Brandywine Country Club redevelopment stalled after variance denied

Plans to redevelop the Brandywine Country Club with a mix of apartments, single-family homes and townhomes stalled Tuesday when New Castle County Council denied a variance necessary for the project.

It’s the latest turn in a multiyear effort to redevelop the 120-acre golf course between Concord Pike and Shipley Road in Brandywine Hundred by developer Louis Capano III. The plans have met resistance from nearby residents who worry local roads will be overloaded with traffic and bemoan the loss of open space.

The variance Capano sought was to allow the development to have one entrance instead of the two required by county code.

The New Castle County Planning Board in October denied the variance. Capano then appealed leading to Tuesday’s hearing where the County Council reaffirmed the planning board’s denial with a split 6-6 vote.

PREVIOUS REPORTING:Brewing battle over country club development

The planning board in October approved requests for a rezoning and a deed restriction amendment that were also needed for the project to advance, but without the variance, the plan as currently constructed is effectively dead.

John Tracey, a land-use attorney representing Capano, said they will now look at ways to modify the plan. The developer could add another entrance to satisfy the code requirement or reduce the plan to fewer than 300 units to remove the requirement for two entrances.

The most recent plan called for 300 apartments, 41 single-family homes and 24 townhomes behind the Concord Square shopping center and Widener University Delaware Law School.

A portion of the shopping center, which is operated by Capano and home to Giant, Marshalls and Barnes & Noble, was to be demolished to make way for a road connecting the housing development to Concord Pike. The plans also called for two pad sites to be constructed in the shopping center to replace the lost retail space.

As part of the plan, Capano would give 44 acres on the northern side of the property to Brandywine School District. The district wants to build an early learning and special education center there.

The most recent plan was scaled down from earlier proposals that included as many as 563 homes. In many of the previous plans, the residential community connected to Concord Pike and Shipley Road, allowing access across the development from one of Delaware’s main retail corridors to a two-lane residential thoroughfare.

HERCULES: Despite community resistance, housing development at former golf course wins approval

That connection drew the ire of dozens of residents who believed it would become a popular shortcut. The developer says it removed the Shipley Road connection in the most recent plan in response to the neighbors’ concerns, making the development accessible only from Concord Pike and necessitating the variance.

Many of the council members who voted in favor of the variance cited the community’s preference to keep traffic off Shipley Road.

But many of those against granting the variance believed the situation was of the developer’s own making and prefer a smaller plan adhering to the county code that wouldn’t require a second entrance.

“I sincerely believe there were too many other options that were available to the applicant and the applicant was very much aware of the requirement of the [unified development code] and chose the application that he preferred to present,” Councilman Penrose Hollins said.

Tracey countered that a “by-right” alternative could have as many as 299 single-family homes, which would generate more traffic than the current assortment of apartments, single-family homes and townhomes. The current alignment also allowed Capano to donate land to Brandywine School District, which likely wouldn’t be possible if the plans included a connection to Shipley Road, he said.