Tonight's a big night for Lisa Goodman, YCST attorney representing the interests of those proposing a crass commercial retail store/pharmacy on Paper Mill Road along the bucolic corridor of parkland and residential development in northern New Castle County.
The Focus group led by Greater White Clay Area Civic League (GWCACL) Officers - along with Mark Blake of GHADA and Janet Kilpatrick of NCCC - insist that their only desire is for residents to make an informed decision as to whether to support or oppose the potential redevelopment of the current Whiteman’s Garage property and the possibility of a CVS Pharmacy being built on the site.
But you may not have guessed it if you'd attended their meeting a few weeks ago at the Independence School. I say that because the group allotted a relatively brief amount of time for discussion of the deed restrictions in question yet a full forty minutes for a power point on CVS finances as the first agenda item. Forty Minutes. The woman next to me mumbled afterwards "CVS is so rich they can walk all over us."
GWCACL Officers maintained they were simply trying to establish that CVS had financial incentive to invest many millions in the property. So, how stupid do we look here? No one knows already that CVS has enough money to build a new store?
The crowd visibly rejected any push toward altering restrictions now keeping the property in line with the character of the surrounding community. One gentleman was rewarded with a cheering audience after standing up in the back of the room saying he was against this action and would walk through every subdivision and knock on every door to state his case.
The crowd was definitely NOT in favor of altering the deed restrictions. The call for a straw poll drew most of the hundred or so people to their feet in a resounding NO!
Another notable moment was when a presenter described the GREAT PHARMACY TURF WAR of NCC. Basically, the residents of Corner Ketch - Pike Creek area are being subjected to the ongoing war between CVS and Walgreens who had won the bid for Alan Levin's Happy Harry's retail/pharmacy chain. The Whiteman's Garage would be the golden goose for CVS against their competition for this wealthy suburban demographic.
Focus group members also presented concessions they'd won from CVS like reduction of lighting, limited hours of business and trash pick up. These concessions are what would comprise a private deed restriction agreement between the property's new owners and community organizations should the current restriction(s) be lifted and this project moved forward.
And as it turns out, these negotiations include a middleman. CVS will not even take possession of the property until after the restrictions are lifted, the land use plan is recorded and the store is built by a local developer.
When it was my turn to speak, I thanked the presenters for sharing this information and advised the residents to JUST SAY NO - we don't want to be pawns in your turf war! And I noted that Tom Gordon had pledged to uphold the existing public deed restrictions. State Rep. Joe Miro also urged the crowd to keep the current restrictions in place.
There were many residents from nearby communities not members of GWCACL who wondered what this vote (tonight) would mean for them or for the members of the Pike Creek Valley Civic League. Not much.
After the meeting adjourned, I asked Nate Schwartz who - if it wasn't Shawn Tucker - wrote the Articles of Incorporation for GWCACL? You may recall that when I repeated Mark Blake's assertion that Shawn Tucker had written them, Mr. Tucker raised the roof with admonitions against my integrity ad nauseam.
So who wrote them? Schwartz told me it was an attorney from Tucker's firm. Well ain't that some news.... I would call that quite a curious omission by Mr. Tucker to not disclose that it was a Drinker Biddle and Reath LLP colleague who drew up the documents for the new civic umbrella group. (He
I wanted to get confirmation from Schwartz about that in writing and about the curious allowance in voting rights for members under the GWCACL Bylaws. It turns out the Treasurer and his wife, as paid-in-full members who don't live in a subdivision, get a vote all to themselves while organization members, as Civic Association or Maintenance Corporation representing hundreds of homeowners, get a mere two votes each.
My email yesterday to Nate Schwartz
I wanted to give you a heads up because I will be writing a post about the voting meeting tomorrow. I know it is not a public meeting but it was discussed at the last meeting.I wanted to clarify what I believe was expressed about membership to the Greater White Clay league and eligibility to vote. My understanding was that since your Treasurer owns a home not in a community, he and his wife - under the terms of the Bylaws - were allowed to join and will be given voting privileges Tuesday night.Do they have one or two votes.As members of the league, Communities have two votes each.The other item I learned from you was that an attorney from the Drinker Biddle law firm wrote your Articles of Incorporation and that you are the Signatory. Who wrote the Bylaws?
And his reply ~
Our Treasurer’s household, under our By-Laws, gets one vote. “At Large Members” get only one vote.We had BOTH GHADA and Pike Creek Valley Civic League By-Laws as models to help guide our “By-Laws Committee” create our By-Laws document. The final document was voted on by our founding members.
Happy Voting!
By the way, there doesn't appear to be any online access to the GWCACL but the new organization is mentioned in several items on a Google search.
By the way, there doesn't appear to be any online access to the GWCACL but the new organization is mentioned in several items on a Google search.
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