The proposed project involves two adjacent parcels of land. The first, and the name by which the project is commonly referred, is the former Brandywine County Club parcel located at 2822 Shipley Road. This property housed, from 1945 until 2014, an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool and country club building. The course had been shuttered for extensive renovations in 2004 and reopened to the public in 2005. It was sold by its members to the current owner, Shipley Road Investments, LLC, on July 27, 2012. The property is 119.79 acres in size and zoned Suburban (“S”) under the New Castle County Unified Development Code. Its current access is from Shipley Road.
The second parcel is identified as the Concord Square Shopping Center, a 29.26 acre property located north of the intersection of Concord Pike and Silverside Road. The property is currently used as a regional shopping center that is anchored by Giant, Steinmart, Marshals and Walgreens.The center also contains two pad sites that have housed a Macaroni Grill and a Chili’s restaurant. The property is zoned Commercial Regional (“CR”) under the UDC and has multiple access points, including a signalized access, along Concord Pike.
This proposal was developed following a number of meetings with the Department of Land Use and some stakeholders regarding the potential uses and designs for the project. The overwhelming tenet of these discussions was a focus on a predominately residential project containing a mix of housing types. In addition, there were a number of suggestions offered for things like walkability, vehicular interconnections to surrounding properties, open space and open space features, pedestrian interconnections, and buffering to the surrounding communities. This initial concept plan attempted to build off those comments.
The project presented was a 554 unit residential community consisting of two types of apartments, townhouses, twin homes and two types of single family homes. The layout of the project was such that the apartments were located at the western end of the project, adjacent to the Concord Plaza and Concord Square, as well as the Widener Law School. Two entrances were proposed, one along the northern portion of the Shipley Road boundary and one with Concord Square Shopping Center. A proposed interconnection to the Widener Law School was also shown. The proposal called for the demolition of a 7,000 square foot portion of the Concord Square Shopping Center to allow for a direct connection between the new community and the traffic light at Concord Pike. A walking/biking path would extend from Shipley Road to Concord Square, running parallel to a proposed boulevard through the project. A large open space area would serve as a buffer to Shipley Road and the project was stepped down from larger lot single family homes, to smaller single family homes, to attached housing and finally apartments as one moved east to west through the community. Finally, as part of this project, two new restaurant pad sites were proposed to be added to the Concord Square Shopping Center. This latter addition would require a minor revision to the existing deed restriction governing Concord Square to permit an additional 5,200 square feet of development.
This is the Exploratory Plan that was submitted to the Department of Land Use for review following public comment and pre-exploratory design review from the Department of Land Use. Retaining the design concept that placed the single family homes adjacent to surrounding residential communities and the apartments either internal to the project or adjacent to commercial development, the project remains an almost exclusively residential community mixed between large and small lot single family homes, townhouses and twin homes, three story walk-up apartments and four-story midrise apartments. The total number of homes and apartments in this version of the community is 563.
The Shipley Road entrance has been moved from the northern portion of the property to southern end of the property to better accommodate the required entrance improvements. The project retains a boulevard connection and walking path between Shipley Road and the traffic light on Concord Pike at the entrance to Concord Square. The boulevard has been further designed to incorporate a variety of traffic calming measures along its length, including traffic circles, speed humps, intersections and a chicane. The boulevard has also been pushed further away from the homes that lie to the south of the property (from the original concept).Several large water features are also highlighted within the community. Walking trails are dispersed throughout the community (in addition to the main walking/biking path). A clubhouse and pool are included as an amenity for the residents of the apartments.
Following suggestions from the Department of Land Use, a pedestrian precinct is added near the western edge of the project. As part of this, a small, 10,000 square foot commercial building has been added to provide commercial or office opportunities within the community. In addition, and as part of the incorporation of the interconnection between the Community and the Concord Square Shopping center, truck turn-arounds have been added to ensure that delivery and trash services running behind the commercial buildings will not be in conflict with traffic travelling along the boulevard. The area encompassed by the commercial building and new truck turnarounds would be rezoned to CR to match the rest of the Concord Square property. In addition, a new “rights out” exit from Concord Square to Concord Pike has been added in the northwestern corner of the Concord Square property.
Finally, an additional interconnection between the Community, Concord Square and the adjacent Concord Plaza has been shown, as well as an access easement that would serve as a potential interconnection from Concord Plaza to the Widener Law School property.
