The Shoppes at Concord: elected leaders knew more than they let on

Did it feel like this shopping center debacle popped up out of nowhere? Surprise! It didn’t. Womp womp. 😵‍💫

Behind the scenes, The Shoppes at Concord project has almost certainly been in the works for years; development has been humming along. But for the Save Ridge movement, the train likely would have pulled into the station without a hitch.

But when did our elected leaders learn about this? With more than a decade of development-related litigation, they certainly know that the development of this property is a significant concern for constituents. So why is it just catching fire in the last few months?

Wouldn’t it be funny/not funny if our local leaders, who were supposed to represent the interests of the constituents, were actually in the pockets of our developer friend, Retail Sites, LLC (the owner of the proposed shopping center)?

Do you think a healthy campaign donation for Williams was a heads-up?

Wait what?! Craig Williams received $15,000¹ in 2022 from the brother of the guy who wants to build that ugly shopping center at Ridge and 202? He sure did! ❤️ What a nice gesture in this town of Brotherly Love. Is $15,000 enough to fund a red carpet from Craig’s office straight up 202 to Ridge Road?

The donor, Vernon Hill II, is the brother of Robert Hill, the president of Retail Sites LLC. You may have seen Robert roll up to the Concord township meetings in his Bentley. So fancy. 💃🏻

Vernon is a regular donor to Republican causes, so he writes a lot of checks to political candidates and groups. But don’t you think donating to a Pennsylvania state representative in western Delaware County is an oddly specific choice for a man who lives about 60 miles away in New Jersey (in this 46,000-square-foot mansion, if we want to be exact)?

It’s technically possible that Craig didn’t know why his campaign received $15,000 from a rando rich guy in Jersey. But really? I have a sneaky suspicion that the nice donation came with a cute handwritten note giving Craig a heads up that some business was brewing down the street. Does anyone really believe donations like that come with no strings attached?

Craig’s been dealing with traffic delays on his daily commute down Route 202 to the office for years. He’s also had no shortage of constituent complaints about those delays.

All of a sudden, Craig has a lot of critiques about the traffic related to the new development (as he’s laid out in his newsletters and social media posts over the past handful of weeks). Yet he stayed mum about the new shopping development until the Save Ridge group figuratively knocked down his door and forced him to take action. Sus much? 🧐

Traffic issues on 202 are anything but new. Why wait until he’s up against a wall before voicing concerns or asking to provide input? Where were all these traffic critiques before neighbors came calling? Stuffed in his pockets next to five-figure checks? 💰

What did Chadds Ford Township know and when?

When did Chadds Ford Township leaders first catch wind of this storm? If you guessed that they were informed as early as December 2024, then you get a prize! 🎉

At the December 4, 2024, Board of Supervisors meeting, a group of residents from The Ridings requested support from the township to advocate on their behalf following the sale of the property at Ridge Rd and Route 202 to a new owner. With development back on track after many years in limbo, nine residents pleaded for assistance from the township to advocate for them, as documented in the meeting minutes.

Do you know how often there are even nine people in the audience at a township meeting, let alone to speak publicly on a single issue? This is clearly a big deal to constituents.

The minutes from that meeting then state that “No action was taken,” and that about sums up the township’s efforts over the next nine months.

The township reached out to PennDOT to request involvement in the development process, and was pretty much told “thanks but no thanks,” and the township mostly let the matter rest.

In January 2025, township manager Lacey Faber was in correspondence with Kristen Camp, an attorney at Buckley, Brion, McGuire, and Morris, the law firm representing Retail Sites, LLC. Camp and Faber discussed a few things:

• Camp wants a copy of the letter Chadds Ford sent to PennDOT requesting that the traffic study for the property in question be updated.
• Faber wants the township included in Retail Sites’ meeting with PennDOT, but Camp says no. (So Retail Sites wants to know what CFT says to PennDOT, but won’t let CFT know what they’re saying to PennDOT. Got it. 👍🏻)

To be fair, this correspondence indicates that Chadds Ford Township sought some agency in the development by communicating with PennDOT and requesting to participate in meetings with PennDOT and Retail Sites, LLC.

But beyond the initial failed effort, our Chadds Ford supervisors ultimately did not appear to have engaged much until the Save Ridge advocacy group stormed the township building with powerful PowerPoint presentations and parabolic pitchforks.

Sidenote: Dominic Pileggi, President of Concord Township Council, makes periodic donations to Chadds Ford Republicans (all three Supervisors are Republicans), including $500 in each of October 2023 and 2025. Pileggi is the owner of Olde Ridge Village and will presumably benefit from the new shopping center development. In other words, Williams isn’t the only one receiving political contributions from people who might want to speed this little show along.

What do residents want from our elected officials?

Residents want more proactive transparency and advocacy from Williams and the Chadds Ford supervisors. Our elected leaders should have been more forthcoming with residents.

Williams and all three Chadds Ford Supervisors have lived in this community long enough to know that having a seat at the table regarding any development at Ridge Road and Route 202 was incredibly important to a meaningful cohort of their constituents. Despite knowing this was on the horizon, they did next to nothing to advocate for their constituents or help residents advocate for themselves until residents demanded otherwise.

As for the elected leaders in Chadds Ford…

The Supervisors may have believed Chadds Ford didn’t have much leverage in the development because the land is in Concord Township. They’re mostly right. However, part of Ridge Road and a small portion of the shopping center property are in Chadds Ford Township, and significant development work will be underway on parts of Ridge Road there.

