No doubt it will be another full house tonight in Marple as the township once again digs into the proposed Cardinal Crossing development.
A revised plan for the development being planned for the site that was home for years of the Don Guanella School - and one of the largest open tracts remaining in the county - will be on the agenda.
The initial plan earned a thumb's down from both the township and county planners.
Developer Goodman Properties has an agreement of sale for the property with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for the 213-acre tract. Their original proposal would have turned the wooded site into a huge development of retail, residential and office uses. It would include a new Wegmans supermarket, as well as a movie theater, convenience store/gas station and in the rear part of the tract, as many as 237 townhomes and age-related carriage homes.
As you might expect, this is not sitting all that well with a lot of neighbors and township residents.
Make no mistake, not everyone is opposed to this development, but those opposed certainly have been louder, packing township meetings and even forming their own group, Save Marple Green Space.
The group has gone so far as to seek the intervention of Pope Francis in a letter to the editor this week. They believe the sale of the property by the archdiocese and the planned development runs contrary to the beliefs professed by the pontiff in his encyclical 'Laudato Si," in which the pope argued against over-development of resources.
The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at Marple Newtown High School.
We'll be there to bring you full coverage. We don't think we'll be alone.
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