By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer

New Garden Township supervisors Kristie Brodowski and David Unger, both Democrats, sat at a table on Oct. 16 alongside two challengers for their jobs – Republicans Michael Norris and Kathy Leary – to discuss key township issues, in advance of the upcoming election Nov. 4.

The two candidates who will be elected to office will serve a six-year term on the New Garden board.

Labeled as a conversation and not a debate, the “Meet the Candidates” town hall meeting drew about 30 residents to the Clubhouse at Somerset Lake, as well as more than one dozen who watched the event via Zoom. Moderated by Somerset Lake resident David Kronenberg - who is the president of the Kennett Consolidated School Board of Directors – the 90-minute meeting began with each candidate giving their opening statement. 

In her comments, Brodowski said that she is seeking a second term in part because of the township’s need to invest in its emergency services such as fire, police and EMS.

“It’s not just a budget number, it’s my daughter calling ‘9-1-1’ and needing help and trying to figure out what to do,” she said. “How long will it take for first responders to get there? There have been consolidation talks with [fire and EMS services in other parts of southern Chester County]. I think about our location and how far south we are. If we need support from someone [at the Longwood Fire Department], that’s a long time to wait for a responder.”

If she is reelected, Brodowski said that she will focus her concentration on making smart investments in infrastructure projects such as roads and stormwater improvements.

Leary, a ten-year township resident, said her experience as a business owner in Delaware County taught her about “accountability, budgeting and making tough decisions that affect people’s lives,” she said. “It showed me the importance of transparency and listening, values I think we need more of in local government.”

Leary said in recent years, she has begun to see rapid growth and overdevelopment in New Garden, which was the reason she left Delaware County.

“In Wallingford, we watched open land turn into crowded developments,” she said. “The infrastructure couldn’t keep up. Traffic got worse. Schools were packed and our taxes went through the roof.”

Leary called herself “an advocate for smart, sensible growth.”

“I am not against progress, but growth needs to happen in a way that makes sense,” she said. “We have to protect our infrastructure, our schools and the quality of life that brought us all here in the first place. I am against rezoning that benefits developers instead of residents, and I believe that every major township decision should be made with its residents, not without them.”

Norris called the upcoming election for the New Garden board a “pivotal” one.

“This is a turning point for our community,” he said. “We are on track to change the face of this place. This meeting is really about what our vision is for New Garden Township. Do we envision New Garden as a rural place where we decide to purchase a home and raise our family, or do we see it more like Newark, Delaware, because that’s what we are on track for.”

In his comments, Unger said that over the past four years, the Democrat-led township board has achieved several initiatives, including funding emergency services; ending the adversarial relationship between former boards and the Avondale Fire Company; working with the fire company to explore regionalization of services with other fire departments, and cost-saving measures; funding the township’s Public Works department; passing an ordinance that now requires renters to register their properties and submit to safety inspections; hiring a grant coordinator to help the township fund projects; initiating an air quality study that recently discovered elevated levels of Hydrogen Sulfide; and purchasing the Loch Nairn golf course and converting it to the Smedley Preserve, a passive recreation preserve.

“We are acting responsibly by closing a structural budget deficit of over $1 million that our prior Republican leadership allowed to happen through ten years of inaction and its refusal to adjust taxes to cover increased costs,” he said. 

White Clay Point

During the question-and-answer portion of the town hall, much of the discussion centered on the recent proposal by Stonewall Capital, LLC to construct White Clay Point in Landenberg, a $26.8 million, 220-acre mixed-use development project consisting of 263 single family detached homes; 90 20-foot-wide townhomes; 200 24-foot-wide townhomes; 112 stacked townhomes; civic spaces and park land; and 75,000 square feet of commercial space.

At the board’s Aug. 18 meeting, the developer unveiled a revised plan for the development that removes the originally proposed indoor sports complex, reduces residential density by 10 percent - from an originally proposed 680 units to 622 units - and expands opportunities for retail and commercial progress. 

