A Chester County judge has reversed a township’s denial of luxury homes on hundreds of acres of Rock Hill Farm
Residents have sought to challenge the proposed development of Rock Hill Farm.
A township’s decision to deny the development of luxury homes on the rolling 246-acre Rock Hill Farm was reversed by a Chester County judge last week, which could pave the way for construction of more than a dozen houses.
In his order on July 15, Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony Verwey ruled that Willistown Township’s board of supervisors had erred by denying in 2024 developer Rock Hill Farm Acquisition LLC’s preliminary plan, due to the “clear and unambiguous language of the zoning ordinance.”
Willistown’s elected supervisors plan to explore an appeal, the township said in a statement Monday.
But until then, the developer has the green light to submit final plans.
Willistown and nearby residents, who came together to form the campaign “Save Rock Hill Farm,“ had hoped that the property could remain as open meadows, woods, and waterways and eventually become publicly accessible open space. It’s something a number of communities have championed in Chester County — and have won, in a number of cases — seeking to preserve open space and fend off dense development.
But the developer J. Brian O’Neill, who purchased the property for $25.4 million several years ago, has sought to build up to 22 luxury homes there/.
In their appeal challenging the supervisors’ vote, the developer argued that the township had “erred and abused its discretion by denying its application” because it did not meet the township’s requirements for an open space conservation (OSC) district overlay, which requires that, in areas zoned for residential use, a portion of the tract is held as common open space, according to the Chester County planning commission.
But the proposed development was located in the township’s rural district, according to the opinion.
The township had countered that the overlay was applicable to the rural district because it is also a residential district.
Verwey ultimately agreed with the developer’s argument, finding that “residential district is not a designated zoning within the township.”
“Taking an appeal would just compound the damages that they’ve cost the owner of the property by insisting on applying the OSC district to lands in the RU district,” said Marc Kaplin, an attorney for the developer when reached for comment Monday.
Verwey wrote in his opinion that the zoning ordinance makes the open space conservation overlay “applicable to a zoning district that does not exist, does not appear on the Map, and it was an error” for the township to deny the application for failure to comply with the overlay’s requirements.
Residents behind the Save Rock Hill Farm campaign, who didn’t immediately respond for a request for comment, sounded the alarm Monday after the township’s statement came out, rallying the Facebook page’s more than 770 followers to “reach out to our supervisors and ask them to FILE AN APPEAL!”
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