City of Chester reviews three redevelopment projects; council raises maintenance, traffic and stormwater concerns

City of Chester council members and staff on Aug. 11 reviewed three major land‑development proposals and related grant and infrastructure items, raising questions about long‑term maintenance, traffic, stormwater management and public improvements. The deliberative meeting included an overview of the projects and the waiver requests that would accompany approvals; no final votes on the resolutions were recorded in the transcript of the session.

The most detailed presentation, by planning staff member Paul Fritz, described three separate projects that would be brought before the council for final action: SilverCare Senior Housing (a two‑phase conversion of an existing hospital complex into 94 assisted‑living apartments), a Liberty Housing Development Corporation project (marketed as Sean and Eileen’s Place: a one‑story office with six accessible, affordable residential units), and a 742 West Front Street LLC proposal to consolidate 14 lots and build a roughly 57,695‑square‑foot warehouse with about 7,000 square feet of office space and on‑site parking. Fritz said the city has updated its resolution format for subdivision and land‑development projects to include more detailed attachments spelling out conditions and waiver requests.

"We're changing how we're going to do these resolutions going forward," Fritz said during the presentation, adding the longer format ties the projects more clearly to the municipal planning code and to required conditions.

Why it matters: all three projects involve redevelopment of underused or vacant parcels and include requests for waivers from subdivision and land‑development rules. They affect street frontage and public infrastructure (curbing, sidewalks, stormwater controls) and involve federal, state and private funding sources or approvals.

SilverCare Senior Housing

Fritz described SilverCare as a two‑phase reuse of a large former hospital building to create 94 units targeted to residents age 62 and older. He said the applicant has funding for the first phase and expects to seek funding for the…