Save Ridge Road: Pave paradise and put up a parking lot

+ a grocery store + gas station + a car wash + a fitness center + more

Have you ever sat at the light on Ridge Road waiting to enter Route 202 and thought, “I wish I had more cars to keep me company,” or driven home on our windy back roads, wishing more people would barrel through the tight S curves to beat traffic on Route 1? 😂

You’re probably rolling your eyes, wondering why that’s even an honest question. Oh, but it is, friends. We’ve got more traffic coming in hot to hang out with us, thanks to a new development furiously trying to make its way through the approval process in Concord Township.

The intersection of Ridge Road and Route 202 is a bustling little beehive of activity, and it’s about to get buzzier. Let’s spill the tea on the potential traffic nightmare and environmental hazards drawing the ire and stink eye of a slew of residents.

What’s going on with Save Ridge Road?

Retail Sites LLC, a large developer based in New Jersey, has proposed a 24-acre, 155,000-square-foot retail development at the corner of Ridge Road and Route 202 through its shell corporation, Concord Acquisitions. For now, the shopping center plans include a Giant grocery store and an affiliate gas station, an LA Fitness, a car wash, a discount tire shop, and several other retailers.

The property is in Concord Township, so it’s subject to Concord Township jurisdiction for permitting and approval. There are some questions about small pieces of the parcel being located in Chadds Ford Township, though that may require a legal battle to determine.

Although the sign at the property says the development is approved, that is not accurate. The development is still moving through Concord Township’s planning, zoning, and council approval processes. Most recently, Concord Township voted to disallow the gas station under current zoning requirements, so the developer plans to appeal to the Concord Zoning Hearing Board for a variance.

Haven’t we been down this road?

We sure have! The previous owner of the land fought legal battles with Concord and Chadds Ford Townships around development and eventually gave up, selling the property to the new owner. This was well documented in local media.

The new plans restart the approval and negotiation process. Since the last go-round, many things have changed, including traffic patterns and volume, other nearby development, municipal stormwater management guidelines, and more.

In September 2025, residents caught wind of the development advancing toward approval and began digging in the dirt to learn more about the project. A group of residents from Chadds Ford and Concord Townships coalesced around concerns about traffic safety and environmental risks.

The group has grown to represent more than 1,000 people and has been incorporated as a non-profit organization called Save Ridge Road. Leaders of the group have participated in a variety of public and private meetings with township officials in Chadds Ford and Concord Townships to ensure they have a seat at the table.

They published a website with a wealth of resources on background information, development plans, how to engage with the group and third-party decision-makers, and much more! If you’re interested in getting involved or learning more, the site offers a lot.

Some residents have opted to engage independently instead of through the group. Advocates can be effective as individuals or as part of a group, whichever feels more suitable for you. The Save Ridge site includes resources for individuals to connect with PennDOT, Concord Township, Chadds Ford Township, and others, even without the help of the organized group, if that’s your jam.

What are the biggest concerns?

As expected, resident sentiment ranges. Some residents have resigned themselves to unfettered development.

A few hope to stymy any development, but that’s next to impossible without tens of millions in private funding to purchase the land from the current owner at a price that would (presumably) beat their expected return on investment from paving the place over with concrete and building some behemoth box stores.

Does anyone have a rich friend who wants to own a fallow field on Route 202 and Ridge Road? Anyone? Anyone? 🤑

Most residents accept that the development is inevitable and hope to influence the nature of what goes up. They have three main concerns:

• Traffic volume and safety on collector roads around Ridge Road and Route 202 intersection (Ridge, Heyburn, Ring, and Smithbridge Roads) as drivers take shortcuts through these windy country roads to avoid traffic and access the new shopping center.
• Aquifer contamination from the gas station and/or car wash permanently harming the well water on which most Chadds Ford residents rely.
• Flooding and related stormwater management challenges arising from extensive tree removal and increased impervious surfaces, as much of the field gets paved.

What are the desired outcomes?

To address these concerns, Save Ridge Road and many other residents agree on three primary modification requests to the development plans:

• Move the entrance to the shopping center off of Ridge Road and onto Route 202 (or at least prevent left turns from the shopping center onto Ridge Road heading west).
• No gas station to prevent potential contamination of the aquifer from underground storage leakage. (This offers an added benefit of limiting noise and light pollution from the 24-hour station activity.)
• No car wash to limit potential contamination or stormwater management issues from carwash wastewater.

Changes to the Ridge Road entrance require coordination with and approval from PennDOT. Allowability of the gas station and car wash rests under the purview of Concord Township.

Keep in mind that shifting the entrance from Ridge Road onto Route 202 is unlikely to benefit Concord Township. This would most likely require another stoplight on Route 202 at a new entrance to the shopping center and send all the presumed Ridge Road traffic back onto Route 202. Both of those measures increase congestion on Route 202. 📌 Put a pin in this dilemma, because we’ll come back to it later.

Chadds Ford Township leadership has a variety of opportunities to coordinate with and influence the decision-making processes. Save Ridge Road communicated these opportunities on its website and in letters written to and presentations made to the township Board of Supervisors. They include collaboration and communication with PennDOT, Concord Township, Delaware County Planning Commission, Representative Craig Williams, and Senator John Kane.

