Coatesville City Council March 28, 2011 Fleetwood Street Transfer

There was a discussion of transferring the Fleetwood Street Property owned by the City of Coatesville to the Redevelopment Authority for $1.00.
Coatesville City Council Member Marty Eggleston was concerned about the city acquiring occupied homes.

Mr. Eggleston, “I’ve gotten two phone calls from residents on Fleetwood Street who were concerned about the future of their own homes.”

The train station is on the North side of Fleetwood Street. There are no residential buildings on the North side of Fleetwood Street. I believe the Redevelopment Authority owns most if not all the properties on the North side of Fleetwood Street. 

The Comfort Care building is owned by the RDA. The Comfort Care business is the only business property that is now in use that could be utilized in conjunction with the train station. It’s on the North side of Fleetwood Street. And there are plans for the station that allow Comfort Care to remain there. 


The property proposed to transfer to the RDA on Monday's City Council Meeting is an empty lot. The homes were destroyed in the fire and were torn down. 

This is a partial transcript of the Redevelopment Authority Meeting of March 21, 2011:

 Mr. Burkholder, “Consider a letter requesting the Fleetwood properties from the City. We discussed that the City is going to sell those properties back to us for a dollar.”

 Mr. Mancini, “That’s correct, these properties are essential to the complete the train station project which is starting to heat up.”

 Mr. Barry, “These were properties that were unfortunately subject to the arson fires and subsequently purchased by the City of Coatesville and demolished. They are now vacant lots."

”

 As far as I can tell from looking at the sketch plans for the train station, there are no plans to remove anyone from their homes in conjunction with the development of the train station. If the Comfort Care business is relocated and used as part of the train station development I believe there is even less likelihood that any additional property on the South side of Fleetwood Street would be used.

I am sure that the planners would all agree that it is desirable to have homeowners living across the street from the train station. There was some discussion at the meeting if there would be any view of the station from the homes remaining on the block. It's more comfortable to wait at stations in a residential area than a deserted area.

You can find the sketch plans here:

PLAN the KEYSTONE COATESVILLE STATION AREA PLANNING WORK IN PROGRESS PRESENTAION 

I think anyone who now lives near and especially across the street from the planned train station is sitting on a gold mine. The value of those properties will at least triple within a few years after the trains are running. Look at the communities down the line towards Philly and compare the real estate and rental costs of properties within 2 to 4 blocks of train stations with properties 8 or more blocks away. Real estate values are based entirely on location.