Burgeoning minority populations boost Chester County's growth rate

Since John DeMarco went from patrolling Philadelphia's subway as a police officer to working the quieter streets of deep Chester County, he has witnessed profound changes with influxes of people, traffic, blacktop, and subdivisions.

And in recent years he has noticed a decidedly more eclectic ethnic flavor in Upper Uwchlan Township, where he has been police chief since 1987. Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans all showed major gains in the township in the last decade. Combined, their numbers went from 177 to 1,963. "It's a melting pot," DeMarco said.

And what he is seeing on his streets is occurring elsewhere in the county.

With the 2010 census, Chester County claimed the title of fastest-growing county in Pennsylvania and the region, with a population increase of 15 percent, to 498,889.

The growth spurt had at least something to do with highways and technology, corporate campuses and mushrooms, and perhaps even Philadelphia.

But it had a whole lot to do with increases in Hispanics, particularly in the heart of mushroom-farming country at the southeast end of the county, and Asians, evidently drawn to technological and pharmaceutical companies such as Centocor and Johnson & Johnson.

The Latino population more than doubled, to 32,503, and Hispanics now constitute the largest minority in the county, at 6.5 percent. The African American population increased 11 percent to 29,388 and stands at just over 6 percent of the total.

The Asian population is smaller - 19,216 - but it grew 129 percent in the 10 years.

"As kids we admired the United States," said Baljeet Singh, 41, a software engineer who grew up outside New Delhi and now lives in Chester Springs. "Coming to the United States was like a dream."

The Asian newcomers tend to be highly educated, said Matin Katirai, a planning specialist at West Chester University. The Route 100 corridor, he noted, offers excellent access to the high-powered employment centers of Great Valley and King of Prussia.

That, he said, helps explain the almost 2,000 percent jump in the Asian population in Upper Uwchlan, home to a thriving community of Sikhs, including Singh, who once gave DeMarco and his officers a two-hour presentation on Sikhism.

DeMarco learned, among other things, that it's normal for Sikh men, with their signature turbans, to carry ceremonial knives - kirpans. In fact, all of them do.

Singh came to the United States when he was transferred by his company, and he moved to Chester Springs because he was attracted to the open space and the Downingtown Area School District. His two children are in fifth and seventh grade.

Wealthy Upper Uwchlan, where the median home price is near $400,000, was the county's fastest-growing larger township. In just a three-year-period - 2005 to 2007 - the township issued close to 1,000 permits for single-family housing, according to Census figures.

The township's total population has soared since 1980, from 1,805 to 11,227. "It's an amazing rate of growth, that's for sure," said Cary B. Vargo, the township manager. Traffic pressures moved Upper Uwchlan, with help from local homebuilders and the state, to construct a Route 100 bypass, Graphite Mine Road, around Eagle Village.

"It's classic urban sprawl," Katirai said.

Municipalities all over the county are confronting growth pains.

"There's plenty of planning challenges ahead," said the county planning commission's David Ward. The big ones, he said, will be figuring out how to keep traffic moving and houses affordable, as demand drives up prices.

Ward said it was unclear just what percentage of the newcomers are immigrants, or transplants from other states or counties.

He does know that some of the county's big gainers in the 2010 census were concentrated in the Route 100 corridor, and near mushroom country, along Route 1.

Among the Hispanic newcomers are Brianna Rivera Molina, 16, of Avondale, and Cesar Sanchez Lopez, 18, of Kennett Square, both Kennett High School students.

The district's student enrollment is 38 percent Hispanic, said Victoria Gehrt, assistant superintendent, and includes a substantial Mexican population.

Rivera and Sanchez Lopez lived in small Mexican towns, both have fathers who are mushroom-farm workers, and neither spoke a word of English upon arriving here to join their families.

Rivera, now a junior, came eight years ago as a third grader, and it took her until fourth grade to master the language, she said. Sanchez Lopez, a senior, came in 2008 as a sophomore. He's now a member of the National Honor Society and has been accepted to American University and the University of Chicago.

"I actually felt kind of welcome, but at the same time uncomfortable," Rivera said. "The hardest thing was keeping up with the people ahead of you."

Sanchez Lopez said he had similar frustrations in keeping pace with classmates. "They were studying for SATs and thinking about college, and I just didn't know anything about that," he said.

It is too soon to say whether the county's changing demographics will have political ramifications, said Terence Farrell, county commissioners chair.

"There might be political impact, but there's no correlation between census data and voter registration," he said.

"We'll get more of a feel for that as time goes on."