An exceptional opportunity to add parkland and to preserve open space as well as rural views exists.  Now is the time to act.

Enlarging Marsh Creek Park is a natural course of action...

More and more people enjoy the park each year.   The park's fields and woods are great for family walks, flying kites, mountain biking and exercising pets.  The park is also a great place for birdwatching and enjoying natural beauty.  The park's lake and stretch of Brandywine Creek attract anglers and boaters.

Another reason more and more people enjoy the park is the surrounding population is increasing.  Chester County's population has increased about 60% since the park was established.  The park is one of the county’s greatest features.  Southern Berks County’s population has also increased significantly.  More people will move into both counties over the next five, ten and more years.  In contrast, park acreage has changed little since the park opened.

More people enjoying the park is good, but more people mean more wear and tear on the existing acreage.  Walking and biking trails become deeper, wider and muddier with more use.  Erosion becomes more of a problem.  Solitude becomes more difficult to find.  Wildlife is disturbed more frequently.

A way to ease pressure on the existing acreage is to add more land...

Fortunately, abutting Marsh Creek State Park’s northwest corner are hundreds of acres of pleasant fields and woods.  Brandywine Creek and Chalfant Road also border this former farmland.  The land straddles Marshall Rd.  The land is sited in Wallace Township.  Upper Uwchlan can see the land.  East Brandywine is just across Brandywine Creek.  East and West Nantmeal residents daily drive by the fields and woods, as do residents of West Vincent, West Brandywine, Honey Brook and other communities.

Adding this land will significantly ease pressure.  Pressure will be eased because the proposed addition is large--20-35% of the park's existing land.  How large a percentage depends on how much land is added--a couple hundred or a few hundred acres.

Adding the land will enhance park access, too.  The proposed addition's extensive road frontage will enable park visitors to walk into the park from a public road.  This will NOT be the case if the land is developed rather than added to the park.  Already, access to much of the park is blocked by development.  See "This OR That" page.

The road frontage will also protect the park from encroachment by adjacent dwellings and other buildings.  The park already struggles with people cutting down trees and other vegetation to improve their views.  See "This OR That" page.

Furthermore, adding the land will extend the stretch of Struble Trail protected as parkland.  Doing so will also protect more of Brandywine Creek, its watershed and aquifers.  The Brandywine Creek is a source of drinking water for Downingtown, West Chester and other towns.  Aquifers feed and cool the Brandywine.  They also supply water to thousands of homes connected to wells.

Now is the time to act... 

Development of the parcels is pending.  The proposed development includes hundreds of hotel rooms, restaurants, ancillary features and about 280 dwellings.  These facilities will degrade the area’s rural character and increase traffic plus traffic hazards.  Development will also lead to road alterations opposed by many residents of the area, including a traffic circle like feature at a major intersection.  Another alteration will degrade an entire neighborhood.  Other road alterations include new intersections with major roads.  Some proposed intersections have precariously short sight lines.

Development threatens to degrade aquifers and Brandywine Creek.  Parking lots, roads and landscaped yards will replace fields and woods.  Runoff from paved surfaces can carry de-icing chemicals, oil and other pollutants into ground and surface waters.  Herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers applied to landscaping can leech into ground and surface waters.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

To support the effort to enlarge and enhance Marsh Creek State Park,

• Encourage friends and neighbors to join the cause
• Sign & circulate petition advocating enlarging the park.  Go to "Sign Petition" page.
• Urge local, state & federal officials to support adding to Marsh Creek Park the fields and woods abutting the park’s northwest corner, Brandywine Creek and Chalfant Rd. and straddling Marshall Rd..  Go to "Contact Information" page.