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West Chester planners back returning town-center buildings to the right-of-way
Summary
At a June 16 West Chester Borough Planning Commission work session, commissioners and staff discussed removing an ambiguous "match existing adjacent" build-to rule for the town‑center overlay and voiced informal support for restoring a 0‑foot build‑to line at the right of way to preserve a continuous pedestrian street wall.
The West Chester Borough Planning Commission discussed proposed clarifications to the borough's "build‑to" (build‑to line) rule on June 16, focusing on the town‑center overlay where taller, denser projects and lot consolidations are allowed.
Commissioners said the current ordinance phrase "match existing adjacent setbacks" has created uncertainty when adjacent buildings vary in setback and scale. Planning staff presented the prior zoning summary table and explained the older code used block classes (A, B, C) with fixed numeric setbacks; the new draft relies on a contextual "match adjacent" approach with language referring to the primary facade of immediate neighbors.
Commissioners and staff said that approach has produced inconsistent outcomes: where an adjacent building sits far back, the new rule can pull a new project away from the street rather than preserving the continuous retail and pedestrian edge the borough seeks. Planning staff recommended, and commissioners indicated informal agreement, that for the town‑center overlay the front build‑to line should be restored to 0 feet (the right of way) with limited, explicitly defined exceptions for entries, street trees, or deliberate pedestrian spaces.
Members noted other technical details that should be coordinated with code and fire regulations (for example, when close building faces become a rated wall). They also discussed complementary design standards—such as required modulation so long facades do not appear as a single flat plane—and stepped elements to preserve daylight at street level and space for street trees.
The commission agreed to take the narrower, town‑center change (0 front and 0 side yard where appropriate) to Smart Growth and ultimately to borough council for review before drafting an ordinance, and to ask the borough planning consultant to prepare options. No formal vote was taken during the work session; commissioners described their position as a verbal consensus to pursue the clarification and to bundle other, related edits in a subsequent draft to minimize repeated hearings.
Why it matters: Restoring a clear build‑to line in town center is intended to reinforce the borough's pedestrian streets, limit the visual impact of surface parking, and reduce litigation or ad hoc interpretations that arise when adjacent properties have widely different setbacks.
