Plans to redevelop Kennett Square‘s National Vulcanized Fiber site into affordable housing stalled last week when borough council failed to secure enough votes to initiate a zoning change, writes Brooke Schultz for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
With one vacant seat and another member absent, a reduced council voted 3-2 against an ordinance change that would have transformed the 22-acre site into a high-density residential development.
While the council may reconsider the ordinance in the future, the chemically-contaminated property will remain zoned for industrial use for now.
The proposed change would allow for a major revitalization of land, which has been left contaminated by more than a century of National Vulcanized Fiber operations. Following the plant’s closure in 2007, Rockhopper LLC purchased the property in 2009.
The site has sat largely unused for nearly 20 years and has been in cleanup for more than a decade.
Developers have eyed the site for six years as a potential residential project, with borough officials seeing it as a possible affordable housing avenue in a rising-cost county. The proposal calls for 246 townhomes and 48 apartments, 15 percent of which would qualify as affordable housing.
Read more about the ongoing redevelopment of Kennett Square‘s National Vulcanized Fiber site in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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