Exton Square Mall Redevelopment Hits Roadblock Over Traffic And Open Space Concerns

Residents and officials are excited about the prospect of redevelopment at the ailing Exton Square Mall.

But they also have major reservations about the new owner’s revised plans for the property, leaving the project in limbo for now.

Abrams Realty & Development amended its master plan to better align it with previous community feedback, but the West Whiteland Township Planning Commission said Tuesday night that it still isn’t ready to advance the project.

A three-hour meeting ended without a vote that could have sent the project to the township’s board of supervisors for review, as residents and township officials questioned the project's density, open space, traffic impacts and economic foundation.

“Everybody wants to see something happen there,” said Rajesh Kumbhardare, the Planning Commission's board of supervisors liaison. “We have to answer to our residents and the concerns they bring us.”

Abrams aims to reimagine the mall as a mixed-use project that includes hundreds of apartments, dozens of townhomes and several thousand square feet of new retail. At Tuesday's meeting, Abrams’ lawyer Marc Kaplin said he worries addressing some requests could imperil the project.

“Please don’t push us to the point where this does not work,” he said. “Let us build it. This is as good as it gets.”

But Kumbhardare said he believes Abrams overpaid when it shelled out $34.4M for the property and that the company is now trying to fit in as much as it can.

“No other developer was willing to pay the price these guys paid for it,” he said. “They want to make this economically work.”

In response to prior resident concerns about density, Abrams eliminated 73 for-sale townhomes from its previous plan. They were expected to sell for about $1M each.

The developer also added a 165-unit 55-plus community and eliminated a proposed three-story Main Line Health building from one of the entrances to the property. That plot is now slated to get a single-story retail structure, while Main Line will move into space previously occupied by JCPenney.

Most residents who spoke at the meeting were concerned about the additional population putting new strain on the West Chester Area School District, but West Whiteland Director of Planning and Zoning John Weller said the commission is mainly focused on traffic, open space and stormwater management.

West Whiteland has approved thousands of new units in recent years, and some longtime residents said the township is overcrowded.

“I’ve seen an explosion in residential development, and traffic is awful,” one community member said Tuesday night.

Abrams commissioned a traffic study that found the proposed concept would increase weekday morning trips from 404 to 858 and lead to more modest increases on weekday evenings and Saturdays.

The study also concludes that the projected evening and Saturday traffic would pale in comparison to what the neighborhood would experience if the current iteration of Exton Square were 100% occupied.

But Kumbhardare agreed with many residents that there are already too many cars on the road.

“The traffic on Swedesford Road is definitely a problem for residents,” he said of the thoroughfare immediately north of the site.

Kumbhardare also took issue with Abrams’ projections that the redevelopment will bring almost $8M in additional tax revenue to the township each year.

“That seems way too high,” said Kumbhardare, noting that the township only gets $800K in revenue per year from 2,000 new apartments from a different developer that claimed the development would bring in $3M.

Officials plan to hire an independent contractor to create their own revenue impact analysis, Weller said.

Open space was another hot topic. Commissioner Ginny Kerslake and several others weren't happy with what they saw as limited green areas in the new plan.

There is no single definition of open space, which led to an extended back-and-forth on the topic. Abrams’ architect, Seth Shapiro of Barton Partners, eventually said the plan will bring just over 6 acres of open space to a parcel that currently features none.

The new plan also includes more impervious surfaces than what is in place at Exton Square, which should help with concerns about flooding, Kaplin said.

The mall was constructed before stormwater management standards were commonplace, he said. Rebuilding it will allow Abrams to implement modern drainage systems.

“At a minimum, the rate of runoff after the development will be less than the rate of runoff before the development,” Kaplin said.

It isn't clear exactly what the next steps are for the developer, but owner Peter Abrams said he remains excited about the project.

“We received valuable input at our sessions and are fully committed to bringing this town‑center vision, that aligns with West Whiteland’s master plan ordinance, to completion,” he said in an emailed statement.

“We have already put the wheels in motion to design and creatively address concerns articulated by the board and residents without compromising viability of the project.”

The Abrams team is expected to return to the Planning Commission for another review meeting at a date that hasn't yet been specified.