Politics & Government

Montgomery-Scott Family Member Hopes to Develop Ardrossan Estate

A residential development for 311 acres of the Ardrossan Estate could have as many as 76 new houses on it.

A residential development for 311 acres of the Ardrossan Estate could have as many as 76 new houses on it.

On Monday Radnor Township’s Planning Commission heard a proposal from Edgar “Eddie” Scott III, the grandson of Hope Montgomery Scott and a principle of a company proposing to buy most of the land that runs along Newtown and Darby-Paoli roads in Villanova.

Scott will also be filing a Conditional Use application for the 44 acres on the other side of Darby-Paoli Road later this week.

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The development would need a Conditional Use approval from Radnor for the property, which is zoned Agricultural. The zoning code’s density modification awards developers the ability build more densely populated developments if open space is preserved.

The application is for a maximum of 87 units, including the 11 existing residences, but Scott’s representative John Snyder of Saul Ewing said the preferred development would have a total of 64 units, ranging from three-quarter-acre parcels to those of multiple acres.

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Ardrossan’s mansion would not be bought by Scott and his partners and would remain in a trust that includes family members of the Montgomery-Scott family. They would not be building homes on the site, rather, they will sell two or three lot sizes to “people who will have the flexibility to use different builders.”

In addition to 47 proposed acres of open space, the plan included “undeveloped investment parcels” that the developers hope would not be developed, “but you can’t retain the value of them if you voluntarily restrict them,” Snyder said.

“Hopefully, within one to two years after each phase they will have found their way into conservation trust ownership. Until we do that we can’t restrict them,” he said.

The would-be buyers said their preference would be to have the development with fewer lots, but it “depends what happens marketwise.”

Some members of the Planning Commission said they liked some of the aspects of the proposal, but there were a lot of unanswered questions at the presentation. Ardrossan will have their conditional use application at the Planning Commission meeting on September 3.

“We wanted to do something that was unique,” Scott said.


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