{"id":22864,"date":"2017-10-18T13:44:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=22864"},"modified":"2017-10-18T13:44:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:44:07","slug":"opposition-heard-for-ugly-ducklings-sign-in-pocopson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=22864","title":{"rendered":"Opposition heard for Ugly Ducklings sign in Pocopson"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Karen Cresta<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>POCOPSON \u2013 The Ducklings Early Learning Center, located in the Riverside at Chadds Ford community on Winston Lane, has been open for the new school year but without a sign on the front of the newly constructed building. The registered trade-marked yellow ducks with orange lettering invoked some opposition from the board.<\/p>\n

The owner, Jody Thompson, sat next to Esq. Neil Land while he presented to the board the plan and circulated pictures of the proposed sign over the front doors. \u00a0He explained that approval was required, even though the building was deemed commercial, because it is in a residential area and requires a variance as a technicality to the current ordinance.<\/p>\n

Land mentioned that the color of the sign was very important to the brand and Thompson\u2019s efforts to franchise the business. The other buildings all have the same sign and the township\u2019s Planning Commission already recommended approval.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Alice Balsama expressed her opinion. \u201cThe building looks so nice\u2026 then you come up with yellow and orange and it\u2019s popping out.\u00a0 I understand the branding and infringements and all that but I still want to make the comment that I prefer another color scheme for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supevisor Elaine DiMonte agreed with Balsama, \u201cI understand the reasoning for it but the building is so beautiful and it blends in\u2026It looks really pretty there and I just wish there was another way to put the sign without the pop of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident who lives next door to the building said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any problems with the sign. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s not lit.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiMonte asked if there was any way the colors could be changed to blend in with the building and the residential surroundings and Land answered that there was not.<\/p>\n

Chairwoman Ricki Stumpo added, \u201cI have no problem with the colors.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s wonderful for little kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

A motion was approved by a 2-1 vote – with DiMonte in opposition – to accept the recommendation of the Planning Commission to permit the variance for the sign.\u00a0 Land requested a letter from the township supervisors with their opinions be sent to the zoning board who will make the final decision next week.<\/p>\n

In other news, the board provided an update for the feasibility study of the historical Barnard House\u2019s and township building\u2019s potential occupancy recommendations.\u00a0 Stumpo and DiMonte met on Oct. 6 with the architects (GKO) who were chosen by the board to review some ideas for both locations and initial concepts were presented.<\/p>\n

The board did not go into detail about the concepts presented but mentioned some ideas will be restricted by the covenant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty exciting\u2026Some of the ideas they had for this building were really cool but some ideas for the Barnard House were very, very cool and bring us into the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Unfortunately, our hands are tied with the covenant,\u201d DiMonte said.<\/p>\n

DiMonte is waiting to hear back and is hopeful the commissioners will attend a meeting the first week in November and all will be able to \u201ccollaborate.\u201d\u00a0 More details will be given by the township supervisors after the meeting with the county commissioners.<\/p>\n

DiMonte informed a member of the commission asking about the agenda for the next meeting that, \u201cWe have some ideas but we are restricted by the covenant and it needs further discussion on potentially what we can do with the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supervisors approved the rate increase of .10 for the Chester County Tax Collection Agreement with the county\u2019s treasurer office.\u00a0 They are responsible for collecting Pocopson Township\u2019s real estate tax and sending invoices, past due notices, issuing refunds, and tracking transfers, reassessments and liens on properties.<\/p>\n

The current rate is $1.65 per initial tax invoice and the supervisors approved the .10 increase that would impact the yearly budget by only $140.<\/p>\n

Stumpo added, \u201cThey are very effective and have done a very good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information regarding the public hearing that took place to amend the township code chapters 190 and 250 regarding timber harvesting and the keeping of animals and the deletion of chapters 12 and 27 regarding alarms and number of buildings can be found on the township\u2019s website at www.pocopson.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karen Cresta, Staff Writer, The Times POCOPSON \u2013 The Ducklings Early Learning Center, located in the Riverside at Chadds Ford community on Winston Lane, has been open for the new school year but without a sign on the front of the newly constructed building. The registered trade-marked yellow ducks with orange lettering invoked some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101,6269,484],"class_list":["post-22864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-board-of-supervisors","tag-featured","tag-pocopson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22865,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22864\/revisions\/22865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}