This plan has been revised from the version submitted to the Department of Land Use to reflect comments received from a number of community meetings. Most of these changes relate to the layout of the Community. Most prominent among these is the relocation of the internal boulevard from the southern portion of the site to a more circuitous path that runs from the northern portion of the site and winds through the center of the community. Pedestrian connections and walking paths are maintained throughout the community although much of the main pedestrian connection between Shipley Road and Concord Square is contained in the sidewalk adjacent to the boulevard. Along the southern portion of the property, adjacent to Greenview and Pierson Farm, small lot single family homes and attached housing has been replaced with large lot single family homes. What had previously been a boulevard along that portion of the site has been replaced with a cul-de-sac. Additional landscaping has been added in the area where the boulevard was previously located.
Additional pond features have been enlarged of located within the property to serve both as visual amenities as well to assist in the stormwater management plan for the project. The layout of the apartment buildings been revised to provide better orientation toward the streets and parking areas, and the clubhouse and pool have been relocated to a central location within the apartments. The boulevard connection between the single family community and the apartment community has been pushed further to the northwest. Stone monument entrance signs/walls are located at both the Shipley Road and Concord Square entrances to the community.
This version of the plan evolved following the submission of the Exploratory Plan and the receipt of the Department of Land Use’s comment letter, as well as follow-up meetings with the Department and area stakeholders. Notable changes include, but are not limited to:
1. One of the topics frequently raised was the desire for traffic calming features along Shipley Road. DelDOT had previously made it clear that a traffic signal would not be warranted at the intersection to the Property. As such, and at the request of the Department and many members of the Community, the entrance has been redesigned to accommodate a traffic circle at the entrance. To accomplish this, we relocated a traffic circle that was previously internal to the site and pulled it out to Shipley Road. The circle would be designed such that it is entirely within the existing Right of Way for Shipley Road and the Property
2. We have revised the plan to include two age-restricted components to the project. The first is located in the center of the single family home section of the Community. It contains 48 age restricted home divided equally between small lot singles and twin homes. In addition, we have converted one of the 4-story apartment buildings, located in the southwestern corner of the site between Concord Plaza and Concord Square to a 48 unit age-restricted building. Thus, a total of 96 units will be age-restricted. The addition of age-restricted homes and apartments, plus the elimination of 61 units from the submitted Exploratory Plan, reduces the impact of the project both from school capacity and traffic standpoints.
3. In addition to making one of the apartment units age-restricted, we have redesigned the site to eliminate an additional 48 unit building and reconfigure the remaining buildings to create additional spacing between the residential neighborhoods that surround us. We have pulled the units located to the north further south, we eliminated a building that was previously along the boulevard, and have pushed those in the southern portion to the west. All of this creates additional green area and buffering from the residential areas that surround us. We have also incorporated garages within the parking areas for the apartments to accommodate roughly 20% of the apartment homes.
4. We have eliminated the 10,000 square foot commercial building that had previously been located to the rear of the Concord Square shopping center. We did, however retain the truck turnarounds, which would still be rezone to CR and incorporated into the shopping center. The project still maintains the interconnection with the shopping center, the proposed interconnections with the law school and the Concord Plaza community, and the additional exit from the Concord Square shopping center.
G. With regard to traffic, we had completed a TIS prior to the time that we submitted our plans and we updated that to include additional development not originally included by DelDOT & NCC in their original scope for this study. Both studies demonstrated that, with minor improvements, the surrounding road network can accommodate this project. The modifications to the plan illustrated by this concept serve to further reduce the anticipate traffic impact from this project. In addition to the traffic calming feature added at the Shipley Road entrance, the eliminations of homes and apartment units, the conversion of homes and apartment units to age-restricted use and the removal of 10,000 square feet of proposed commercial square footage results in a nearly 20% reduction in the average daily trips (ADT) for the project (755 trips) and a 22% reduction in the peak hour trips (108) from that previously shown on the submitted Exploratory Plan.
