Daniel Rubin: Chester County road plan moving too fast for villagers

The cows left Marshallton long ago. So did the sheep and the ducks.

Back in the 18th century, Strasburg Road was a drover's route, halfway between the farms of Lancaster and the markets of Philadelphia. Marshallton was where you broke up the trip.

Around its commodious inns and taverns cropped up smiths and wainwrights, hatmakers and haberdashers - a real-life Williamsburg in the Brandywine Valley.

The automobile had a hand in moving Marshallton to the wings of history's stage. It's only fitting that traffic has put the place back in the news.

Most travelers on the main drag these days are commuters - rushing in the morning from new developments in western Chester County and returning at night from offices in West Chester and beyond.

The little properties lined up tightly along the street - homes now, not shops - live with the rattlings of strangers. For years residents have asked for help slowing down passersby.

After a series of public meetings that began in 2007, a roads project has emerged that surprised a lot of the villagers. In a bad way.

Part of the problem, it seems, is money. The availability of federal stimulus funding has allowed the local and state governments to pay for an elaborate upgrade to the city streetscape.

Jack M. Hines Jr., the manager of West Bradford Township, said that for an $80,000 investment, the village would get a $2 million project - but only if all the planning can be completed in about six months. That process, he said, usually takes a couple of years.

So consultants have drawn plans for widening roads and draining storm water and laying five-foot-wide sidewalks. Some of the locals are appalled.

"We're a living, breathing antique," said Linda Kaat, village resident and president of the Friends of Brandywine Battlefield. "We need a little special handling."

Sandy Dixon called the plan "The Speedscape." He's a local lawyer who began a petition to the state Department of Transportation opposing the project. By his count, 90 percent of the villagers have signed.

"They don't want tweaks. They want to kill the project," said Hines, the township manager. We spoke the day after I sat in on a meeting of 30 or so villagers who expressed varying degrees of displeasure over the long-awaited plan for improvements.

Mark Slouf, a local builder, ran the meeting, which he began by giving a concise history of the project, and ended by giving a tart opinion.

"It'll be a thoroughfare," he said.

"I still say there should be a traffic light in the middle of town," harrumphed Gilbert Gray, a village elder.

Judi Frederick was the most upset. She and her husband, John, sat in matching Phillies shirts and told how cars routinely roar past their house at 45, 50 m.p.h. The speed limit is 35. "I've called the state police offering my driveway for them to sit in and watch," she said. No takers.

In fairness, Hines said police had determined that the average car traveled that road no faster than 38 m.p.h. He predicted that new road signs would slow traffic.

Warren Scott, who owns the Marshalton Inn and the Four Dogs Tavern, relies on tourists as well as locals. The last thing he wants is more reaction to his historic business like that offered by Katherine Braz of West Lafayette, Ind. On Trip Advisor.com, she wrote:

"Had a lovely dinner on the front porch, save for the occasional loud motorist speeding by."

In letters to residents, township officials have said that if the plan doesn't pass, there will be no opportunity to make needed improvements to the road.

Scott said he didn't want to hear about deadlines. He wanted the work done right.

And history, he warned, is on Marshallton's side. Back in 1789, when Delaware County was carved out of Chester County, Marshallton was proposed as Chester's new seat. The locals weren't interested in all the attention, Scott said. They wanted to be left alone. "So this isn't the first time someone's tried to tangle with the people here."