Issues: Past Position Statement 1

West Chester as Urban Center

The following was posted on Bill Scott's Commissioner candidate website in 2003. He was the only one talking about Urban Centers then; now everyone is. Bill has always gotten it and knows it best…

Open Spaces Need Urban Centers
(OSNUC — pronounced "oh-snuck")

From his interest in the outdoors and his deep involvement in Scouting, Bill Scott has a strong commitment to Landscapes and Open Spaces. He is advocating giving greater attention to the existing Urban Centers component of Landscapes which seeks to encourage nondestructive density in Chester County's "livable" Urban Centers and away from Open Spaces. By asking all Chester Countians to focus on Urban Centers more than they have in the past, he is the ONLY candidate seeking to unite them against the current and disturbing Landscapes backlash.

Bill's experience as a significant participant in the "West Chester Miracle" is essential to the success of the next Board of Commissioners. It has been a generation since anyone from an Urban Center has been elected Commissioner. NONE of the 26 Landscapes Policy Plan Committee members were elected officials from an Urban Center. This year [2003] some are urging that Chester Countians' choice for Commissioner be restricted to two candidates from the Main Line and two candidates from the Whitelands — none from an Urban Center. This exclusionary thinking can destroy Landscapes.

Only through OFC (Out From the Center) planning, which Bill has promoted, can we hope to provide affordable housing and more mass transit. Through OFC, such disastrous proposals as the over-expansion of Route 41 and the Cornog Water Grab will be recognized as dumb growth right from the start. (Bill is the first candidate to pledge that as Commissioner he will secure the County's intervention in opposition to Philly Suburban Water in all legal proceedings concerning the Cornog Quarry.)

Bill Scott is truly an advocate for all of Chester County.