial buildings on the south side of their housing development. They’re not going to be hidden overnight.”
Whether the plan would work wasn’t the chief concern for the trustees. Trustee Ann Becker asked about the precedent they would set by approving the tree expense.
Wiegand said as far as he knows the township has never gone back after a development has been approved and suggested a builder make changes, but they were responding to neighbors’ concerns.
Officials said construction on the subdivision began in 1989 and the Trade Center project started in 2017. When a new development is up for consideration public hearings are held for people to voice concerns.
Trustee Mark Welch pointed to the recent approval for a zone change for the new Kroger Marketplace, when many neighbors came out and voiced concerns about noise, lights, trash pick-up and traffic.
“My feeling is that we’re trying to treat a problem at the end of a process and now we’re getting involved,” he said. “It should have been dealt with at the beginning of the process.”
It appears the huge pond that sits between the two properties is serving as a sound enhancer and that’s why Becker said she was leaning a bit in favor of doing something to help, “nobody thought that water would have just taken the sound and aimed it right at that guy’s house. We couldn’t have foreseen it.”
Welch said unfortunately there are many places in the township that were wide open spaces when people moved in but development happens.
“When it starts to change, there’s the weeping and gnashing of teeth, it’s like wait a minute, what’s going on, why are you doing this?” Welch said, adding he’s not unsympathetic but “we do this there are 48 HOAs in West Chester, we’ve opened the door, we’ve set a precedent.”
Trustee Lee Wong predicted the future if they approved the plan.
“Every HOA would be here in a minute...,” Wong said. “This is going to be a very slippery slope if we open this up.”
The decision to deny was unanimous.
Racic told the Journal-News he hasn’t given up hope.
“We’re saddened by the results of the vote but we’re very hopeful we can still revisit this issue with the township and NorthPoint and come up with another way to resolve this issue,” he said.
NorthPoint could not be reached for comment.
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