By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

If Kennett Square Borough’s first strategic planning session on Jan. 12 was anything like the session it held on Jan. 13, there will be enough ideas, problems and goals for the borough to work on for the next decade, let alone the two-year plan the sessions are meant to influence.

The sessions, which were held at Borough Hall and were led by a third-party facilitator, are meant to provide stakeholder feedback for the two-year roadmap of development the borough is working on. The session began by focusing on the positives happening in and around the borough before moving on to negatives and possible threats and opportunities facing the borough. Among the positives listed by attendees were communication, events, safety, schools and borough leadership. The conversation then turned to the negatives in the borough.

“There is just a rapid influx of construction everywhere,” said one attendee. “It’s just too much, too quick, without a whole lot of intentionality.”

Concerns about construction highlighted the relationship between the borough and surrounding Kennett Township. Local residents expressed that they want the two governments to better coordinate and communicate construction and road work plans.

Other negatives that sprang from the construction conversation included concerns about the lack of affordable housing, disappearing green spaces and impacts of tourism.

“I think the town needs to decide whether its focus is going to be on tourism or on its residents,” said a local small business owner and resident. “Right now, I think it’s leaning heavily towards the tourism side, and I think that’s at a disservice to its residents. It impacts traffic. It impacts housing with Airbnbs.”

Airbnbs and other short-term rentals in the borough were revealed to be a popular concern amongst the attendees of the planning session.

“People want to live with neighbors,” one resident said. “They don’t necessarily want a random group of strangers on weekends and every single weekend partying in the backyard and have the house empty 60 percent of the time. Short term rentals have different impacts on the neighborhood than a long-term rental does. I don’t know that they should be in residential areas where people are just trying to live their lives.”

It was shared by Doug Doerfler, Planning Commission vice chair, that the commission drafted a short-term rental policy that was approved by Borough Council.

“[The policy] definitely can have some more restrictions that the Planning Commission is currently looking at,” Doerfler said. “It will be discussed at next week’s meeting, and it will probably go before Council in the next couple months as well.”

The list of concerns provided by residents was long and included the lack of public transportation, the organization of emergency services and renewed attention to improving cultural awareness and diversity.

Among the shared opportunities attendees have for the borough was the idea for a Spanish as a Second Language program in addition to some existing English as a Second Language programs.

“I think if we’re asking our community members to make an effort on one side, there are people like myself who would like to make the effort in return, and there’s just not really good resources for that,” said one attendee.

Other potential opportunities shared included the development of the NVF site and the empty Genesis buildings although these were coupled with concerns as well.

The shared threats facing the borough included the political climate of the country, rising cost of living in the borough and lack of affordable housing.

While some of the points shared are more within the control of the borough than others, the insights gained from the planning session meetings will be used over the next few months in developing the two-year roadmap for borough council to adopt as a guide for actions and policy.

For local residents, they shared that attending the meeting was their way of making sure their concerns about the community they love were heard by the borough leadership.

“I came because I have two children, and I want them to be happy in a community that they are proud of,” said resident Jeff Carroll. “It’s a great place to live. We just have to learn how to manage things and listen to each other.”

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].