The next stop could be the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has yet to say if it will hear the case.
Tinicum has "effectively made it difficult for anyone to even build a house," the 83-year-old Hallowell, a former Pennsylvania agriculture secretary, said. "If you want to keep people out, and not change Tinicum, it's good. If you think that's not fair to young people or the general population, it's not good."
Those perspectives clashed head-on when developers proposed five projects that would add more than 500 apartments, condos, and houses to a township of fewer than 4,000 residents. In much of Tinicum, lots must be a minimum two acres, so the builders set their sights on the niches designated for denser development. But even there, if the township finds rich agricultural soil, an ordinance limits development to 25 percent of a tract.
Main Street Development Group Inc., of Warrington, sued the Tinicum Board of Supervisors and got a favorable ruling from a Bucks County judge, who found the ordinance unfairly restrictive. In March, Commonwealth Court upheld the decision.
The supervisors, joined by a group of residents, have asked the state Supreme Court to take their appeal.
"There's an awful lot of people who think all we're talking about is closing the gate, and no one else is welcome. It's simply not the case," said Boyce Budd, a farm owner who is chairman of the supervisors. "What I think most people object to are these great big housing developments out in cornfields, away from any kind of town.. . .
"That to me is a sin against nature and mankind."
The so-far-victorious developers see only unlawful impediments to the inevitable.
