Rockwell Development Group<\/a> came before the Upper Darby Planning Commission on Monday with conceptual plans to develop wooded property next to Collingbrook United Methodist church between State Road and Township Line Road in Drexel Hill.<\/p>\nLingo is a major presence in the township. He graduated from Upper Darby High School and is a benefactor of programs at the school. His company owns nearly 40 properties in the community.<\/p>\n
Their revitalization around Ferne Boulevard at Burmont Road includes turning the former Waverly Theater and a nearby closed bank building into breweries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fell like we\u2019ve brought a lot of jobs to the township as well as good quality redevelopment,\u201d Lingo said. \u201cWe are continuing to look at things in that vein.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Wayne-based company recently finished a project in Ellis preserve in Newtown Square as well work in Wayne and Phoenixville.<\/p>\n
He said his company has had the property under agreement of sale for the past seven to eight months from the family trust that recently sold a nearby high rise at Drexeline.<\/p>\n
![\"Houses,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG-9486.jpg\")
Houses, mixed use or leave it as green space? (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n
He said the Rockwell offer was one of 15 offers on the property, and if they don\u2019t develop it, someone else most likely will.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the township has now is the opportunity to mold the best use possible, knowing something at some point is going to happen with the property,\u201d Lingo said.<\/p>\n
He said the plans are in the conceptual stage and township officials are looking for feedback.<\/p>\n
One plan would use the current zoning allowing about 56 single family homes, but that didn\u2019t \u201cwow them on what the property could be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The second idea, which Lingo was enthusiastic about, includes mixed use for shops but would require a mixed use zoning change, which the town doesn\u2019t currently have.<\/p>\n
The entrance to the development would be directly across from the Drexeline ShopRite and would have shopping and its own parking. A pocket park and a nature trail along the riparian section would be included.<\/p>\n
The mixed use plan would have 69 conventional town homes, 42 interlocking townhomes and planning for 40 apartments above the businesses.<\/p>\n
The plan includes stormwater management to capture runoff and hold it and slowly release it to reduce downstream flooding.<\/p>\n
He said they are looking for feedback, and if it\u2019s a nonstarter would like to know sooner than later to decide whether to continue with the plan.<\/p>\n
Planning Commission Chair Debbie Nifong said the mixed use plan has something for everyone, with parking near the trolley stop and the businesses would add to the tax base.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something for the township, not just the owners or people who are going to live there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Planning commission board member Lee Ann Jordan praised Lingo\u2019s contributions to the community but said what Upper Darby lacks is open space and asked him to develop abandoned buildings in the town. She also worried about traffic congestion being a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine adding more people and more cars onto Route 1 and State Road,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to preserve what little open space we still have.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she understands the township doesn\u2019t own the property.\u00a0A number of residents agreed with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think green space is the best place to keep water staying on the property and not going down stream,\u201d said one resident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re running out of open space,\u201d said another who made reference to the Lorax, the Dr. Seuss children\u2019s book . \u201cOnce you cut all the trees down and ruin that place \u2026 It will be the last straw. I think this one particular plan is not good for the township.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also encouraged Upper Darby to fight it.<\/p>\n
Lingo thanked everyone for their input.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More open space along the State Road corridor in the Drexel Hill-Springfield area is in the crosshairs of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-154413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upper-darby","8":"tag-delaware-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-top-stories-dtd","13":"tag-upper-darby","14":"tag-upper-darby-headlines","15":"tag-upper-darby-news","16":"tag-upper-darby-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}