By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer

On Dec. 16, 2021, after several years of negotiations, the New Garden Township’s Open Space Review Board (OSRB) reached an agreement with then Landenberg resident Cindy Hiles on the purchase of the Hiles’ family’s 7.8-acre property along Penn Green Road. 

For the Hiles family – Cindy, her husband Wyn and their two sons – the property was a pristine sanctuary of thick forest, echoed with the persistent chorus of the White Clay Creek and accented by a home and several small cottages. Following Wyn’s passing in 2016, Cindy set out to preserve the property as a living memory for her husband and began discussions with the OSRB and Natural Lands to determine how it could be best saved – and perhaps redefined – in perpetuity. One of the ideas discussed was to fold the Hiles property into the township’s Greenways Plan as part of a trail system in order to create an important link in the township’s vision to create an open space corridor to the White Clay Creek Preserve.

“In the memory of my husband Wyn, we are leaving this legacy behind so that the entire community can access and use it for hiking, fishing and birding,” Hiles said during a township meeting to announce the agreement in January 2022. “It just felt like the right thing to do. We say that we are ‘the owners of the land,’ and while we pay taxes on our properties, I believe in my heart that we are all stewards of the land, and we need to protect it and do what we can regardless of who we are.”

To date, however, the only visible initiative from the township has been the placement of a “No Trespassing” sign that is tethered to a chain link fence across the property’s front driveway, encouraging potential visitors to keep out.

At the Aug. 19 New Garden Township Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Hiles – now a resident of Newark, Del. -- put the township on notice that she was less than enthused by the township’s lack of activity on a place that had once occupied a large part of her heart.

“Throughout the process, I was told I would be involved in the future plans for the property, and I was also told that I could build and place a bench on the property in memory of my late husband,” Hiles told the board. “I would think that the township would recognize that I am a valuable and free resource with extensive knowledge of the structures, the physical plant and the land, but they have chosen to exclude me for the last two years and eight months.”

On March 20, 2023, Hiles said that she spoke at a board meeting to request progress on the property and was told that a township representative would provide her with updates.

“To date, I have not received a text, a phone call or an email from anyone affiliated with New Garden Township, another 17 months wasted,” she told the board. 

Arts, heritage and nature center proposal removed from meeting agenda

In the weeks leading up to the Aug. 19 meeting, the agenda included a presentation from the New Garden Township Historical Commission that proposed an idea to convert a portion of the Hiles property to an arts, heritage and nature center. The 21-page presentation reimagined the property’s infrastructure and acreage as a future site for indoor and outdoor community events, a nature center and a potential “home” for local artisans and arts instruction that would be entirely managed by volunteers at no cost to the township.

The presentation was subsequently removed from the Aug. 19 agenda. In response to the proposal, Hiles said that she “overwhelmingly” supported the vision to create a “multi-functional township amenity” for the township.

Hiles told the board that this past weekend, she read comments included in the minutes from the April 19, 2024 New Garden Township Parks and Recreation board meeting, that encouraged members to keep plan for the Hiles property on the “down low” until a plan is in place.

“I am no longer a resident of New Garden, but Landenberg and 308 [Penn Green Road] will forever be a part of my heart and soul,” Hiles said. “It is painful beyond words to see the property withered and remain closed to your community. At this point, I deeply, deeply regret my decision to partner with New Garden Township to become the newest steward of 308 Penn Green Road. 

“In my humble opinion, investigating the potential that lies untapped on these eight pristine acres along the Wild and Scenic White Clay Creek is a scale much more manageable than those projects on the Saint Anthony’s [New Garden Hills] property.” (In 2018, the township acquired the 137-acre property on Limestone Road, the site of the former St. Anthony’s in the Hills parish day camp, and is currently developing the property in phases as part of a multi-tiered master plan.)

After her comments, Hiles provided additional written information for township Manager Christopher Himes and Mike Buck, the township’s director of Parks and Open Space. 

In other township business, Himes gave a year-to-date performance report that focused on progress and initiatives being made in the following township departments: administration, community development, parks and open space and the New Garden Flying Field. Himes also provided a snapshot of the grant scenario for the Smedley Preserve, formerly the Loch Nairn Golf Club, which the township purchased in January 2023 for use as a 105-acre passive-recreation preserve.

Related to the Smedley Preserve, the board gave approval for the township to pursue three grants for the preserve: a Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program (GTRP) grant of $250,000.00 from the Commonwealth Financing Authority; a Multimodal Transportation Fund grant of $322,070.00 from the Commonwealth Financing Authority; and a Statewide Local Share Assessment grant of $1 million from the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].