What are the townships and PennDOT doing?

To better understand how municipal agencies have handled the matter, I spoke with Qaisar Hassonjee of Save Ridge Road as well as Luci McClure and Ellen Spoehr. All three are Chadd Ford residents who have been active in advocacy work around this development and live on roads likely to be impacted by it. They shared similar sentiments regarding the involvement of various government agencies.

Chadds Ford Township

Initially, Chadds Ford Township believed it had limited agency and did little to amplify resident concerns. The township incurred meaningful legal fees and headaches during the first rodeo of this development debacle a decade ago, so they seemed reluctant to take another bite of the apple.

Pressure and presentations at public meetings from the Save Ridge Road group highlighted potential advocacy areas for Chadds Ford Township. The Board of Supervisors has since taken up the issue with more vigor, though it’s unclear how aggressive the township will be in its pursuit of development influence.

To better understand concerns and possible solutions, Chadds Ford leadership has welcomed public comment from residents in township meetings, discussed the issue with select residents in private sessions, met with Rep. Craig Williams and Senator John Kane, and attended Concord Township meetings on the matter. Which avenues for advocacy are most worth advancing remains in question.

Concord Township

Concord Township is going through the approval process in public meetings, as expected. They’ve welcomed public comment from residents and non-residents alike. It’s administration expediently responds to sustained Right-To-Know (i.e., Freedom of Information Act) requests from Chadds Ford residents, both individually and on behalf of the Save Ridge Road organization.

Concord Township recognizes that input from non-residents can be just as important, valuable, and informative as that from residents. Shocking, right, that the best ideas don’t necessarily come just from the people who live inside arbitrary township boundaries?

Moreover, to the extent that the township receives state or federal funding (and most townships do), Chadds Ford and Concord residents are “taxpayers” of the township. I appreciate that Concord Township doesn’t discriminate during public comment windows based on zip code. I know the Save Ridge Road advocates do as well. 📌 Put a pin in this, too.

The shopping center has not been approved yet, and the approval will come in pieces. Development in general is almost inevitable, as the parcel is zoned for commercial use and the property owner has the right to build. But Concord Township recently denied approval of the gas station because it does not meet current zoning restrictions. The developer intends to appeal this decision to the Concord Zoning Board.

PennDOT

Save Ridge Road has advocated for PennDOT to adjust the original traffic planning layout with some success. So far, PennDOT has required the developer to change how a particular lane from Route 202 northbound flows onto Springhill Drive, following objections from residents.

Save Ridge Road and other residents hope for additional modifications, particularly the removal of shopping center access on Ridge Road, as noted above. Due to the number of stop lights already on Route 202 in that area and the wide median between northbound and southbound Route 202, it will be a hard sell to succeed on this front.

However, traffic concerns about increased volume on the narrow, winding collector roads feeding into a Ridge Road shopping center entrance from the west are well-founded. Can you imagine the significant increase in traffic volume and accidents from non-local drivers unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of spots like:

• the intersection of Heyburn and Ridge
• the S-curves on Ridge or Heyburn
• the narrow underpass on Heyburn near Route 1
• the narrow hills along Ring Road
• and taking a left onto Route 1 from Heyburn Rd

It only takes eyes and a few drives down those roads to know that’s a certifiable hot mess. 👀 Hard pass, thank you.

What can residents do?

If you’d like to get involved, there are a few ways to join the discussion. If you prefer to work in a group, connect with the Save Ridge Road organization. Their website is packed with information to show you where they are headed.

Some neighbors prefer to act individually, which is helpful as well. A variety of voices lets PennDOT, Concord, and Chadds Ford leadership know that these concerns are not isolated to a few rabble-rousers. The Save Ridge Road site offers several suggestions:

• Attend Chadds Ford and Concord township meetings to share your specific concerns about the project during public comment opportunities. If you’re nervous about speaking (I totally get it!!) and feel like your concerns have already been expressed, you can use your comment time to simply note that you agree with previous comments. It’s often helpful for township leaders to see the breadth of concern and know that it’s not limited to just a few people.
• Submit an Objection Letter to PennDot (instructions on the Save Ridge Road Home Page under Major Concerns). Be sure to tailor the letter to your specific concerns based on where you live and what impacts you.
• Ask local neighbors and friends to join Save Ridge Road or send their own Objection Letters. There are templates on the site for both of these.
• Provide financial donations to Save Ridge Road. They intend to use the donations to pay for traffic and legal experts to advance their positions with Concord Township and PennDOT.

Some residents are comfortable with or welcome the development, and others don’t currently have the bandwidth to be vocal objectors or influencers. If that’s you, that’s ok. It takes a village to maintain a strong community. Some days it’s my turn or yours to put in the work, and other days it’s on someone else to step up. We can’t all be doing everything.

On Chadds Ford being part of a larger planning process

I think it’s essential to zoom out and reflect on what an advocacy project like Save Ridge Road teaches us about being good neighbors and part of a larger community planning process. As of late, Chadds Ford leadership has been less than welcoming to input from non-residents and outsiders and dismissive of what might be good for the greater community if it’s not specifically serving Chadds Ford. I’m concerned this creates long-term risks for the township.

