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George
Lossé, president of the Claymont
Community Coalition, announced the decision on Sept., 12 at a
meeting of the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine
Hundred.
He said his
organization "will be glad to work with them."
He has maintained that
Claymont does not want to lose McDonald's as a business but that
the coalition is opposed to the company's plan to put up a
building which resembles the kind it had when it began national
franchising in the 1950s. Prominent in that design are two large
'golden arches' protruding above the one-story structure.
McDonald's had brought
the application to replace the existing building, which dates to
1979, under the county's new redevelopment ordinance. It had
proposed several improvements in the site, which does not
confirm to present land-use standards, to bring it into closer
compliance. They include moving the building closer to
Philadelphia Pike, realigning parking around it and extensive
landscaping.
At a coalition meeting
last month, most of the changes were accepted. But the design
remained a sticking point and, at a hearing before the county
Planning Board. McDonald's refused to back off from its position
claiming that it was an important element in marketing strategy.
Land Use spokesman
Vince Kowal confirmed that the decision was conveyed orally on
Sept. 12 to McDonald's architect. That will be followed, he
said, by a letter during the week of Sept. 23, presumably
elaborating on reasons for the decision.
Kowal had said earlier
that the department did not intend to issue public notices of
its redevelopment decisions, despite widespread public interest
in some of them. They are considered minor subdivision
applications which generally receive routine in-house treatment.
Daniel Bockover,
president of the Brandywine Council, said that the decision
allays some fears in the civic community that the redevelopment
ordinance would fall short of a pre-passage promise that
community organizations would play a pivotal role in its
application.
Claymonters had
claimed that McDonald's did not approach them in a collaborative
sense but presented its plan as a final proposal the first time
it appeared in public.
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