Given the township’s past legal entanglements with this property, I understand the hesitation to revisit that mess. But they sat on information for 9 months that they knew was time-sensitive and deeply important to Chadds Ford residents. Every day they did not share information limited the opportunities for Chadds Ford residents to exercise agency over the changes happening in their backyards.

Over the summer and into the fall, PennDOT and the developers worked through cycles of planning, and information was shared with Chadds Ford Township. At the very least, the supervisors could have shared information with residents and explained why they felt their hands were tied. Then residents would have had more time to be their own best advocates. All of our elected leaders missed the mark on transparency.

Only in September, when the project appeared on Concord Township agendas, were Chadds Ford residents able to see how quickly the project adjacent to their backyards was progressing. This sparked the Save Ridge coalition and more active resident advocacy.

Further transparency issues arose in November after the township submitted a letter to PennDOT requesting certain changes to the development, most of which aligned with the concerns expressed by the Save Ridge group. The township received a response from PennDOT on November 12 but didn’t post it publicly until early December (after a resident requested it under the Right To Know Act and questioned why it wasn’t public).

In the response letter, PennDOT shared several reasons why they wouldn’t make certain changes to traffic patterns. This information would have informed how other residents presented their objection cases to PennDOT (i.e., residents would have modified their arguments rather than reiterating those already refuted by PennDOT).

Today, there’s a long list of documents on the Chadds Ford Township website related to the project. Nearly all of the township’s work has been in direct response to residents’ research and demands, not actions led by the township solicitor (i.e., the legal advisor) or elected leaders. Residents have had to inform, compel, and convince the township to act at nearly every step.

More proactive transparency

Regardless of how much influence Chadds Ford Township supervisors expected to have, they could have been more transparent with residents about development activity since at least January 2025 and let residents decide for themselves whether to take action on their own behalf (which is happening now with meaningful success).

When the issue arises now, supervisors bellyache about how hard they’re working to advocate for residents and how grateful Chadds Ford residents should be for their efforts. (Literally, they’re demanding gratitude for their services in public meetings. 🙄 Sigh…)

If it’s true that we ought to be grateful for all their dedicated advocacy, make it a recurring agenda item at public meetings, where supervisors can update the public on their efforts. Residents desperately want to know what’s going on with this project without having to file Right To Know requests.

Diversity of thought and experience leads to better outcomes

Moreover, the township missed (intentionally or otherwise) an opportunity to bring in a broad base of volunteer expertise from community members, which ultimately coalesced into the Save Ridge group. The group and other individual residents (separate from the group) have found ways to influence the development that the township overlooked. What might have been possible if the township leaders had been less provincial and more collaborative early in the process?

This provinciality is a consistent issue we’ve seen at the township. It’s most evident (via data) in the allocation of municipal appointments, which I discussed recently. But the lack of willingness to maximize transparency and solicit input and assistance from a diverse group of residents continues to plague the efficiency and effectiveness of township management.

Township leadership seems unwilling to welcome a broad base of community voices and “extra hands” to help solve township challenges (even when those extra hands are willing volunteers). Instead, they accept help only from a small group of their inner circle of trust.

This limits the quality, extent, and diversity of thought and experience that volunteers can offer the township when a majority of residents are excluded from consideration as possible “helpers.”

It’s particularly concerning when the supervisors routinely discuss at public meetings how overworked our township administration is. And I think they’re right. Lacey (and presumably her team) works extremely long hours to serve our township. We have so many people in our community with useful, relevant expertise who are willing to come to the table to help in good faith. Why not accept the assistance?

The success of the Save Ridge group and other residents who have acted as their own advocates regarding the shopping center development is clear evidence that residents have significant bandwidth and expertise that could benefit the entire community. This is a pretty basic embodiment of “many hands make light work” and “two heads are better than one.”

Residential advocacy beyond official township initiatives

Already, Chadds Ford residents have successfully advocated for additional influence and modifications to development plans, including:

• Participation as “intervenors” for certain residents, giving them additional legal standing, access to information, and influence in the process
• Reinstatement of the right turn lane from Route 202 northbound onto Springhill Dr (which was initially slated to be removed in the development design)
• Consideration of an additional entrance to the shopping center on Route 202 to reduce traffic using the Ridge Rd entrance (and presumably cutting through our neighborhood roads)
• Reconsideration of the gas station via zoning decisions

We don’t yet know what the final project will look like. But motivated residents have identified clear opportunities for advocacy and influence outside of litigation that our elected officials would have missed without constituents speaking up and compelling them to act.

Moving forward together

Only in response to recent, sustained pressure from residents have our local government officials dedicated resources to address concerns about the new shopping center at Ridge Rd and Route 202. As we move forward and face similar situations, I hope our elected officials can be more forthcoming with information they know is important to the community. I also hope they can collaborate more proactively with willing and interested parties (regardless of political party registration) to help our township best serve our shared interests.

What would you like to see in the future regarding these types of issues? What did I miss? What’s on your municipal government wish list?

Oh yeah… while we’re creating wish lists, maybe one of these days we can pass campaign finance reform so politicians aren’t bought and sold (especially by people who aren’t even their own constituents!! 😡) as easily as the stocks flying around in their unusually profitable investment portfolios. 💸 A girl can dream…

1. This donation was reported in the Friends of Craig Williams campaign finance report submitted to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the reporting period June 7, 2022, through October 24, 2022. ↩︎