Waterloo Neighbors Wary of Devon Yard Site Development

Since it was first unveiled a month ago, Devon Yard, the “lifestyle village” Urban Outfitters wants to build at the former Waterloo Gardens site, has been the talk of Devon. The project received a mostly warm reception when it debuted at an Easttown Planning Commission meeting Oct. 1. Devon would at last get its own town center – the thinking went – with cool, cutting-edge retailers like Anthropologie and Terrain, new restaurants and a chic boutique hotel. In the surrounding neighborhood of late, though, there have been rumblings of unease. Dorset Road homeowners, a close-knit community just behind the site, have been meeting informally and will be watching closely as the plan moves through the township’s approval process next year. They hope other residents will be paying close attention, too. Among the group’s chief concerns is safety. The homeowners think the developer is wrong to assume that most people will use Lancaster Avenue to reach the complex. They say most locals use back roads to avoid traffic snarls on Route 30. And because their narrow road was a popular cut-through to Waterloo Gardens, it will see even more cars from the much larger Devon Yard, they believe. The group also questions the zoning re-write that Urban Outfitters will need in order to close off Devon Boulevard, build the five-story Devon Inn and a parking garage along Waterloo Road. The neighbors fear that changes to the zoning code would open the door to developers who might expect similar leniency in other parts of Easttown.

Source: Suburban Main Line Life; 10/29/2013 and the Suburban Realtors® Alliance News Brief Headlines