{"id":265879,"date":"2026-08-15T12:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T12:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265879\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T12:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T12:06:08","slug":"upper-darby-tables-mozino-zoning-ordinance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265879\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Darby tables Mozino zoning ordinance"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the owner of the Mozino tract<\/a> indicating he was willing to sell, Upper Darby tabled a proposed zoning change for the tract.<\/p>\n

There was a full house this week for the special meeting devoted solely to an ordinance that would create a mixed-use zoning district.<\/p>\n

That new zoning would be for the proposed development called Drexel Point on 15 acres on State Road across from the Drexeline Shopping Center.<\/p>\n

Owner Greg Lingo of Delaware County-based land development firm Rockwell Drexel LLC estimated the price that he would be willing to sell to the township: $8 million.<\/p>\n

Currently, 56 single family homes could be built on the property without a change in zoning. The property was once farmland, but beginning in 1940 that ended and eventually the woods grew up to cover the farm.<\/p>\n

Lingo, who has roots in the township, said it isn\u2019t necessarily a decision between open space and a future mixed use development.<\/p>\n

He said the property wasn\u2019t open space. It had been neglected for as long as he can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens when somebody doesn\u2019t cut their grass for 70 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that as a taxpayer, he didn\u2019t think the township buying the tract was a prudent use of funds. Taking it off the tax rolls would cost the school district $623,000 in revenue and $243,000 for the township.<\/p>\n

A group of citizens presented a proposal to acquire the property, which supporters call the Mozino Forest, to protect it from development.<\/p>\n

Jack McCausland, operations and fundraising manager for Darby Creek Valley Association, said this situation is not unprecedented.<\/p>\n

He used the example of the Oakwell estate in Villanova, which was purchased for $13 million. He said the first step would be to find grant funding and that likely would take six months to a year.<\/p>\n

Grant funding has specific requirements and often requires governmental organizations to own the property.<\/p>\n

Possible sources of funding could be the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the William Penn Foundation, and Natural Lands and Keystone Conservation Trust.<\/p>\n

Mike Atwell, chair of the Upper Darby Shade Tree Commission, said that in a good year the organization plants 50 trees, which is not a lot compared to the number that would come down every year.<\/p>\n

If the property was purchased, he said the plan would follow the view of \u201cdo no harm.\u201d They would plant trees each year to foster the tract.<\/p>\n

Other residents spoke against development, citing the loss of open space and worsening traffic.<\/p>\n

Tree Tenders founding member Bonnie Hallam presented a petition with 1,110 signatures.<\/p>\n

Mayor Ed Brown said it is a complex issue with no easy answers, and asked to trust the council, that the members will make the best decision, \u201call things considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hallam said Tree Tenders had no idea that a sale was on the table until a few days ago.<\/p>\n

She said Tree Tenders have been in communication with a number of conversancy groups who were interested, willing and confident they could get the funding. However, the tract would first need to be appraised.<\/p>\n

She said they are committed to working with Lingo and said this gives the township an opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the owner of the Mozino tract indicating he was willing to sell, Upper Darby tabled a proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265880,"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":["post-265879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265879","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=265879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}