Developer R.P. Wynstone and a group of aligned landowners filed a legal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania accusing New Hanover Township officials of reviewing development applications in bad faith and passing restrictive ordinances designed to make construction unfeasible. The complaint also alleges that township officials conspired to block the massive Town Center project in a racially motivated effort to prevent minorities from “changing the nature of the township.” The complaint points to a controversy alleging racial bias against the former police chief and a former police sergeant, the latter of whom now sits on the township planning commission. Town Center, proposed on 209 acres where the old New Hanover Airport was located, was first proposed in 2005. Zoning was created just for the project and received preliminary approval in 2007. By law, the Town Center project is governed by the land development ordinances in place at the time of its preliminary approval — not by ordinances passed in the interim. R.P. Wynstone acquired the project in 2011 with approvals intact. Since then, the process has been hindered by last-minute ordinance changes, pressure to cut the number of proposed housing units in half and constant revisions to the original plan, the plaintiffs argue. “This is a case about a township taking extreme measures and displaying egregious conduct to prevent development in the community by any means necessary, including bad-faith consideration of development,” the lawsuit says. The developers allege the delays from New Hanover officials have cost them more than $150 million. Read more in The Reporter and from WHYY.
Source: The Reporter; 3/14/2024 & WHYY; 3/18/2024