📌 Remember when I told you to put a pin in it? Let’s get back to that.

Reminder: A shopping center entrance on Route 202, rather than Ridge Road, benefits Chadds Ford, but it is probably worse than the current plan for Concord Township or PennDOT. Additionally, Concord Township offers equal time and consideration of public comments from residents and non-residents alike.

On Vision Zero Delco

Regarding Vision Zero Delco, Chadds Ford’s Planning Commission said, “We can do it better on our own,” and chose not to adopt the county-wide traffic safety framework. (An introduction to Vision Zero Delco here and more on Chadds Ford’s Vision Zero Delco decision here.) They seemed explicitly concerned about having to participate in traffic-safety initiatives that were best for the county overall, but not specifically favorable to Chadds Ford.

Sidebar: It’s worth noting that the example given of something “not in the best interest of Chadds Ford” was a bus shelter, and many Chadds Ford residents believe a bus shelter would be in our town’s best interest. So we’re not even talking about possible traffic-safety improvements that residents unequivocally oppose, but rather about things that certain members of the township don’t love, even though other residents support them.

In the same week that our leadership poo-pooed participation in the Vision Zero Delco regional transportation framework, a diverse group of residents filed formal letters and petitions and attended public meetings to request help and advocacy from Concord Township, Delaware County, PennDOT, and others regarding traffic safety measures to benefit Chadds Ford.

Mere weeks after the township rejected a county-wide traffic safety framework, residents are suggesting the county might advocate on our behalf for… traffic safety measures.

Moreover, our leadership declined to adopt the framework because it wouldn’t always be in our best interest. Chadds Ford was clear when it chose not to adopt Vision Zero Delco that it wasn’t interested in collaborating on traffic safety on someone else’s terms.

Now, Chadds Ford residents are asking for the Ridge Road entrance modification, which is almost certainly not in PennDOT’s or Concord Township’s best interest. We’re crossing our fingers that outside transportation planning groups will do what’s in Chadds Ford’s best interest, even when it’s not necessarily in their own. All the while, Chadds Ford explicitly refuses to reciprocate.

✨ Community success relies on compromise. ✨

On public comments at meetings from non-residents

Recently, the Chadds Ford Board of Supervisors made clear, through a new decorum policy, that if you don’t live in Chadds Ford, your contributions to public discourse are second-class (and potentially not permitted at all).

The Public Participation and Decorum Policy says:

“Residents will be given priority to speak before non-residents. Non-residents may speak only if time permits after residents have finished.” (bold emphasis theirs, not mine) and “The public comment period will generally be limited to 1 hour.”

On contentious topics, this almost guarantees non-residents will not be offered an opportunity to speak. We saw this set of rules applied to the Painter’s Folly special meeting over the summer, and nonresidents were not allowed to speak under these same guidelines. Time ran out.

Now, Chadds Ford is on the outside looking in, hoping Concord Township will allow non-residents to speak at public meetings (and respond promptly to RTKs from non-residents) out of the kindness of their hearts. Concord Township has welcomed comments from Chadds Ford residents, while Chadds Ford won’t offer the same consideration in return.

Please do for us what we explicitly won’t do for you

With respect to both traffic planning and public input, we’re expecting others to do on our behalf what we’re not willing to do for them.

Of course, a township doesn’t have to sign on to every community initiative or welcome every public comment to be a ‘good playmate in the sandbox’ of shared prosperity. But Chadds Ford consistently takes a provincial approach when it behooves us and hopes for collaboration when it benefits us.

Is this really how we want our township leadership to represent us? In politics, as in life, this is a long-term losing strategy.

The idea that Chadds Ford can manage its traffic safety matters better on its own than working as part of a group, or that people outside the township have less to offer than residents, feels narrow-minded.

At every turn, it’s evident that Chadds Ford needs outside entities to help it manage traffic safety and related development (and community building in general). All municipalities have to work well with their neighbors to thrive.

Whether it’s traffic deaths on Route 1, development along Route 202, downed utility wires along our country roads, or flooding waters along the Brandywine, the solutions to these problems are bigger than Chadds Ford and beyond the control of our elected and appointed leaders.

In most cases, Chadds Ford doesn’t even have jurisdiction over the roads at issue. Wouldn’t this further encourage us to be collaborative partners in planning, since we rely on others to make the final call on the major roads we drive every day?

Township leadership will inevitably retort that they bring in outside help when it’s necessary, and they do. But it misses the bigger picture. In community building, others are more likely to be good partners when you’re a good team player, too. Chadds Ford leadership has consistently shown that they believe, “We’re better without you, except when we need you.”

Friends, we can be better.

As for the Ridge Road advocates, they’re doing vital work to protect the safety of our roads and the cleanliness of our water and land, while respecting property owners’ rights to develop in ways that meet their needs and those of the existing community. If you’d like to get involved, you can check out the resources on the Save Ridge Road site and join the group or advocate as an individual.

What did I miss? What other questions do you have? How else can I help?