Over the last year, representatives from the consulting firm Michael Baker International – at the request of New Garden Township - have been holding public output hearings at the Township Building – four in total – to elicit township residents’ opinions regarding the initiative of the municipality to upgrade its zoning district map. 

Overall, they have been constructive gatherings that have placed the opinions and the realities of the township’s residents front and center. In all, these meetings have elicited a consortium of voices, reflected in multi-colored ideas jotted in magic markers on large easels that include phrases like “walkable community,” “maintain rural,” and “concern about adding residential to rural.”  

This total quality management approach has been a refreshing departure from the time when the largest decisions of this municipality were made in the sequestered privacy of meeting rooms shut off from the public, or in a piecemeal approach that seemed to reinvent the rules as it went along.  

In contrast, the progress being made to determine what the future of New Garden Township will look like has invited everyone to the table, and also included the establishment of a task force made up of key stakeholders, as well as the insight of the township’s Planning Commission, who held its first public hearing on the project last week. 

Collectively, what these meetings and hearings will ultimately decide will not just be an upgraded zoning map of ten separate districts – not just a better way to streamline the zoning process – but the entire future of New Garden Township. 

The process of getting to that point – one that has been made entirely transparent by the township – has heard from its detractors at meetings, on social postings and in the pages of the Chester County Press, to which we agree in part with their assessments. Yes, we do have concern about what the proposed realignment of zoning areas into separate districts may have on preserving the quality of life of the township, which over the last few years has witnessed the purchase of two major properties intended for the preservation and appreciation of nature and open space.  

Yes, we do question whether the impact of confining the future of the agricultural industry to the “Enterprise” district will streamline operations or lead to the dissolution of the mushroom growing and cultivation sector, one that has defined this municipality for generations.  

Yes, we share our skepticism about the intended purpose of the “United Development” district, and whether the antiquated infrastructure of Route 41 – Let us refer to it as what it truly is -  can withstand the assault of its mission, which is to create dynamic and thriving business environment that encourages economic growth, innovation, and job creation that supports a diverse range of commercial activities. 

Yet, on the other side of this project’s aspirations, we agree with the assessment of the township and Michael Baker International that a carving up of New Garden Township into definitive districts – each with their own commercial, residential and open space vision – is a delicate but necessary undertaking. The current and confoundingly absurd redrawing of zoning in the township – one that has led to excessive amounts of non-conforming land uses, “by right” use of agricultural facilities and a reliance on conditional use hearings to make final land use determinations – must absolutely come to an end.  

The Lebanese American writer Khalil Gibran once wrote, “Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” Over the last year, New Garden Township – in partnership with its residents – has approached the delicate act of determining its future with the precision of a diamond cutter and the bullhorn of opinion anchored in disagreement and compromise.  

As New Garden Township continues to map out its landscape for the generations not yet born, it is currently deep in the slow, often tortuous and necessary process of advancing a municipality and its residents toward the fabric of what it will become. We hope that the decisions that will be made – and the zoning that will soon follow - will not damage the delicacy of that broad cloth.