Upper Darby Residents Fight For Open Space
By Bob Small
This is another Delco battle about “open space” this time in Upper Darby. The Mozino tract, owned by Rockwell Development Group (RWD).
RWD wants to rezone the tract, from 56 single-family homes, to a mixed-use plan, that includes apartments, a park, retail, and townhouses.
“It’s going to be built on, and so the question is not should we build or should we not build. It’s private property,” Upper Darby Council President Noah Fields said. “I think we should build the future. “
The mission of www.savethemozinoforest.org is to save this 15 acre forested parcel in Upper Darby.
They state it is “the last open space of Upper Darby”. They also mention that the Mozino Tract contains “0.23 miles of Collen Brook, a first-order tributary of the Darby Creek”.
This is located across the street from The Drexel Line Shopping Center.
About five years ago, there was organized opposition to a proposed solid waste management project. Betty Bird Smith, a veteran disability advocate, at a virtual meeting of the UD Zoning Hearing Board on said, “ The Zoom meeting reached its 100-person capacity as community members and elected leaders from the nearby towns came to voice their opposition “
These towns included East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon.
Bill Santora of A and E Construction Company, which owned the property replied to a question saying “I didn’t buy a house in an industrial center. No, I would not want it. And I wouldn’t buy a house in an industrial center” .
For some recent context, at the Aug. 5 Upper Darby Council meeting , a reference was made to Marple Township’s 2020 Resolution “when those supervisors voted 7-0 to deny a developer using Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment to protect what was then Don Guanella Woods and is now the largest park in Delaware County. “
Lastly, we turn to Broad and Liberty, reporting tha tUpper Darby Treasurer Danny Sayduzzaman omitted mucho information from his financial disclosure form.