CONCEPT 1
These concept plans have continued the evolution of the plan as it has proceeded through the process of review with both the Department of Land Use comment letter, as well as follow-up meetings with the Department and area stakeholders. Notable changes include, but are not limited to:
1. One of the topics frequently discussed was the interconnection through the community from Concord Pike to Shipley Road. Although previously addressed with a proposed traffic circle, there were still many comments offered regarding this connection. Thus, this concept plan divides the project between the apartment community to the western portion of the property and the single family homes to the east. The single family homes will continue to enter and exit from Shipley Road while the apartments would enter and exit from Concord Pike. The entrance on Shipley Road would be a standard subdivision entrance with no traffic circle. While there would be no vehicle interconnection between the communities, pedestrian interconnections would remain. In addition, interconnections to the properties to the north and south of the apartment community remain.
2. The number of single family homes has been significantly reduced through this plan. All attached housing has been eliminated in favor of single-family detached lots. The total number of houses has been reduced from 138 homes to 75 homes. None of the single family homes are now proposed to be age-restricted. The total unit count in the proposed community has now been reduced from 563 units at the time the project was first submitted to New castle County to 435 units.
3. Finally, we are proposing to dedicate for public use approximately 41 acres of property east of the proposed houses. While no final user has been identified, potential recipients would include the Brandywine School District and New Castle County. The final user would be identified prior to final approval of the plan for this community.
CONCEPT 2
This concept plan is essentially identical to the one above except for the fact that it has no vehicular connection with Shipley Road. All traffic would enter and exit the site via existing and proposed entrances and exits along Concord Pike. A bike/ped connection would still exist between Shipley Road and the Concord Square shopping center.
This plan was formally submitted to New Castle County in February of 2020, following additional conversations with the Department of Land Use and area Stakeholders, as well as the Brandywine School District. Notable changes include, but are not limited to:
1. Perhaps the biggest change between this plan and prior submissions is the treatment of nearly 44 acres of land adjacent to Shipley Road, as well as to the communities of Chapel Crest, Presidential Estates and Devon. While originally proposed for residential development, this area is now intended to be conveyed to the Brandywine School District for its use following the recordation of the rezoning plan. To that end, the plan proposes to subdivide this nearly 44 acre parcel for conveyance to the School District. The School District, which has identified a variety of needs, is currently proposing to utilize this parcel for the creation of an early learning and special education facility.
2. As part of the conveyance of the parcel to the School District, the proposed interconnection through the community from Concord Pike to Shipley Road has been eliminated. Access to the residential portion of the proposed community will be from Concord Pike, while access to the School District parcel will be from Shipley Road. There will be no vehicle interconnection between the residential and School District parcel, however, we are continuing to propose a pedestrian path between Shipley Road and the Concord Square shopping center. In addition, the proposed interconnections to the property to the south of the apartment community remains.
3. The number of single family homes has been significantly reduced through this plan. All attached housing has been eliminated in favor of single-family detached and attached lots. The total number of houses has been reduced from 138 homes to 65 homes. None of the single family homes are now proposed to be age-restricted, nor are any apartment units proposed to be age-restricted. The total unit count in the proposed community has now been reduced from 563 units at the time the project was first submitted to New Castle County to 365 units.
Notable changes from previous plan include, but are not limited to:
1. Given the denial of the subdivision variance, for the project to move forward access must be provided to Shipley Road. The Property Owner, however, remaining cognizant of the Community’s desire to limit traffic along Shipley Road, is not proposing to reestablish an interconnection between Shipley Road and Concord Pike. Instead, the plan has been revised to have the apartments continue to take access to and from Concord Pike while the 65 single-family homes will now take access to and from Shipley Road. There remains no vehicle interconnection between the two residential communities, however, we are continuing to propose bicycle and pedestrian connections between the communities, as well as a path between Shipley Road and the Concord Square shopping center.
2. As with the prior version of the plan, significant acreage remains dedicated to the Brandywine School District by this proposal. Because of the requirement for the new connection to Shipley Road, however, the size of the donation has been reduced slightly (to approximately 42 acres). The proposed entrance has also been designed to separate traffic from the residential community and the school for ingress and egress. The land to be donated to the school continues to retain its “S” zoning classification. The School District, which has pursued and received funding for the project, continues to propose the construction of the Bush Early Learning Center.
3. The number of residential dwelling units remains the same as the prior plan (300 apartments and 65 single-family homes). The overall layout of the community remains very similar to that of the prior version of the plan, save for the reconfiguration of the entrance off of Shipley Road