In his opening comments, Norris said that the current board has accelerated its decision-making processes, pointing to White Clay Point as a prime example.

“These is already a rush to push [White Clay Point] through,” he said. “At a township meeting, it was mentioned that the final approval for White Clay Point may be finished as early as the first quarter of 2026. That seems like a rush to me.”

Brodowski addressed Norris’ concern, saying that the development site has already had two non-realized development ideas over the past 15 years, as well as a settlement agreement that was approved in 2007.

“The reason that it is moving through fast is because those plans have already been approved in the courts,” she said. “There’s not much we can do except negotiate those terms to the benefit of the township. We’re doing our best to get infrastructure and road improvements incorporated into these plans.” 

Unger said that the proposed development will “serve to expand our tax base,” and later estimated that the tax revenue would amount to be about $500,000 a year. 

“The township gets two sources of income: property tax and earned income tax,” he said. “The goal of aging is that eventually you don’t have to pay earned income tax, so as that money goes away, your property taxes will have to increase in order to pay for that.”

Norris rejected claims by Brodowski and Unger that the board is working effectively with Stonewall Capital to broker a development that benefits township residents. 

“In Somerset Lake, we roughly have 1.28 houses per acre,” he said. “When you look at what they want to put at White Clay Point, it’s four houses per acre. When you look at the Somerset Lake community, picture the houses and then picture three more in between. That’s the density [this proposed development] is going to carry. 

“When we say we are going to work with the developer to develop something that is going to be better for the community. I doubt that three times the houses, three times the cars and three times the Amazon trips is going to be palatable.”

‘This isn’t my development. This isn’t my plan’

Several residents expressed concern about the impact the proposed development would have on two of the township’s roads: Sunny Dell and Reynolds Road, which border White Clay Point and will very likely see increased traffic – as well as see vehicle “spillage” to other township roads - after the development begins to be occupied by incoming residents.

‘These people – 622 houses worth of people – are not going to want to drive on Route 41 in order to get to Wilmington and Newark,” one resident said, referring his comments to Brodowksi, who lives on Watson’s Mill Road. “They’re not going to go through your neighborhood. They’re going to go through ours.”

“This isn’t my development. This isn’t my plan,” she responded. “I realize that this is frustrating to you. This isn’t something I want. This isn’t something I approved. This isn’t something Kristie signed her name next to. I didn’t do this.” 

Norris agreed with the resident, saying that the proposed development would turn Reynolds Road into “an epicenter” of traffic.

“They’re going to put a traffic light at Sunny Dell Road and Route 41, so now imagine all of the tractor trailers stopping twice, once at Sunny Dell Road and once at Newark Road,” he said. “It’s going to be a complete traffic jam. Buttonwood, Sunny Dell and Newark – all of those roads are going to become cut-throughs to Delaware, because [drivers] are not going to want to wait for the tractor trailers to get out of their way.”

One resident – a teacher and a mother of children who attend Kennett schools - said that she was concerned that the White Clay Point development, once built, would lead to larger class sizes in area schools. Unger said that the township’s recent study of the issue revealed that the new development would generate 333 new students who would attend the school district. Kronenberg then referred to a memo circulated recently by Mark Tracy – the school district’s chief financial officer - that stated that the district feels well prepared to welcome the estimated number of new students who are anticipated to live in the development.

One question, asked by a Zoom viewer, asked the candidates, “Do you see your role more as growing the township or protect residents’ values?” 

“I believe it’s necessary to grow the township, as we do have issues,” Norris said. “When you look at the budget, it appears to me that this township is going bankrupt. Perhaps that’s why we need to hurry up and build this, so we can go after this tax money. The answer to the question is that we need to both. We need to protect the people who are here and create an atmosphere to entice new businesses to grow the township.”

Brodowski disputed Norris’ claim that the township is going bankrupt, saying that the numbers generated at the last 2026 budget meeting were “quite favorable.”

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