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Routing the growth

Since 1993, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been considering plans to expand or bypass Route 41 in southern and western Chester County, plans intended to respond to the area’s increased development and traffic.

The Route 41 corridor is currently one of Chester County’s fastest-growing areas. In 2000, the nine municipalities that make up the corridor had a total population of 31,000, a number that experts say may climb as high as 46,000 by the year 2025.

According to the Chester County Planning Commission, this population growth -- and its attendant residential and business development -- will occur in the corridor whether or not Route 41 is improved.

As a result, commission members say, local planning efforts now and in coming years will play a critically important role in the future development, land preservation and quality of life of the corridor municipalities.

To assist those efforts, the county planning commission has recently issued a study of land use and growth management alternatives for the Route 41 corridor and its municipalities.

Three years in the making, the study was compiled in conjunction with the Malvern-based engineering firm McCormick, Taylor & Associates and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Through a series of maps and graphics, the study presents the local impact of the various alternatives PennDOT is currently considering for the highway. It also suggests land use plans for the corridor’s municipalities and provides strategies for it to carry those plans out regardless of which alternative is chosen.

"The primary recommended land use plan of this study offers a blueprint for future development as well as preservation of the landscape in the PA Route 41 corridor," the study said, "encouraging a distribution of land uses in a way that enhances the cohesion of existing communities yet allows for the evolution of the corridor and protection of important natural and man-made features."

It continues, "With a clear direction from this study and a mandate from residents, boroughs and townships in the corridor have the ability to achieve a desired vision for their future."

At a recent planning commission meeting, Executive Director William Fulton emphasized that the document was not intended to favor one highway improvement choice over another.

"This is a study, it’s not a county position on any alternative," he said.

It did, however, provide municipalities with possible planning options and the directions to get there, he said.

"We think that’s a role for the county to have," Fulton said. "To examine what municipalities can do, what can they expect, what can happen out there."

Fulton said the study was compiled after conducting numerous public meetings and consulting the nine municipalities’ current land use plans as well as Chester County’s 1996 comprehensive plan, "Landscapes."

"We think it’s a nice link to our existing program," Fulton said.

Commission Chairman George Asimos added that the commission expected to continue its work with the municipalities in supporting their land use plans as Route 41’s improvement plans continued.

"Knowing the county’s study is really going to be helpful with that," he said.

Officials in London Grove, Avondale and other municipalities along Route 41 said that they’re currently reviewing the study and may discuss it at upcoming public meetings.

Dee Durham, executive director of the London Grove-based action organization SAVE, said the study was a step in the right direction, but only a step.

SAVE, which stands for "Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment," opposes PennDOT’s proposals for major expansions or bypasses.

"We feel that (the planning commission’s study) is a small but good step in the right direction," Durham said. "It finally recognizes the connection between transportation planning and land use planning."

While she applauded the study for "taking a broader view," she wondered how closely it conformed with the less-site-specific "Landscapes." She also questioned how well its suggested zoning measures would protect municipalities against the development that highway improvements might spur on.

"These are municipalities that, for the most part, have already spoken about their desire to preserve open space," Durham said.

Copies of the study have been sent to municipalities and local libraries in the Route 41 corridor. The commission also plans to post it on the county’s Web site, at www.chesco.org/planning/paroute41.

In Chester County, Route 41 travels 18 miles between the Delaware border and the Lancaster County line, through Kennett Township, New Garden, Avondale, London Grove, Londonderry, Highland, West Fallowfield, Atglen and West Sadsbury.

The improvement options that PennDOT is reviewing, and which the planning commission study also analyzes, include widening the road as it stands or building one of four versions of a Route 41 bypass.

Those four versions are: bypassing the highway south of Avondale, bypassing south of Avondale and north of Chatham, and two variations of a wider bypass south of Avondale and south of Chatham.

Durham’s group, SAVE, has proposed its own "two-lane alternative" to PennDOT’s plans.

Members of the group have argued that rehabilitating and redesigning aspects of the existing highway would benefit the community more than widening or building four-lane, limited-access highway bypasses.

Under the SAVE plan, roundabouts, or one-lane rotaries, would replace traffic signals at many of Route 41’s major intersections to keep traffic moving.

©Daily Local News 2004