Written by Ken Hemphill
Carlino's people have consistenly downplayed how big it actually is and minimized its impact
Newtown Square Shopping Center & Ellis "Preserve"
By Ken Hemphill
Drexeline has been a local staple shopping center in our area for more than 50 years. Its 22 acres is actually 25 acres smaller than Carlino's regional shopping center proposal.
To give you some idea of the public relations full-court press that will be on display Monday night, consider what one employee for Carlino has said on facebook. Marie Keith, who works in some capacity for one of the developers (but who has presented herself on facebook as some sort of unbiased member of the community until we exposed her), said on facebook that PennDOT would be at Monday's O'Hara meeting. This sounded highly suspicious to us, so we checked, and sure enough, PennDOT had no knowledge of the O'Hara meeting and had no plans to attend. The regional director for PennDOT said that they've had some very preliminary meetings with Carlino and have seen a "preliminary scoping application," but they are still waiting for a submission from Carlino. PennDOT, the director said, has issued no permits and reached no conclusions as to Carlino's enormous shopping center. Keep in mind that Ms. Keith made this claim as she was asking people "to get the facts" before they signed our petition.
So how would Carlino's regional shopping center compare to other local centers?
When you consider the actual facts along with Carlino's very devious last minute postcard mailer, it's clear that Carlino knows the traffic would be a nightmare, and they're going to spend a lot of money to convince you otherwise. Monday night, Carlino is hoping you go in with an open mind because they plan to hypnotize the community into accepting a lower quality of life so that they can build their regional shopping center.
At 41 acres, Lawrence Park Shopping Center is six acres smaller than Carlino's proposed Marple "Town Center." Everyone reading this article has driven past Lawrence Park Shopping Center. Does anyone think this is a small commercial center? Imagine how much traffic 47 acres would generate.
<-- Ms. Keith goes after Commissioner Chair Joe Rufo and puts words in his mouth, falsely characterizing his informational post about the meeting time/venue change as alleging "foul play" and also trying to obliquely associate him with Carlino's devious last minute postcard. Then she regurgitates the false claim that the district never got back to them. If Carlino's development was something truly beneficial for us, would paid employees need to shill for it so relentlessly on facebook?
How many people who live in the area of the new Ellis "Preserve" are happy with the traffic it disgorges? How many residents are happy that it was built so close to an existing large shopping center? Carlino's center would be eleven acres bigger! Close your eyes and imagine the traffic.
Marple Crossroads Shopping Center with its large box stores takes up 26 acres. Carlino's Town Center would be 21 acres bigger than this monster.
Springfield
Shopping Center
"And a little extra" across the street, to use Peter Miller's words
Marple
"Town Center"
Lawrence Park
Shopping Center
Don't be taken in Monday night by the employees of Carlino. Putting lipstick on this piggish development won't hide the fact that it would positively crush Sproul Road, already overburdened with 33,000 average daily vehicle trips. Carlino is proposing to add ~30,000 weekday average trips and more trips on busy, congested Saturday from 40 stores and a four story senior living facility. Add this massive traffic increase to the few dozen funeral processions on Saturadays and there's just no way this "town center" works for Marple. It's at least 25 acres too big.
Marple Crossroads
Shopping Center
Drexeline Shopping Center
May 20, 2018
On Monday, Carlino will significantly downplay the traffic impact of their "town center," telling you that "they're going to 'calm' traffic with some turn lanes and some 'adaptive signaling.'" Don't be fooled by this. Believe your own eyes. Believe your own experience driving on our already overburdened roads. Of course, the Delco Times makes no effort to pin Carlino down on any traffic issues. It's completely glossed over even though this is the single most important issue facing the community.
In Sunday's Delco Times, in yet another "he said, she said story," the paper has again allowed Carlino to repeat the claim that they will save 166 acres. Aside from being inaccurate (it's 161 acres), it's demonstrably untrue. The Times fails again to note that the county and township would have to agree to purchase the acres, and no such agreement has been signed. Carlino would own the entire 213 acre site after purchasing it. After closing with the Archdiocese, there is nothing legally requiring Carlino to sell ANY land to anyone. A verbal assurance is not a contract or legally binding in court. They could say that they underestimated their sewer or road improvement costs and therefore need to build something else on all or part of those acres to cover their "unanticipated expenses." The community would of course object, but Carlino would just let Marc Kaplin take care of that.
Another misrepresentation we keep hearing in the paper is the size of the Don Guanella Village: that "they're just building a little bit extra. They keep calling it "38 acres" (to make the additional acreage they're proposing to build on sound smaller), something the Delco Times reports without checking. Google Earth puts the size of of the village at 34.6 acres not 38. Three acres might not sound like much, but a big box store could be snugly nestled on a plot that size. Before Carlino gets a chance to discredit Google Earth, keep in mind that all land planners use it daily.
Given the highly controlled, compartmentalized environment in which Carlino will push their proposal Monday night on the friendly turf of Cardinal O'Hara High School, we feel it's critically important to address in advance some of the inaccuracies, false assurances, and outright misrepresentations that have been and will be made by Carlino employees. It's going to be a lot like walking through an automobile showroom with highly trained sales people trying to sell you, the customer, a very expensive product. In this case, the expensive product will benefit Carlino and cost you in quality of life terms, property values, and your health.
We keep hearing that Carlino "will build on the Don Guanella Village footprint, plus a little extra." As we've seen in the last article, Don Guanella is 34.6 acres. Carlino wants to build 12 acres more than the actual size of the village (which is about the same size as ALL the commercial buildings across the street from the Springfield Shopping Center). Carlino's "Town Center" would be 17 acres bigger than both sides of Sproul Road here.
<-- Marie Keith has inundated various facebook pages with dozens of such comments. Notice the language she uses to convince people not to sign our petition. NB: she most likely meant to say "environmental engineer," not "environmentalist." The former are paid consultants who work for developers; the latter, volunteers who work to protect our environment. Click an image to see the thread.
